Godfather Multigenerational Patterns

• What movie did you select and how does it tell the story of multigenerational patterns? - 1 pt.
I chose The Godfather “Chronological order”. They created this version of three movies and combined them into one continuous film. This movie has 3 generations including the Grandfather, his sons, and his grandchildren, and almost all of them are in the crime business. The times changes from the early 1920’s (grandfather), to the 1950’s (Sons) and into the 1970’s (Grandchildren).
• What are the two primary functions of communication in families? Using the Circumplex Model as a guide, discuss how you would label a family’s cohesion/flexibility in the film you watched. Discuss major characters and their roles from the film and explain why they fit the label you assigned. – 5 pts.
In my opinion, the family falls into the category of the circumflex model as both structurally connected, and structurally enmeshed. The “Godfather” (Grandfather) is the leader of the family and he attempts to share power by passing the power onto his son “Sonny”, but sonny was killed later in the film. One of his other sons “Michael”,

– 1 pt. Multigenerational patterns in families can provide a clear view of how family members relate to one another. The relationship they have biologically, socially, and psychologically.

• According to Galvin, why is “transactional communication” important in understanding relationships? What can you learn about the relationship example of Sarah and Peter? How could you apply this to two fictional characters? – 2 pts.
According to Galvin, transactional communication is important because it stresses the importance of the communicators’ perceptions and actions in influencing the outcome of interactions (Galvin, pg 27). Looking at Sarah and Peter’s relationship, you can infer that Sara and peter perceived each other based on image and not