In class Mr. McGuigan said when an author repeats a literary feature 3 times, he or she is telling us that this literary feature is important. While I have been watching The Godfather I have been keeping track of the literary features I see, and how many times I see them. If I only see it once it is just a coincidence, if i see it twice it is a pattern and then if I see it three times or more the author is trying to say something.
Susan mentioned the colour orange last class, so I went back through my notes and I saw that orange might be symbolizing death. I have now three scenes where people either die or are attempted to get murdered or rape. The First scene was when Luca Brasi went to go see the Tattaglia family. You see lots of red and orange ish colours on the walls, as you see him walk into the bar you see the fishes on the glass which have an orange reflection from the wall behind the galss. The second scene was when The Don got shot. Before he gets in the car with his son he goes to the fruit stand to get some fruit then as he sees the hit men coming towards him he try's to run away and kicks a bucket of oranges which scatter across the road, though they shoot him before he can get some distance. The third scene is the meeting with Sollozzo, Michael and McClutsey. The sign on the windows outside of the restaurant were in a bright flashy orange, then inside the restaurant the lights were orangey, usually lights are white though sometimes yellow but this one was defiantly orangey.
Out of all colours I would think that red would be a death sign because red is the same colour as blood. Though Francis Ford Coppola choose orange I wonder why? Could it have been because red would have been too noticeable and he wanted the audience to think while watching the movie, or is it just a coincidence that all the scenes where people are murdered or attempted murder or rape have orange in it. Hhhmmmm
Sakina
I agree with your thoughts on the use of the colour orange. Frances Ford Coppola uses this colour very effectively to represent death. LIke you said, once the author uses the technique three times, it seems as if he is trying to tell you something. The colour orange was used greatly to represent action which was going to take place or action which already had taken place.
ReplyDeleteYour observation on the use of orange instead of red when representing death was very interesting and I never thought of it this way. I like how you mentioned that red is the colour of blood and is more a sign of death instead of the colour orange. However, you should remember that Coppola could be trying to indirectly represent death. By using the colour orange, he isn't necessarily giving away an important and deathly scene. If he would have used red, it may have been easier to realize death. Though, I do like how you mentioned that he is giving us something to think about by using the colour orange because indeed, he is.
Good job Sakina!