Mafia 2

Vito Scaletta, what is your problem?

For today, I would love to make an analysis of character not from the movie but from one of the most iconic games of our century - Mafia 2 and its main hero - Vito Scaletta 

The reason I have chosen the Mafia franchise for analysis is pretty simple. If you play triple A games then you know that the character you play for is main character, though it is not so in Mafia games. So, Vito Scaletta we play for is just a pawn in chess game, the pawn that by the end of chess game could not become a queen and will never be a King. Thus, let's find out what's wrong with Vito Scaletta.

Vito was born in Italian family that move to USA for having American dream. Obviously nobody was waiting for Italians in USA so live was pretty tough. Father had to work hard as a laborer in a factory. That moment Vito get for himself that such way of earning money is not for him and decided to get into crime world with his friend Joe. Life taught him a lesson when two Vito and Joe were robbing a jewelry store, police officer caught Vito- Joe managed to escape. Since during the time of the story, WW2 was occurring and Vito was send to his motherland Italy to the war.   

Here we can clearly see Vito's huge problem- he could escape from war and get back to the USA, however guess what was the first thing he did in USA? He met with Joe and told him he had not lost any wish to make money in criminal way.

For two friends the best option for fast money is working for mafia and become a member of mafia family one day. While Vito's absence, Joe has found many friends that helps him to find a way for mafia. After Vito's arrival, both started to take orders from the mafia. What of which became fatal for Vito... Vito needed to steal gas coupons and since they were expiring, he needed to sell them to gas stations. But one of those who bought the ticket turned in Vito and he was again sentenced to imprisonment, but for 10 years.

In prison he met probably the most important person in Mafia 2 - Leo Galante- capo of the Vinci family. He helped Vito to get released from prison 4 years earlier and put him into the best conditions during his sentence. Eventually, Vito got freedom after 6 years of restrictions and what did he do then? Of course he met Joe and told him prison had told him many thing and had made experienced so we would keep making crimes for money. Yes, there we can see his awfull tendency - he does not learn from his mistakes. He was supposed to understand so far that there is not good ending in story of crime and live gives him chances over and over to start everything from the empty list, though all the time he misses those lessons and get relatable consequences. 

Even with such a huge disadvantage,Vito succeeded at crime after prison- having completed many mission from mafia, he and Joe were accepted to family of Falcone. By the way, Leo Galante was one of the reasons of Vito's acceptance to family. Vito, finally, got what he always wanted to...

But, unfortunately, apart from the problem we discussed, we has another one- Vito is extremely weak in term of personality.  Let's focused on this idea in more details.

In the first episode when Vito was sent to the WW2, it was Joe's idea to rob, but Vito did not say no to this. After coming back to USA, it was Joe's idea to complete some families missions. And of course Vito was always there. Interesting fact that all the time it was Joe's ideas but the one who suffers from this actions was Vito, who anyways never doubted in Joe's plans. After joining Falcone family, Vito has got everything but still manage to lose everything. How? Because of one simple reason- he is weak.
Shall i go with proofs: 
1. It has always been Joe's ideas and Vito always says what Joe wants. 
2.  One of the last episodes when everything was ok in Vito's life- he is in Falcone family, he has got enough money, he agrees to do one stupid thing. Henry (one of old friends of Vito) offers him and Joe to start drug business which was totally prohibited. Vito could have said "No" and what would be different? Nothing. Joe would have still been his friend and Vito would not have had any issues with mafia. And he simply go on with this drug deals, which was discovered by Falcone, therefore Falcone ordered to kill Vito and Joe. Eventually, Vito kills Falcone and joins Leo Galante who showed him that he is just a pawn and sends him to the worst cities of USA - new Bordeaux. 

To conclude, Mafia 2 demonstrated us a view of a simple guy with some dream, who had opportunities, but because of his drawbacks he ended up being used and thrown.