La Cosa Nostra
Perhaps one of the most poignant moments in American cinema is the closing scene in the film “The Godfather” when Don Vito Corleone’s son Michael takes over his father’s position... and one of the most unforgettable moments, a severed horses’s head lies bloody in a man’s bed. It is this tradition and brutality that characterizes the Mafia, a secret Sicilian society that lives and functions just as much today on American soil as it did and does still in Italy. To understand this organized crime, one must begin to understand how it came to be organized in the first place. During the medieval times in Sicily, Arabs invaded the land and native Sicilians fled and took refuge in the hills. Some ...
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and many fled to the United States. “Don (term for the boss or head of a Mafia family) Vito Cascio Ferro fled to the United States in 1901 to escape arrest. He is known as the Father of American Mafia.” () Many Italian immigrants came to the United States through Ellis Island in New York, which is today the most important center of organized Mafia crime in the United States. The new American Mafia came to power during the Prohibition by organizing the sale of outlawed alcohol, but after Prohibition was revoked, the Mafia needed a new “racket.” During the war, the Mafia got government issued ration stamps and sold them on the black market. These days the Mafia is involved in running prostitution, unions, construction, and gambling. New York, also called the “City that never sleeps,” houses the Five Families of New York. These Families are highly influential and powerful crime families and each holds claim to certain “rackets.” The Five Families are: Gambino, Bonano, Lucchese, Colombo, ...
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many guidelines are set for way of life as well. Members cannot show signs of weaknesses. Crying and wearing glasses are two such things. Also, women are looked upon as inferior and a couple that is unable to produce sons is frowned upon. Since power is very influential in how this business is run, members must know their place because “someone always wants more, that’s how wars start.” (Anonymous) Making reference to the movie “The Godfather” is highly practical as this movie, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, is highly accurate and professionally portrays the American Mafia. In this film, the Five Families “go to the mattresses” over power, money, and drugs. While wars like ...
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La Cosa Nostra. (2004, June 5). Retrieved April 25, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/La-Cosa-Nostra/8994
"La Cosa Nostra." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 5 Jun. 2004. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/La-Cosa-Nostra/8994>
"La Cosa Nostra." Essayworld.com. June 5, 2004. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/La-Cosa-Nostra/8994.
"La Cosa Nostra." Essayworld.com. June 5, 2004. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/La-Cosa-Nostra/8994.
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