The Sopranos and us

The show echoes who we are and what we are
Albert J. Bergesen

"The Sopranos" tells us a lot about America. As the show starts its sixth season tonight, what does it say about us that we watch it? David Chase, the show's creator, thinks it connects to some "zeitgeist going on." But even he is unsure how that happens.

Let's start with Tony Soprano. He is the head of a crime family, and I don't mean to diminish that, but it is also true that he is a middle-age guy, at mid-career, in the middle of raising kids, in an upper middle-class environment. Tony, though, is not just about the angst and stress of middle age. There is more, for with all his power he can't seem to control anything.

No matter how many people he kills he can't control his kids, or wife, or work associates, or his uncle, and certainly not his mother. And he is the boss of North Jersey. Worse, the angst this contradiction creates is turned inward as stress. Tony blacks out, takes Prozac and sees a psychiatrist.

Think of the United States. With all our power we can't seem to control events either, whether in Iraq or New Orleans. We have everything, yet we can't seem to control anything, and so maybe we relate to Tony because his power-plus-impotency condition also reflects what we see in government. Like Tony, we know something has changed and we feel it in our collective gut. As he told Dr. Melfi, "I am getting the feeling that I came in at the end. ... The best is over."

To see how things have changed, remember an earlier gangster character, Michael Corleone of "The Godfather." As late as the 1970s he still embodied the traditional American value of starting anew. Horace Greeley said, "Go West young man," and Michael did. He took his New York crime family to Nevada. He had vision: He got into the casino and resort business. He had dreams: He wanted to go legit. And he had will: He killed all his tormentors in one swoop.

And Tony Soprano? He has no vision. He's not going to get into the casino business. No way he's going to leave Jersey. And for all his power, he has no ability to rise up and set things straight once and for all.

Tony is America. It's why we watch. His life is our collective existence.

We have all the power in the world: America is an empire, as we are constantly being told. Tony's empire is North Jersey. Yet for all their power and violence, neither mobster nor country seems to be able to control things. In this sense, "The Sopranos" taps a deep American feeling about a loss of potency.

Family shows are perfect metaphors for larger societal concerns. With America on the ascendancy in the 1950s, the story line was more about firm control and patriarchal authority. Think "Father Knows Best," 1954-1963. Or in the '60s and '70s with racial conflict and Vietnam, a prominent image was the angry white male lashing out at forces he didn't understand. Think of Archie Bunker and "All in the Family" in the '70s. Now it's Tony Soprano. He's no Robert Young in denial or Archie Bunker acting out, but a stressed-out mob boss turning it all inward.

Everyone on "The Sopranos" is stuck in their unsatisfying lives and can't get out. Worse, they won't even try to get out. Carmela isn't satisfied with Tony, but never completely leaves. Tony isn't satisfied with Carmela but doesn't leave either. He isn't happy with his crime family, or his kids, for that matter. Nor are Tony Jr. and Meadow satisfied with Mom and Dad.

The Sopranos' lives are our political parties, which are as deadlocked and stuck as Tony is in Jersey. Year after year, Republicans and Democrats repeat their ideological mantra, just as Tony and Carmela come home every night and fail to resolve their problems. Their lives are like the movie "Groundhog Day," a repeat every day.

Such a defeatist national outlook has not always been the case, and no doubt social change will someday make a show like "The Sopranos" seem outdated. But for now, it seems to fit the climate of the age we live it. And so we watch.

Albert J. Bergesen is a professor of sociology at the University of Arizona. Contact us at insight@sfchronicle.com.