OurGirl: Not for Nothing-Girls Gap Analysis

one of my favorite episodes of the sopranos has to be employee of the month. its essentially contrasts the behavior of two women: dr. jennifer melfi and tony's sister, janice. its a regular goofus and gallant cartoon:

janice steals svetlana's leg in order to get her ma's records back (so she can sell them on the internet).
melfi gets raped.
tony finds out what janice has done and warns her not to take on the russians. the girl doesn't listen.
melfi gets no recourse from the justice system. the men in her immediate family are ineffective in avenging her. she finds relief in a dream where a rottweiler, symbolizing tony, attacks and kills her rapist.
the russian mafi finds janice and beats the leg out of her—which she has stashed in a bowling alley locker.
as melfi recovers, she clings to the thought of revenge and struggles not to "break the social contract."
janice finds God at the hospital room. she asks tony to pray with her. tony notes whenever janice finds something, it costs him money. janice is perpetually looking for outside solutions when the answers can be found within herself.
at a session, melfi briefly loses it when tony tries to comfort her. he asks her what is wrong—can he help her? she looks at tony intensely and says, no. she learns. she masters self-control in the face of injustice. she keeps the social contract.

wiki posts this in regards: Series creator David Chase says "Melfi, despite pain and suffering, made her moral, ethical choice and we should applaud her for it. That's the story."

i write this post thinking of the events of today and a blog morgie sent to me. please to be contrasting the stories of the following two girls, and ask yourself—with whom are you more familiar:

Paris Hilton Ordered Back to Jail

www.samanthalarson.com

yeh, its a soapbox i'm on. i'll shut up and sit down now.

Ralphie: Gentlemen, what we do in life... Echoes in eternity.
Paulie: He's fucking obsessed with "Gladiator".
Ralphie: C'mon! It's a great fucking film: 'Strength and Honor'!
Tony: 'Scotch and Soda'!