Michael Corleone transforms from a reluctant successor to a forceful leader of the Corleone crime family. While he tells his wife Kay he is not like his father, he is actually much more calculating and ruthless. Through his precise and cold-hearted maneuvers, Michael is able to gain immense power and riches for the family, even getting the Vatican to back their financial investments. However, this success costs him his relationship with Kay and the loss of his humanity, as exemplified by his breakdown after his daughter's death. In the end, Michael stands alone at the summit of power he achieved, but questions what he had to sacrifice to get there.

1. The man behind the mask of Michael
Corleone
Michael Corleone the protagonist in the novel godfather is according to me the single most influential
character who changed my whole outlook towards life and in fact forced me to change some of my
predetermined suppositions and before espousing the role he played in my life I would like to give a
little background of the character from a reluctant successor to a forceful leader that’s how I would best
sum up the man who succeeded Don Vito the reluctance of Michael is very well expressed right from
the beginning when he tells his future wife kay that I am not like my father yes its very true he is not like
his father he is much more than his father dreamed a lot more calculative a lot more methodical a lot
more cold hearted and a lot more assertive than his father , but these are all the outward cold
demeanor that makes Michael Corleone the crafty protagonist who outwits all of his fellow compatriots
in one deft masterstroke ,but this is the Michael i know and whom i have admired with a rather
dumbfound amazement. Thus i decided to give food for my thought what if Michael Corleone would
have been if at all he had lived a normal life like he had promised to kay maybe a respectable college
professor a peaceful life with his kids , but of course to the flip side of this imaginary argument is all of
his insurmountable powers of reasoning and a remarkable coldness during unnatural circumstances
would have rather remained dormant unknown to the outside world of what this rather soft-spoken
man is capable ofbut in bargain he would have got a beautiful understanding wife loving kids what else a
man needs ! but Michael sacrificed all these things for his family for the honor of his family and in that
process he lost himself maybe he too would have dreamed his life would have taken a different turn but
once again his cold unyielding face will always cleverly conceal whatever supple emotions he once in a
while shows as a rainbow in a sky , but does he ever have any regrets in his life has he lived a fulsome
life and like his father would he like to say life is beautiful when his only unconquerable enemy stares at
his face I doubt he never got that opportunity maybe that’s why the author to bring a logical
conclusion to the character of Michael Corleone orchestrates his death like an orphan in the middle
of nowhere in an armchair reflecting his life alone with nobody to take carewifeless childless like an
orphan and just like his wife tells elsewhere when he is bedridden Michael you never looked so
vulnerable maybe death is the only enemy he is unable to outwit in the end and speaking ofhis wit which
I can never feel shy of praising like his remarkable powers of persuasion that makes you believe whatever
he says but the only exception is his wife like when she asks whether he killed his brother in law and the
way he says no to her like an innocent child is the best illustration of the man called Michael Corleone
who will never accept the rule of the conventional the conventional rights and wrongs dos and don’ts
who will frame his own rules not only does he frames his own rules but he makes the other bend to that
rules either through his powers of persuasion or through his offers which they can’t refuse and this
solitary answer makes his wife realize that he is not even remotely close to the man she thought once he
was and the man once she loved in that place was standing a cold lousy hearted bastard (to borrow his
sister’s words) who will go to any extent to fulfill his desires and this strikes her like the most unkindest
cut of all when she sees him standing in the middle of his faithful servants allowing them rather

2. nonchalantly kiss his hands like the devil himself and depicting through his actions that he is in complete
control over them and he can make them repent at his leisure generating a cold fear around him. I still
often feel appolinia would have made him a splendid wife than Kay because in the end Kay happens to
be the only woman who refused his offer because of her strong values and her remarkable courage to
stand up against the deadly lord of costa norta. Michael attains his high point according to me is the
precision he shows while eliminating his brother in the middle of the lake at the same time gently taking
his son out of the picture but that was also the precise moment he becomes the monster which his wife
long back suspected he became which I still believed hope out of hope that he is still not struck like a
strong gale to me .This is the Michael which has been lying dormant inside his calm demeanor for this
long waiting to rear its ugly head and that was perhaps the first and only time I was really afraid of what
this cold hearted lousy bastard is further capable of . As time runs by he becomes the unassailable
lynchpin of the underworld through his cold calculative maneuvers reaping him riches after riches trying
to make reality his ultimate goal of making the Corleone family legal and finally succeeding remarkably
in that venture by making the bank of Vatican itself to back his financial investments and that I always
will consider his crowning glory the devil incarnate has finally brought the almighty himself under his
side as his ally. Maybe that’s why in the end the almighty took what was dear to him his one and only
daughter and this also turns to be one of the rarest of the rarest instances where Michael brokes down
in front of the opera house with his daughter in hand weeping like a baby with a unanswerable question
of why her instead of me? Finally revealing this man’s heart is not that cold after all.
Thus when I decided to conclude only a single question kept bothering me is
Michael Corleone worth emulating can he be a role model to me and this is what
flashed in my brain after a many brainstorming sessions yes one can be a Michael
Corleone but in the process one will lose what he considers dear and near in his
life one can venture into unchartered territories and can achieve monumental
success which can only be a dream to others but he has to stand alone in that
summit bringing the very unconquerable heights he has achieved into question. I
like to finish this rather grim account of one of the rather dark men in the history
of literature with a liberal dose of humor. if at all someone asks me would you
like to be a Michael Corleone my answer is a simple sentence which I think almost
all godfather aficionados will remember even in their sleep it’s an offer I can’t
refuse.