"A man has but one destiny."

That's what Vito said, regretfully, when Sonny told him he didn't want to go to law school--he wanted to be in the "olive oil business." Do you think Michael was destined to be Vito's successor, a lifelong criminal and Mafia kingpin? Or, was he a gangster by choice?

[N.B.: Webster's defines "destiny" as: "the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future - she was unable to control her own destiny"

I'd say that in Puzo's world, there was destiny at work. There's a couple of instances early in the book where Puzo says that Michael takes on an eerie resemblance to Vito. As the Family responds to the attack on Vito, Michael participates, and it slowly becomes clear
that his separation from the Family occurred because it's an archaic organization, not because he thinks it does wrong. As he proceeds through his time in Sicily and eventually returns to America of one mind with his father, it's as if the real Michael has emerged, instead of Michael being changed by circumstances.

Pete, I agree. I've posted elsewhere that each of Vito's boys had certain of Vito's genes (characteristics), but not all of them. Sonny had Vito's violence gene; Fredo had Vito's sensitivity gene; Michael had Vito's destiny (I really don't like that term) gene. In other words, Michael possessed most of Vito's genes, but he just could not manage them to have the effect and effectiveness that Vito had.

Well, I knew I'd get great responses from Pete and Oli. Thanks!

Michael had choices at every turn. But, as you guys imply, those choices were affected by destiny. He was his father's son. And, though he told Kay at Connie's wedding, "It's my family, it's not me," he couldn't walk away from his family when the chips were down.

Since there's nowhere else to post this, I'll post it here: does anyone recall if the novel states that Vito ever became a citizen? In the film, Vito enters the US through Ellis Island, but that doesn't mean he became a citizen.

I don't have access to the book right now but I don't recall his citizenship being addressed directly. In the chapter summing up his life, there is some material about how he became politically influential.

My guess is that, sometime when he was building up the olive oil business, he probably contacted whoever fixed such things then and bought the necessary documents. A respectable young businessman would go through the process, so Vito would achieve the same result without the fuss of tests and such.

Pete's guess is a good one, My guess is that Vito never formally became a citizen because he didn't have to. Under immigrant regulations that were in effect until 1924: If you could get to America on your own, enter legally and be processed at Ellis Island or another official immigration center, and not pose a health or security risk, you were in. You could stay forever without becoming a citizen. Sure, Vito could have leaned on one of his politicos to arrange citizenship, but it would have raised his profile and made him vulnerable to losing citizenship if he were convicted of a crime.

Well, in the novel, Vito expresses an antipathy for America. So, his becoming a citizen by hook or by crook would be purely for criminal reasons..

I was thinking that if Vito's plan for Michael included politics, he would almost certainly have acquired citizenship for himself. That aspiration, though, "Senator Corleone...Governor Corleone..," that's only in the movie, right? I always wondered if Vito's plan for Michael involved the bank where they did the peace conference.

Pete, your right about Vito's aspirations for Michael and the novel.

Vito's citizenship is just as ambiguous as his induction into the Mafia.