Loyalty In Goodfellas

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Brandon Mcaree Enc1101 Instructor Dorbad April 24, 2014 Loyalty Loyalty is a word that is used commonly and virtually everyone in the English speaking world more than likely knows exactly what it means. According to the Encarta Dictionary, loyalty is a noun, and the definition are twofold. For one a state of being loyal: the quality or state of being loyal. The other definition is feeling of duty: a feeling of devotion, duty or attachment to somebody or something. There are philosophers that disagree with the common definition of the word loyalty, but they are in the minority because they believe that this word is very broad in itself…show more content…
Although “Goodfellas” was taken in a broad sense from a real event that happened in the 1970s: The Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy Airport, some of this cinematic giant was fictitious. “The Godfather” on the other hand was totally fictional with overtones of what life was and is like in the Mafia. The movie Goodfellas which was written by Martin Scorsese was filmed in 1990 and according to Dana Renga, author of the book Mafia Movies: A Reader, she wrote that, “Ultimately, my goal is to Demonstrate how Goodfellas represents a pivotal change in mafia film genre, paving the way for a new kind of gangster film”(142). In this film the main character, Henry Hill, was from a lower middle class Irish-Italian family. His father worked as a mailman and his mother was a stay a home mom. Each day when Henry came home from school, he couldn’t help but notice the men on the corner with their fancy cars, expensive clothing and how they flashed their money, which was something that intrigued him. One day as Henry Hill was returning from school he noticed and heard what appeared to be an individual being beaten up. At that point one of…show more content…
What could have been a good life for him and his family spiraled out of control and he was evidently caught by the Feds and arrested. He was offered a deal to serve a short amount of prison time if he turned on his lifelong friends and cohorts. He agreed to this deal and was also put into protective custody after all the trials of all the mobsters he turned in and “ratted” on were over. Henry Hill’s loyalty to the Mob was gone and he claimed he made this decision to save his family but as most people surmised, his disloyalty to the people who he had known all his life, was for his own self interest. “Philosophers typically use self-interest in the generic sense to refer to happiness, well being, flourishing or as I shall say; what one’s life goes best for one” (Philosophy,
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