We aren't exactly sure what they symbolize in the world of the Corleone's but oranges pop up with a great frequency in the three Godfather films. We have identified twenty-two scenes where the camera lingers on this tasty fruit. Some suggest that they indicate death or the threat of violence for the character interacting with the orange ... and Francis Ford Coppola corroborates this to a certain extent in his audio commentaries on the DVD sets. He says it started out as an accident but once they realized they had used oranges so frequently in the first movie they started to purposefully use them in subsequent movies. We identify their many appearances in our Mystery of the Godfather Oranges feature.
Tessio holds an orange during Connie's wedding reception in
The Godfather
An orange is prominently featured in a fruit bowl in front of Sonny Corleone's wife in
The Godfather
Jack Woltz sits in front a large bowl of oranges in
The Godfather