Popular Culture Review 29.2
This is nothing less than a summation of the circumstances facing the working class in all of Springsteen ’ s music ; taunted by images of an American Dream which is just out of reach but which they still must chase by way of day jobs out of economic and sometimes psychological necessity , these people are left to fantasize at nights in cars and on roads that go nowhere . ( 309 )
Further , Smith suggests that these fantasies serve as a mirage for Springsteen ’ s characters that leave them spinning their wheels on the way to nowhere , trapped as they are by the identity that working hand-to-mouth leaves them in : “ It is often the idea , ‘ mirage ’ though it may be , that they will be able to escape their dead-end jobs that allows Springsteen ’ s characters , sadly and paradoxically , to continue working at them ” ( 309-310 ). While Bunker ’ s response to a changing landscape in America was a reactionary desire to return to the “ good old days ,” as the show ’ s theme song “ Those Were the Days ” suggested , Springsteen ’ s characters sought hope and ultimately change in their economic condition and something transformative to affect their circumstances .
Thus , it is , perhaps , unsurprising that the 1980s , the era of Mario , would look for a solution to the problem of the working class or at least attempt to ameliorate their situation by adding a virtuous component to working hard in order to survive , a kind of heroism that went along with economic struggle . Bon Jovi ’ s Tommy and Gina from “ Livin ’ on a Prayer ” are struggling to survive , but they do so for the sake of something virtuous : love , making them into not just working-class individuals , but into working class heroes :
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