Mario Puzo's mother, in acknowledging her son's intelligence and educational aptitude, did not support his efforts to become a writer, because that was a job for the sons of the noble or rich. Her aspirations for him went as high as railroad clerk. Because she was still affected by the class mentality of the old country. In fact, in Southern Italian immigrant communities, the family was the priority and education was looked down upon, because it cost the family resources without returning remuneration.

Similar familial priorities precluded young women from taking domestic jobs as was common in lower income immigrant families, because of the danger to the girl's reputation and chastity. On the other hand, in contemporary Irish immigrant families, such jobs for girls were seen as opportunities, because it was a chance to be around high-class people, with good reputations, which PROTECTED the girl's reputation. In the culture of the British isles, understood by Irish & Anglo alike, there were standards to which the gentry who employed domestic servants were supposed to adhere. But to Italians, with the same religion and related values, who were outside that culture, it was not a system or set of understandings and values on which they could rely.

Both Irish & Italian communities devalued formal education and sciences and whatnot, because of attitude from their home countries, where for different reasons, those things were not accessible to them, and pursuing them was a betrayal of their cultural values. Interestingly, the Irish immigrant population had a lot of similarities to stereotypes of the Black population, in that they were seen as emotional, quick to anger and fight (200-150 years ago, the riots were largely Irish; generally they were on at least one side of any given 19th century race riot; Harlem IIRC was settled by Manhattan blacks who moved away from their Irish neighbors, while Little Italy & Chinatown were side by side with very little racial violence for decades, though both fought with the Irish), prone to substance abuse, and afflicted by major problems with illegitimacy and paternal abandonment. The most successful Irish were in sports, entertainment and politics, the last resulting in a predominance of Irish in civil service positions, which were once known as "Irish welfare". This proves absolutely nothing about the chances of black progress, but it does show that there are patterns in demographics which are not necessarily the result of discrimination. Many of those issues in the black community are attributed to (when they are acknowledged at all) a legacy of slavery, but that cannot explain their occurrence among the Irish, who were never slaves, and despite the discrimination and abuse suffered in their homeland, did not endure the same patterns of mistreatment. Meanwhile, the Southern Italians (ie Sicilians and Neapolitans) were similarly marginalized and oppressed in their homelands (often by foreigners, as a cursory glance at the history of either kingdom will attest), but maintained extremely close familial bonds, even to the detriment of individual members as referenced above.