Originally posted by MaryCas:
JM,
I should have expanded on my statment that Vito found Anthony's reading the funny papers "amusing." Vito's reaction could mean many things; a grandfather's love and joy at knowing his grandson is reading at an early age, pride in his achievement, but from the perspective that Vito couldn't read, he could be relating his grandson's ability to read to his own inability and finds it ironic (amusing).
You still don't offer proof that in the GF and GF2 - the films - that Vito can read English. If the topic of this thread questions Vito's education, I just provided a premise to explore that possibility. If the book says he is "checking" the papers, that is not conclusive either, nor is his ability to run a company proof that he can read.
Yes, you need to be literate to check the papers. Otherwise, you won’t understand what is written in them…
I don’t really think that we need any proof that he was literate. It is obvious. He was running a business empire, and variety of its interests required his usage of many kinds of different information. If he needed to have always someone who would read and write for him, it would be inconvenience and Vito is not a man who would suffer under any inconvenience that he is able to remove. Besides, it implies having an unnecessary accomplice in everything he does and learns, and Vito was careful. And the most important, he would be unable to check and control everything in his business. Anyone could easily cheat him, if he could not check the papers himself. He was not a man who would give such a possibility, even if he trusted his partners; he kept his eye on everything.
Shortly, he needed to be literate; and if he found something necessary – what could stop him? He had a bright head, extraordinary will and self-discipline. It was not a difficult task in any way. After all, Clemenza and Tessio, having nearly the same possibilities, and much less abilities, were both literate. Why not he?
Really, it is not so very difficult to imagine him checking business papers. It is much more difficult to imagine Joey Zaza appreciating Shakespeare…
As to movies, they don’t really need to show us every detail about every ability of the character. That would be rather unbearable. We have many characters there, who never read while on the screen, but it cannot mean that they are illiterate.
BTW, I found one more proof in the novel that Vito could write: when he talks to the president of the bank, he says that he has his own written records of all his investments through fronts.
