The Fourth Stall

The author alludes directly and indirectly throughout The Fourth Stall to films and other works that famously featured organized crime (and the Mafia in particular) and the general Hollywood “gangster” image of the 1930s to 1970s. Crime and gangster images and details in the book include the threatening car trailing Mac home, the vandals’ threats made public on his house, the dead mouse in his locker, and the “taking out” of his support system (for example, when his bullies are bullied into quitting on him).

Allusions to Mario Puzo’s The Godfather novel and the accompanying films (The Godfather and its two sequels) are the most direct: Mac likes and uses slight variations on the line “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse,” an oft-quoted line by the character Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) in The Godfather film. In keeping with Mac’s subtle inner conflict between innocent youth and tempted criminal, he does not understand the line or its implications, but he knows it sounds powerful and evokes control. Another allusion to The Godfather storyline is the character Fred, who turns out to be the snitch who betrayed Mac to Staples all along; similarly, in The Godfather: Part II, Fredo, the oldest Corleone son, betrays Michael, the new head of the family.