Journal Article Analysis

Elana Bernabei-Parsons

Popular Culture

Professor Garey

February 7, 2016

Journal Article Analysis

            The article that I am analyzing was written by Aaron Tuscano and is entitled “Tony Soprano as the American everyman and scoundrel: How the Sopranos (re)present contemporary middle-class anxieties”. First off, let me start off by letting everyone know that I was, and still am, a huge Sopranos fan. Every Sunday night we would tune in to see what was going on in the New Jersey crime family. I was so upset when the series ended, and was saddened when the actor, James Gandolfini, passed away in real life because I knew that meant the end. For good. However, I do own the entire series on DVD and do watch them on occasion just for old-time’s sake. Second of all, let it be known that I am Italian-American, my grandparents came here on the boat when my father was little. Don’t get me wrong, my family was nowhere remotely into any Mafioso type crime, but the traditions that were shown and the way the familial characters interacted and talked with each other was a pretty strong depiction of Italian life. Sometimes watching the family scenes was like attending a family reunion!

            The article by Tuscano was an excellent read. His main points were ones that throughout watching the entire series I never picked up on. He discusses how in the Mafia hierarchy, The Soprano family would have been the middle class. With this analyzation he then shows how the Mafia hierarchy mimics today’s middle class society. The Corleone family of the Godfather trilogy would have been the upper-class. They were the family that set the tone for the rest of the Mafia. They started off with a legitimate business, became connected, made their money, and then wanted to become legitimate again. Vito Corleone was the epitome of the Godfather. He was strong but fair, basically similar to the CEO of a fortune 500 company. Tony Soprano, on the other hand, was only the acting boss of the New Jersey crime family. His role was more of the manager of that company. He was middle-class all the way. “Tony Soprano is David Chase’s “average” mafia guy just as Bill Cosby, Archie Bunker, and Al Bundy can be considered everyman TV types” (Tuscano, pg. 3).  

            Another point Tuscano illustrates is how many middle-class workers feel that many of the upper-class elite are crooks in their own way. The Sopranos was on air during the midst of Enron and the following economic recession. As the middle class watched what was unfolding due to greedy bankers, the Soprano’s was showing the come-uppance due to crime every week.

“Tony’s criminal occupation literalizes a belief—albeit not a universal belief—that to afford to live comfortably once must be a crook” (Tuscano, pg.3). Throughout the article Tuscano explains how the mafia is similar any other capitalist organization. The theme is that these men are no different than men running the legitimate companies of the world.

            Tuscano also does an excellent job of addressing the Italian-American stereotyping and pop culture obsession with the Mafia. It is something that I can relate to, and often feel I have to refute. My father came to this country as an immigrant. He worked his butt off daily in our family owned coal mine. He was able to make enough money to put himself through college and then law school. He was a successful and admired lawyer. Many people judged, and even as a teenager I would hear how my father’s success was due to his connections. No one gave credit where credit was due. It is something that has always bothered me, more than him, but I was glad to see it addressed here. “Italian Americans shown on film and television are not Italian Americans as we actually are, but Italian Americans as the rest of the country needs us to be to satisfy their own fantasies—larger-than-life gangsters as mythic symbols of “the modern urban cowboy” who act on the needs of the id in ways that mainstream America, with its overdeveloped superego, cannot (Tuscano, pg. 4).

            Tuscano touches on many other issues tied to middle-class life as well.  One issue touched upon is the issue of education in the middle class. Tony Soprano only had a semester of college under his belt. He was the most educated of all of his friends and family. To them he was the college man. Throughout the show we watch him struggle and worry about money. A common theme in middle-class America. But we watch his well-educated neighbor, a doctor, live a much more relaxed life. A mirroring undertone that the more educated you are, the easier life is. Because of this, Tony Soprano also pays for his own daughter to attend an Ivy-league college.  “Some people in the business world do not finish college and are successful (e.g. Bill Gates), but the dominate narrative is that college equals success” (Tuscano, pg. 10).

            Throughout this article, I felt the author made very valid points and references. He pointed out similarities that I had never thought of. I agree with many of his main points, and the ones I didn’t whole heartedly agree with I could at least see his side. One of which was when he discussed the theme of women emasculating the men in their lives. Tony Soprano’s mother, sister, wife, and even daughter, were very demanding and hard to love characters. But they were just that, characters. I don’t think they were necessarily meant to emasculate him, but written to add fuel to the fire of the stories. To give more to the plot of who Tony was and why he is the way he is. They added struggle to his already middle-class existence.  The author’s examples were good, it was just a point that I couldn’t get on board with and don’t think were as relevant to middle-class America as he hoped to make them.

            I thought this article was very relevant and important. The author took a very popular series and broke it down. He made solid comparisons between the Sopranos and middle class America. He made points that even the avid watcher did not pick up on, and made associations that most people wouldn’t have made. He addressed the stereotypes Italian-Americans face, as well as the American Myth dream that if you work hard you can achieve greatness. The way he explained the mafia hierarchy as similar to a modern day corporation or organization was excellent and easy to understand. He showed how Tony Soprano’s anxiety and panic issues are normal in middle class as we all struggle with paying bills, raising children, and providing for our families. “Tony is the family man, living in the suburbs, trying to cope with the stress of providing for a family in the new twenty-first-century economy, an economy where workers’ skills become obsolete, creeping credentialism makes workers unemployable, and the costs of raising a family continue to rise. These fears and bills—which contribute to economic woes—are part of the American middle class family lifestyle: middle class is expensive” (Tuscano, pg. 9).

             

References

TOSCANO, A. A. (2014). Tony Soprano as the American everyman and scoundrel: how the

            Sopranos (re)presents contemporary middle-class anxieties. Journal of popular

            culture, 47(3), 451-469.