This angered Saul, the boss of the Sorrentos and Arnaldo's father. They had no choice but to wage war on the Valenzos. Tony was Saul's right hand man and favorite soldier. Saul put Tony in charge of leading the fight against the Valenzos. But the Valenzos were resilient and the war did not look like it would be over anytime soon. Because of this tensions ran high among the Sorrentos. Saul's second oldest son, Big-time Tommy, grew unhappy with Tony's efforts and questioned his leadership. This infuriated Tony and he said he was done with Tommy and the family. He raged and told Tommy he was going to retire from the family. Tommy was fine with this, but he said if Tony left he would have no choice but to take Tony's prized Jaguar Roadster away from him. Tony told him to buzz off, slammed the door behind him, and left.
Sure enough the next day a couple of Tommy's goons showed up at Tony's and said they were here for his car. Tony had been in the family his whole life, and these were his friends. He didn't want to fight any of them so he let them take his car without any commotion.
The war continued with no end in sight. The Sorrento's would hit the Valenzo's and the Valenzo's would hit right back. Eventually Tommy realized he needed Tony to win so he sent some of his best men to go to Tony and convince him to rejoin the family. He gave them money, jewelry and other expensive gifts to try to win him back. He even gave them the Jaguar to return to Tony. But when the men showed up on Tony's doorstep, Tony told them he couldn't care less about what Tommy or what he wanted. He was sick of Tommy and his antics. He told the men that they were some of his best companions and he had immense respect for them, but he could not go back to Tommy. He told them to take all their gifts and to tell Tommy there was no chance in hell he would come back.
Soon after that Tony's best friend Paulie, who left the family with Tony, pleaded with Tony to let him go back to the fight. He said that one of his friends got jumped and put in a coma, and that he had to avenge him. Tony begrudgingly told Paulie to go, but to come back right after he had avenged his friend. He told him not to go back to the life of never ending war. Tony gave Paulie his favorite switchblade to use as good luck and a sign of brotherhood.
Saul's favorite son and the leader of his forces, Joey, was the one ordered the hit on Paulie's friend. Joey's best foot soldier, Benicio, is the one who carried out the hit. Paulie knew where Benicio stayed and pulled up on him with a couple other Sorrentos. Paulie lead the charge and they easily handled all of Benicio's goons, and they made their way to Benicio. Paulie told the guys to let him handle it and pulled out the switchblade Tony had given him. Benicio put up a good fight, but because of his righteous anger Paulie came out on top. Against Tony's wishes, Paulie stuck around to decide who to go after next. The rush of it all had corrupted Paulie's thinking.
However, Joey got word of what was happening and sped over to Benicio's place. When he got there he saw his friend on the ground, lifeless, in a pool of blood. Paulie standing over him, and menacingly smiling ear-to-ear. He was taking in what he had just done, and pure adrenaline was coursing through his veins. An immense hatred rushed over Joey, and he drew his switchblade and charged Paulie, landing a nonlethal blow to his stomach. Paulie fought back valiantly, but he had used up a substantial amount of energy in his fight with Benicio. After a long fight, because of the wound Paulie sustained Joey eventually overtook him. Joey lit up a cig and gravely stood over Paulie while he watched him die.
Joey after taking Paulie's life. Source
This is a retelling of Part A of the reading on Homer's The Iliad. Instead of ancient Greece my story takes place in the time of Al Capone and other gangsters. Instead of Helen, Daisy is the beautiful girl. Instead of the Greeks and the Trojans it is the Sorrentos and the Valenzos who are doing the fighting. Tony's Jaguar is the woman that Agamemnon took away from him after he left the siege of Troy. Benicio is the Trojan hero Sarpedon. Instead of Hector killing Patroclus, Joey kills Paulie.
Bibliography:
A.J. Church, The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer (Published 1967) https://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-homers-iliad-retold.html
Hi Conner! This story was amazing! I read The Iliad this week too, so I totally understood what was going on in the story without even reading the author's note. It was so creative, fun to read, and really well written, so awesome job! It'll be cool to see your other stories as we go forward in the semester.
ReplyDeleteHey Conner! I really enjoyed reading your rendition of The Iliad because I am unfamiliar with this story. I have never actually read the Iliad before and do not know what it is about, and so it was neat to read your story and then read the author's note afterwards. I think you did a really good job at explaining the story in your author's note briefly but thoroughly. Also, I enjoyed how you based your story in the times of Al Capone, that made it seem much more modern than I expect the Iliad to be. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHey Conner! I really liked the way you changed The Iliad while still retaining the main parts of the story. After reading your story, I think there's some similarities between stories from Greek mythology and mobster tales/movies. The idea of revenge for your fallen brothers, along with the devotion to your family, are both things I could see between both of them. Hopefully I get the chance to read more of your stories this semester!
ReplyDeleteHi Connor! Wow! I liked how you compared the mafia to a story of the Illiad! That's really creative! I really like the imagery you used with the switchblades and how that kept showing up in the fights. I wonder what's the back story on Paulie? To think that he gets over run with the adrenaline of fighting sounds riveting especially when you compare him to Patroclus. What if you added a brief back story on who Paulie is? Then maybe you could have a character like Achilles who loves Paulie a lot and would really groan the death of his best friend by the hands of that monster Joey!
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