Thursday, March 18, 2010

Tom Hagen

Nationalism ......Not
I don't believe Tom Hagen struggles with nationalism, because he is adopted and grew up on the streets of New York and never felt that America was superior.Nationalism happens when you live somewhere where you know a lot of people, feel close to the people and believe your country is the best. If you were to leave a country where everyone is close and family is very important, you would probably miss your family and friends you left,but this isn't the case for Tom Hagen as he was a Orphan living on the streets of New York, so he hasn't experienced anything that made him feel nationalism. "I believe in my family", Micheal said,"I believe in you and the family we may have. I don't trust society to protect us, I have no intention of placing my fate in the hands of men whose only qualification is threat they managed to con the block of people to vote for them .But thats for now . My fathers time is done. The things he sis can no longer be done witho;ut a great deal of risk." pp 363. Here Tom was explaining to his wife that times had changed and new ways had to be had. America was not allowing the Italian mob and they had to be more discrete. Tom did not have a sense of Nationalism like his father did for Italy. Tom had a true first loyalty to family and then to neighborhood, a much smaller level that his father.