The use of symbolizes is very apparent in the movie The Godfather. Doorways, bedroom numbers, Kay’s scarlet dress: these are symbols that were seen throughout the whole movie that were all either a motif, and were repeated several times, or they were shown enough times that the audience should be able to recognize and address what they are representing. Another symbol, that can be argued is just an accident, is the relationship between oranges and death.
When Don Corleone is shot in the street of downtown, he left his car to go buy something from across the street and what was is that he needed to buy? Oranges. He was not killed in this scene and this scene is also one that compares him to Jesus Christ, so this scene could have a higher meaning but one of the main elements of this scene is the oranges.
As the movie goes on and Don continues to live and he becomes older and ill, his health and lively hood is questioned several times especially when he is outside talking to Michael and he is visibly aged and this is one of the first times that Don Corleone does not seem invincible. In the scene that Don Corleone dies in he is with the son of the Michael and Kay and they are playing and water plants in the garden. The oranges in this scene can easily be over looked and can go un-noticed at first but looking closely at the plants that are in the back round of this scene, they are orange trees.
After watering the plants, Don picks on of the oranges off the tree and cuts a piece and put the outside of it in his mouth as a playful joke and it actually works the opposite way that he wants it to, it upsets the child or than he is amused. After calming the child, he starts to playfully chase the child around the garden and he starts to cough and falls to his death.
The use of oranges as a symbol for death is used mainly around the character of Don Corleone. The oranges are not a direct symbol like something like the dead fishes would be but they are an apparent symbol when they are looked at as more than just oranges.
I agree with what you said Myah about death and oranges.
ReplyDeleteAnother orange example of this is when Sonny was killed. When Sonny was driving to his sister's house, he passed a billboard advertising Florida Oranges. Then, the next shot--he gets killed. What is with oranges and death?
I took the liberty of looking up this question and found many references to dreams, and what does it mean to dream of oranges. What I found was:
Dreaming of the colour orange = fun
Dreaming of healthy orange trees = good health
Dreaming of eating an orange = bad; death of a relative, a hard decision, losing a lover
Dreaming "to buy oranges at your wife's solicitation, and she eats them, denotes that unpleasant complications will resolve themselves into profit".
I found this information: http://www.experiencefestival.com/dream_interpretation_orange (the 4th one)
So just to add on to what you said about oranges signifying death, there was more information to back up your statement.
I also did witness the connection between Sonny and the oranges on the billboard, I just did not think that it was a strong enough connection but after I looked at it again, I think that it is which adds even more depth to the idea of oranges connected to death. The conenction with Sonny and the oranges is a little weak because it was just a billboard but it was still relevant. Also that would make the appearance of oranges 3 which makes it something that is on purpose and not just a fluke.
ReplyDeleteI also did try and look into the idea of oranges in dreams but I was unable to fund anything, but I really like what you found. The connection between the dreams and the movie could be true because the first time the Don brings up oranges and then he is shot he neither dies or eats the oranges but then in the garden when he does die; he eats them. So maybe the eating of the oranges is what Coppola was trying the magnify.