The ID Molecule of a "Bronx Tale"

Our surroundings affect us as an individual. That's a fact. But it's more than just our surroundings that shape who we are; it's our parents and how they raised us, it's our friends what we have in common, it's our social norms, it's our work, our role-models, our "groups" that we are involved in. It's our groups that shape who we are, and it's our groups that separate us from everyone else.

This week in class we watched a movie called "A Bronx Tale". I've seen the movie before, but after learning last week about all of my personal groups that create who I am, I started thinking about Calogero and all the groups that shaped who he was. I would say that Calogero had three main groups: his parents, Sonny & his group, and Calogero's friends.

 Calogero loves his parents very much, and he wants his parents to be proud of him. He respects them. But he also respects Sonny, and almost looks up to him as another father figure in his life. Calogero is almost stuck between Sonny and his real parents; almost like he had to hide one group in order to remain in the other. But Calogero also has his group of friends, which in a way, he starts to lead (like Sonny leads his group), and they mimic actions that Sonny does. I think Calogero tries to balance his master status between Sonny and his parents. His allegiance to one side would be bad for the other side. A good example of this is when Calogero went to a boxing match with his dad and had to decide where he wanted to sit--with his father or with Sonny. Personally, my master status will ALWAYS be with my family, because they mean everything to me; but Calogero considers both his parents and Sonny his family. So he's stuck.

I can relate this group to my life because having learned that idea of sociologically mindfulness and imagination, I now know that every little thing that surrounds my life daily shapes who I am as a person, just like how Calogero is shaped by the groups he is surrounded by.