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In the Wikipedia article about Michael we have:

Unlike his two older brothers, Michael shuns the Corleone "family business"

In the first movie of The Godfather trilogy, the first talk of Michael Corleone is ambiguous in defining if he is against his family's business, because he talks about murder with much naturalness.

Apparently, he went to the army just to get away from his family world but also it isn't totally clear.

Is he against the family business or just indifferent?

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You're assuming Michael Corleone is against the business but he isn't; he is just indifferent. Michael went to Dartmouth College to escape from the business and then enlisted in the Army (1941), again to escape, again from the business; there are some scenes where Michael talks about his interests of being a politician.

But things to remember: he offered as volunteer to kill Virgil Sollozzo and McCluskey, he took part in the operation to revenge Sonny's murder, meaning he isn't against the mafia.

The indifference finished when he, against his will, took part of the "family business".

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  • Did you mean to say"avenge" instead of"revenge"? Just curious :)
    – steelersquirrel
    Nov 25, 2015 at 17:31
  • @steelerfan: sorry to intrude but now I'm curious about your curiosity :) I'm no english native speaker so I didn't know the difference (nuance?) between "avenge" and "revenge" and I had to google it. From what I've found here (writingexplained.org/avenge-vs-revenge-difference) revenge ("personal retaliation") for Michael seems to be more fitting (to me) than avenge ("to get justice for a wrong").
    – Pesetas74
    Nov 26, 2015 at 12:51
  • No worries. I was just curious, which word you meant. You're not intruding at all. Thanks for the response :)
    – steelersquirrel
    Nov 26, 2015 at 16:44
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    @steelerfan I'm not the OP though ... :D
    – Pesetas74
    Nov 27, 2015 at 7:46
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    I was looking about the difference and you could suggest a correction. English is not my first language, so there could be some mistakes. Please, feel free to edit it.
    – nelruk
    Dec 1, 2015 at 22:43

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