Syntax

In The Godfather, Mario Puzo utilizes a large number of syntactical devices in order to add emphasis to his writing and strengthen the numerous messages that he has incorporated within it. To strengthen the shocking nature of Amerigo Bonasera’s daughter, Puzo adopts a telegraphic structure, writing: “She resisted. She kept her honor. They beat her. Like an animal…Her nose was broken. Her jaw was shattered…She wept through her pain” (24). By keeping the statements from Bonasera terse, Puzo manages to create an idea of his grief, as well as the trauma that resulted from his daughter’s resistance. In addition, the short fragments of a whole idea serve to quickly move the reader to the conclusion, one influenced by the emotional input from Bonasera, ultimately delivering a charged, rushed experience, flustering the reader so as to come to identify with Bonasera. By having the reader identify with Bonasera, Puzo establishes a strong emotional appeal to the story, setting the floor for a personal investment in the chastisement Bonasera receives from Don Corleone.

            Puzo also utilizes other deviations from standard syntax to create a more poignant message, such as when he describes the condition of the stars in the Hollywood Movie Star Lonely Hearts Club. IN his derision of their condition, he writes that “They had been made too imperious: by money, by fame, by their former beauty” (190). By repeating the same word to introduce each part of the list, Puzo unifies the reasons as equivalent contributors to the downfall of the stars, Furthermore, by forming a list by way of a colon to begin with, he reinforces the fact that the reasons were entirely different from the current reality for the stars, serving to call attention to the fall from grace that the celebrities had experienced, thus contributing to the recurrent theme of steady corruption and a worsening of character.