A Bronx Tale

This week in sociology class we spent the entire week watching a Bronx Tale. This movie had a interesting cast, my favorite character was Robert Di Niero. The main character Calogero or better know as C. grows up in an Italian neighborhood where this man Sunny is in charge of his crew. Calogero on his stoop would watch Sunny, and impersonate him. Calogero's father believes in hard work and was employeed as bus driver. Calogero's father wants C. to grow up as a normal kid that works hard to attain as much as possible.

From as young as nine years old Calogero was part of a group of boys that influenced him to like Sunny even more. They would impersonate every member of the gang, trying to be like them. Calogero felt that he was part of the group even though he was trapped to his stoop. It was like Calogero wanted to be with his friends, but he had what his father had told him in the back of his head. This is a common theme throughout the entire movie.

Throughout his teenage life in the little Italian neighborhood, Calogero has been influenced by both his friends and both Sunny and his gang. There was a scene in the movie that was tough to watch. When a biker gang came in to the local bar. They started a disrespecting Sunny after he was nice to them. The fight began, with Sunny and his boys beating the crap out of the guys. While on the other hand Calogero was hiding and trying not to be part of the fight. C. wasn't sure if he was supposed to act like Sunny's gang or like what his father taught him. This shows how Calogero is fighting with what group he should be apart of.

Furthermore, Calogero fancies a African American girl that just moved to the neighborhood. He wants to have some relations with her. But the group that he is a part of, effects the way he can interact with that girl. Calogero being Italian and Sicilian makes him apart of his neighborhood. From a young age C. thought that their shouldn't be any reason to descriminate against others. Him being a part of Sunny's gang and part of his friends, makes him feel uneasy when he sees his groups fight with other gangs.

Hard to bring up examples from my life, because I've never been in such a situation. Something similar to this and how the groups you're part of. From my life I know that whatever my mom tells me to do is very dissimilar to what your friends want to do. Like Calogero's father my mom wants the best for me and tries to teach me the right things. Also I'm part of other groups that influence me in a completely different way than my mom wants. So in a way I'm in the same bout as Calogero is in. We can probably generalize that most teenagers are in the same bout. Where they are taught one thing and then are influenced to do other things by their peers.