Anthony Soprano Jr.

As the youngest member of the Soprano clan, Anthony Jr. (A.J.) is a chronic disappointment to Tony throughout the series. He is the first male of the family raised in relative affluence, and often acts spoiled, entitled, and unwilling to take initiative. Tony Sr. tries often to be encouraging and understanding with his son, but Anthony Jr.’s near constant avoidance of anything productive begins to seriously test his patience as the series progresses.

In the first season, we are introduced to Anthony Jr. as a chubby, pleasant, lazy child, who has problems with motivation and concentration. He and some of his friends steal and drink the communion wine at their Catholic School, but the school refuses to administer consequences as a result of his family connections. This illustrates a personality characteristic that is developing where Anthony Jr. doesn’t believe there are any meaningful consequences for his actions, no matter how serious.

He also begins to get curious as to what his father does for a living, as the other kids at the school make jokes and comments regarding the family’s mafia connections. This is illustrated in a fight he has with former friend Jeremy Piocasta, who is ordered by his father to pay A.J. 40 dollars for a damaged shirt as opposed to fighting with him, given the father’s fear of Tony Sr.’s reputation. The other kids at school also note this fear of Anthony Sr., and A.J. clearly absorbs the lesson.

A further development takes place when Anthony is tested for Attention Deficit Disorder, as the teachers fear he may suffer from a learning disorder due to his lack of attention and concentration. His scores on this assessment place him in the Borderline range for AD/HD, but Tony and Carmella react with anger at this development and refuse to pay for the psychological testing.

Anthony’s negative behavior continues to escalate, as he steals Carmella’s car (perhaps inspired by a similar story about his father), breaks into his school’s gymnasium and trashes the place, and is eventually expelled from his school when he breaks into the school to cheat on a test. Tony is now completely exasperated by his son’s behavior and decides Anthony should go to military school, as he believes an approach that prioritized his feelings and self-esteem has completely failed (he’s not wrong here). Anthony has a panic attack (following in his father’s footsteps) while preparing for military school, and we are left wondering at the end of the third season what exactly his future might hold.

By the beginning of the fourth season we see that Tony and Carmella have made a major donation to get Anthony into yet another private school, and once again he has not felt any real consequences for his actions. He also begins a relationship with a beautiful new girlfriend Devin in this season, but he is intimidated by her extreme wealth and left feeling puzzled as to why his family doesn’t have that “Don Corleone kind of money.” They attempt to consummate their relationship in various places, but have trouble finding any privacy. Devin is clearly enamored by being, “a mobster dude’s girlfriend” and Anthony Jr. is now beginning to understand the privileges that come with being a Soprano, which is a theme that will carry on in future seasons.

In season five we see Anthony Jr. dealing with the aftermath of Tony and Carmella’s separation, and his regression during this season is significant. This is evidenced in the first episode when a bear repeatedly wanders into the yard after Tony moves out of the house, and Anthony Jr. is left blubbering “Mommy! Mommy!!” when the bear surprises him on the patio.

Tony continues to spoil Anthony Jr. during this time frame, purchasing a 5,000-dollar drum set (perhaps to antagonize Carmella during the separation), as well as a brand new Nissan Xterra. This despite the fact his grades are failing and his college counselor Mr. Wegler informs his parents his future college career is in serious future jeopardy. Despite these extravagant purchases, Tony is strict with Carmella regarding expenses like an SAT tutor, and generally begins to purchase his son’s affection as he makes things as difficult as possible for Carmella financially.

Anthony Jr. begins acting out as the season progresses, and this culminates in an episode spent in New York City with his other wayward prep school friends, which results in him getting so drunk and stoned his friends shave his eyebrows as a prank. Carmella is furious at his ongoing disrespectful attitude towards her, and she arranges for Anthony Jr. to live with Tony as a result of her ongoing struggles with him. Unbeknownst to Tony Jr. and Sr., Carmella uses this opportunity to begin an affair with Anthony’s guidance counselor Mr. Wegler, which is ironic given both father and son often refer to him as a homosexual.

A major change occurs when Anthony Jr. is sent to live with Tony. At first, things go beautifully, as Tony, Artie, and Anthony Blundetto have a great time together watching movies and baseball and creating a kind of odd New Jersey frat house. But to his credit Tony tries to hold Anthony Jr. accountable, and the situation soon turns into a power struggle, which leads to serious conflict between father and son. Eventually, this leads to a violent confrontation between the two of them, and Anthony Jr. pleads to return home to live with his mother, which Carmella reluctantly agrees to.

In this season we also get the idea that Anthony Jr.’s laziness will likely prevent him from getting into any kind of decent college. Mr. Wegler makes an impassioned plea to the family trying to explain this, but this interlude takes a strange diversion as Carmella begins sleeping with him (and exploits this to have him help with Anthony’s grades), and Tony dismisses him as a homosexual. We see Anthony Jr. continue to lie, cheat, and get others to do his bidding from this point, and his future as a college student at this juncture seems highly unlikely.

We do see Anthony Jr. show some flashes of initiative, however, as he sees an opportunity to make money by throwing parties and charging people for entrance. An interesting development happens at one of these parties as A.J. sees he is getting ripped off, but has one of his henchman dole out punishment rather than getting his own hands dirty. In this sense we see Anthony following in his father’s footsteps, as he is learning to exploit people and situations for his personal gain, which is a skill his father has cultivated for decades.

In the sixth and final season, everything changes when Tony Sr. is shot by Uncle Junior. Anthony Jr. copes very poorly with this situation, including screaming at reporters, avoiding responsibility for helping with the situation, and refusing to sit with Tony when it was his turn on the visitation roster.

But A.J. finally comes around and spends some time with his comatose father, where he vows to avenge the shooting and take care of Uncle Junior himself. We also find out he has dropped out of junior college, which further infuriates Carmella who tells him, “you are nothing but a cross to bear.” We also see that he has attempted to purchase a gun with the intention of killing Uncle Junior, but Chris and Bobby get wind of this and scold him for acting so impulsively. Chris, in fact, throws Anthony Jr. in a headlock and refers to him as a “little hothead,” which is nearly identical to the scene in “The Godfather” when Sonny Corleone throws his little brother Michael in a headlock and uses the same terminology when Michael wants to get involved in the family business.

No longer a student, Anthony Jr. now begins work at Blockbuster, which his father refers to as “the first stop on the shitbird express.” We see that he is awful at this job, however, as he shows up late, curses in front of customers, and is finally fired for stealing promotional materials from the store. Meanwhile, he is going to nightclubs and drinking champagne and doing cocaine in New York City, where he is treated like royalty given his family name and connections.

In a shocking turn, A.J. decides he is going to avenge his father’s shooting by stabbing Uncle Junior, but he becomes paralyzed with fear, drops the knife, and is taken to the police station. A now furious Tony bails him out of this situation, but becomes heartbroken when he hears how pathetic and helpless his son has now become. In the next scene with Anthony Jr. we watch him submit to a panic attack at a club, and see that his response to stress may in some ways be similar to his fathers.

Tony finally becomes totally exasperated by Anthony Jr. and tells Dr. Melfi “I hate my son” during his return to therapy. He then decides to take a harder line with Anthony, and informs him that he will now be working construction beginning the next morning, or he will be kicked out of the home. When Anthony rolls his eyes at what he thinks is an idle threat, Tony smashes his car window and tells him “don’t put me to the test,” which is finally enough to convince A.J. that he is serious. Anthony Jr. begins his construction work the next day.

While at the site it appears Anthony may have finally found some work ethic, as he is not afforded special privileges for being Tony’s son, and begins working at something with real effort for perhaps the first time in his life. While employed at the site he makes the acquaintance of a beautiful Latino girl named Blanca, and they begin dating. Things quickly get serious, and A.J. becomes a surrogate father to her young son Hector.

The homestretch of the series proves challenging for Anthony Jr. however, and he opens the last half of the show no longer working construction, but instead managing one of Beansie Gaeta’s pizza places. He proposes to Blanca and she accepts, and this fills him with joy as he begins to plan their life together. She soon has a change of heart, however, and when she breaks up with him it sends him into a depressive tailspin where he quits his job, takes to bed, and begins crying all the time about the breakup.

The cycle of mental health issues between father and son are considered in this episode, as Tony Sr. comes to the point of tears relaying how he has passed on the Soprano “curse” of depression to his son. Anthony Jr. begins demonstrating suicidal behavior, and an alarmed Tony and Carmella take him to a psychiatrist, who then places him on an antidepressant to help him cope. Tony Sr. insists on getting him out of the house to hang out with boys his own age at the Bada Bing. He is soon recognized again for the Soprano name when his new friends remove a boy’s toe to collect a gambling debt and use Anthony Jr.’s name to reinforce the threat.

A.J. continues to deepen the bonds with his new friends, and even begins sitting in on college classes as he begins to get re-engaged with life. Things change, however, when the boys beat a young Somali student and refer to him as “nigger” as they are doing so. The incident appears to have re-triggered his memories of Blanca and her struggle as a minority in America, and soon his depression, anger and isolation returns.

A.J. becomes obsessed with a poem called, “The Second Coming” by William Yeats he learns about in his classes. Feeling it captures the hopelessness of life, AJ makes an important decision and decides to commit suicide. In one of the most gut-wrenching scenes in the history of the show, he ties a brick to his foot, places a plastic bag on his head, and tries to drown himself. Tony Sr. arrives and dives in and saves him, and Tony holds his son as he lies sobbing following his botched suicide attempt.

A.J. is committed to an institution for his own safety, and while there runs into Rhiannon, an old girlfriend of a friend of his who is a former model. They bond over their shared mental health issues and soon become friends. Tony Sr. vacillates between extreme concern he voices for A.J. in his sessions with Dr. Melfi, and some frustration that A.J.’s hospital stay is costing him 2,000 dollars a day.

A.J. is eventually released from the hospital and begins dating Rhiannon. After considering a series of different careers, Tony gets him a job working in the movie business with Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. After burning his SUV in a pile of leaves, he is now driving a new BMW and getting acclimated to his new job. In the final scene, he relates his father’s advice to “remember the good times.”

If A.J. did witness his father’s murder in this final scene (and the evidence strongly suggests this), it is hard to imagine him being strong enough to cope with such a monumental event. He has been derailed by much less serious events in the past, and witnessing something of this magnitude would likely have a devastating effect on his life and his mental health given all of the events that have led up to this incident.

Analysis:

Gender Role Preparation perceived through Gender Guiding Lines and Role Models

Personal Code of Conduct Perceived through Acceptance / Rejection of Family Values

Although most of the characters in the show have readily embraced the gender guiding lines in their families, this is much more complicated in the case of Anthony Jr., as his father did not want him following into the larger family “business.” This changed the dynamic between father and son a great deal, as the lessons he imparts to AJ are often of the “do as I say not as I do” variety, as opposed to the kinds of criminal instruction he gives to Christopher.

This disconnect between Tony’s instructions such as "you want to get into a good school you gotta crack the books” and his own lifestyle seem to provide a confusing model for A.J. at times, but by the end of the series he has clearly inherited a number of Tony’s behavioral patterns. A.J. is quick to reply with “dad does” when Carmella tries to discipline him for cursing or sleeping in too late, and we can see from the beginning a kind of osmosis has occurred in the Soprano’s household.

The Soprano gender guiding line regarding discipline and corporal punishment has clearly changed throughout the generations, as Tony says “The belt was his favorite child development tool” with regard to his father, but “No one gets hit in our house, not exactly my idea” with regard to his son. Tony and Carmella’s inability to enforce discipline with their son seems to have led to feelings of entitlement, where Anthony believes people will simply “fix” things for him when they go wrong.

And this certainly is the case throughout the series, as they repeatedly buy (through donations and such) A.J. out of trouble throughout his young life, and he is rarely left to feel any real consequences where he learns any kind of lesson. The school’s supposed “zero tolerance” policy regarding his theft of the communal wine is actually a “no consequences” policy, where the school enforces no punishment whatsoever, not even suspending him from the football team.

All of these incidents (and there were many) reinforce the idea for A.J. that he is immune to consequences, and also kind of “untouchable” when it came to anything really bad happening. He tests these limits over and over again, including purchasing a stolen term paper in High School. But Carmella uses her seductive powers over Mr. Wegler to get him to intercede, and this, like all the other incidents, is soon swept under the rug.

Because A.J. has never been taught any limits, he rarely follows through on anything, including his “event planning” career, his work at his various jobs, and his ability to identify any kind of meaningful path in his university studies. At the end we see him plead with Tony to buy him a club (despite the fact he is only 20.) Tony instead gets him a job in the movie business and tells him “after that, we will talk about me getting you a club” which is kind of incredible given how little A.J. has ever demonstrated in the way of commitment, work ethic, and follow through.

Openings for Advancement Perceived through Environmental Opportunities

As has been discussed, carrying the name “Soprano” came with privileges for A.J. almost from the very beginning, although this didn’t always come without resentment. His English teacher in High School Mr. Fiske is, for instance, resentful after being told to improve A.J.’s grade in his class, saying “A.J. Soprano is a spoiled lox, he’d be lucky to go to trade school.” And “So what does it mean to the kid who really breaks his ass in here if Fredo Corleone can get a C 'cause you asked?”

But most of the time opportunities present themselves to A.J. by the virtue of who he is. He repeatedly gets into (and is allowed to stay) at very competitive schools, despite the fact he has little aptitude or inclination towards academics. Attractive women are drawn to him throughout the series such as Devin, Rhiannon, and Blanca, although he hasn’t demonstrated any particular aptitude in this area either.

It is interesting to consider A.J. in the context of shows such as “Growing up Gotti,” which depict spoiled and entitled children of mobsters acting in a similar manner.  In A.J.’s case his friends point out his family clout repeatedly, including in grade school when Jeremy Piocosta backs down from a fight, “oh yea, he’s real scared of you,” and in High School when his friend says, “No way will he be drafted, because his old man would put a horse’s head in some senator’s bed.”

Tony also arranges his construction job, his pizza parlor job, and later his job in the movie business, all by making simple phone calls. When A.J. goes to the clubs he is immediately invited to sit in the VIP area and treated like a celebrity. Later, the writers have a little fun with A.J.’s unearned celebrity status when a reporter asks him, “So what was it like, growing up Soprano?” which infuriates Carmella when A.J. responds on camera. In any case, it is clear that A.J. has been afforded considerable privilege because of his lineage, but it is unclear how much he truly realizes this. As the old saying goes, “Some people are born on third base, and go through life thinking they hit a triple.”