I've always wondered why Michael came back for Kay after he returned from Sicily. Was it because he wanted to have kids? If that were the case, why didn't he go after an Italian woman, who wouln't be so opposed to the life Michael got into? Lord knows that he could have had the pick of the litter.

Kay was a WASP - and even thought he loved her before he joined his father, knew that she wasn't right for what he was trying to do with the family, etc...

Your thoughts?

i think he came back to kay because he truly loved her but also he wanted kids. he wanted an heir. he said he was back more than a year when he saw kay again. maybe he had time to think. he might have contemplated marrying the typical italian housewife but i think his thoughts must have always have gone back to kay. particulary because they left each other without much closer. he had to see her again.

I think that may be why he picked her.

Someone more in the American-Yankee-Blueblood vein.

I agree with plaw here.

Michael wanted that all-american WASP, schoolteacher to raise his children and counter-balance the negative influence of the Italian mafia.

I think (not 100% sure) that the novel hints that Michael hooked up with Kay not only because he fell in love with her but also BECAUSE she wasn't Italian, in order to further distance himself from his family and the "business".

Yeah but by the time he gets back from Sicily, he is totally in the life. He knows that he's in for good. Sonny is dead and Michael is the only one who can take over.

I can see why he chose her before he joined the family - but why did he choose her after he came back?

Simple.. because he loved her. If I left my girlfriend for a few years and when I came back I discovered I was still in love with her, I'd damn sure try to get her back.

He did love both Appollonia and Kay, that is clear. It was love at first sight with Appollonia, but I think his love with Appolonia is symbolic and systematic of the deeper connection that was taking place at the time with his roots, to his geographical home, his kinsmen, their way of life and his culture. Not to mention the Cosa Nostra. Michael was taken to Sicily, but ended up connecting deeper with his culture over this period and evolving and drastically changing.

With Appollonia I think part of the attraction was his attraction to this way of life he had shunned, a watershed of sorts took place in his mind. Kay on the other hand represents a part of his life he always has had. The civilized, anglo-americanized size, his return to her is in my opinion symbolic of a return to his american side.

For years and years I believed Michael only went back to Kay by default. After returning to America he just wanted to do the ordinary thing and raise a family, Kay would seem like the logical choice.

But now I am not so sure. His means of expressing himself and his love to Kay leaves a lot to be desired but shows the coldness of Michael coming through. But I do think he meant it and didn't regard her as a default choice like I had earlier thought.

AI kind of agree with what you originally thought, Turi, about Kay being the choice by default.

As I remember someone pointing out in a similar thread a while back, "What was Michael to do when he returned from Sicily? Start hitting the singles bars?"

There's always been an awful lot of "inter-marriage" within Italian organized crime families in real life. But somehow I just can't see Michael with, I don't know, someone like Rocco's daughter or something.

Had Michael gone "outside the box" looking for a wife, he would have had an awful lot of explaining to do about who he was and what he was all about to any potential girlfriend, much less future wife.

At least Kay already had an solid inkling about what Michael and his family was all about, and the explanation he gave her when they met after his return was very plausible because he believed it himself.

Kay was the logical choice for many reasons.

I believe Michael loved Kay before he fled to Sicily. I don't think he ever stopped loving Kay. But, he married Apollonia because he was "hit by the thunderbolt," and she was there, in Sicily, and Kay was far away. And he still loved Kay After Apollonia was killed and he returned to America. But Michael was harder, less sentimental, more calculating. A big part of his renewing his relationship with Kay was his belief, at that time, that he really would be "legitimate" in a few years. Kay, as a WASP from an old-line, respectable New England family, would help legitimize him and his kids. In the novel, Michael is "disappointed" when Kay converts to Catholicism--he liked her Protestantism because it was "more American."

I agree with Turnbull. He did want to go straight in a few years. Mike had 4 great loves in his life. His family, Kay, Apollonia and his children. He didn't stop loving Kay, but I think part of the motivation for marrying Apollonia was this deep connection he was finally feeling with his roots and his people and not to mention the life.

Yes, in a strong way his marriage to Apollonia was a reaffirmation of his Sicilian/Corleone family ties that began in the hospital when he said, "I'm with you now, Pop."

After spending years in Sicily plus over one year in America, Michael was still in love with Kay. He wanted to be with her. From my standpoint, Kay is his trophy. Kay is his last link to his old life as a college boy/war hero. A life that distant himself from his murderous family. His life-long desire to rekindle those years again by turning the family business legitimate and becoming a respectable businessman.

I think there is a strong dichotomy between Appolonia and Kay. One represents an old way of life, the life of old Sicily and the Cosa Nostra. While Kay represents the new world, civilization and legitamacy and righteousness. I think that Kay is literally Michael's better half. By choosing Kay he is choosing in essence and making a concious decision to have someone with him who will encourage him to drop a way of life that is negative. This by extension would most likely indicate some underlying intention on his part to want to go legitamite.

I echo everyone's sentiments here. Besides his love for her, Kay fit in Michael's grand scheme - his desire to make the Family legitimate. By leaving New York and also by marrying Kay, Michael showed his desire to move away from the old school tactics of his father and drive the Family into legitimacy.