"He Sleeps With The Fishes"

     As Luca Brasi walks through a door towards Virgil Sollozzo and the Tattaglia family, the camera is left behind the door looking through the glass at Luca. On the glass directly in front of the camera, there are two fishes as decoration on the glass wall. These fishes foreshadow what is to happen in the near future. As Brasi tries to befriend the Tattaglia family, Virgil stabs the hand of Luca, and Bruno Tattaglia comes from behind and garrotes him until death. Obviously, the Tattaglia family knew that Luca Brasi was not telling the truth, and knew that he was still working for the Corleone's. A few scenes later, the Corleone's are trying to contact Luca Brasi but cannot because of his death (the Corleone's did not know of Luca's death at this time). Tom Hagen walks into the meeting holding a package. Tom gives the package to Sonny and Sonny opens the package revealing a bulletproof vest and a fish. Sonny then asks what this was. Clemenza responds saying, " It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes"(Francis Ford Coppola). In Sicilian tradition, when a fish is given as a gift with an article of clothing from a person, it is a symbol of death of that particular person. This is why the fishes on the glass wall were foreshadowing what was to happen in the future; it meant that Luca Brasi was going to "[sleep] with the fishes".