A_Bronx_Tale_Essay

A Bronx Tale is a movie about Calogero, a young man who lives in the Bronx in the 1960s under the influence of two father figures. One father figure is his real father and the other figure is the leader of a very infamous gang. This film shows how Calogero turns his back on his biological father and chooses to live under the rules of his new “father”. After being noticed by Sonny, the leader of the gang, Calogero changes everything about him, starting from his personality all the way to his name. When Calogero was a little boy, he would listen to everything his father said and was obedient. He was always interested in a bar that was right next to his home and he admired Sonny very much, just because he was a god in his town and everyone respected him. Calogero became close to Sonny after telling cops that he did not see him shooting anyone. From then on, Sonny would take Calogero under his wing and teach him about the life of a gangster. Sonny even changed Calogero’s name to C. As C grows up and becomes a teenager, resocialization occurs. Resocialization is radically changing a persons personality by carefully controlling the environment around them. Their identity is broken down and a new self is re-built. In this case, Sonny controls the environment around C and thus, changes C into a bad-boy. The total institution, which is a setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society and manipulated by an administrative staff, is Sonny’s group. As C becomes closer to Sonny, his relationship with his real father strays and he beings to rebel and not listen to him. Soon, Sonny “replaces” his father. As time passes, Sonny grows in power while the neighborhood stays the same. Everyone grows up and they finally get their own social club. The socializing agents are C’s friends and family. When C was young, he was always dependant on his parents when making decisions. Now, he is dependant on himself and Sonny. C has become close friends with Sonny and even goes to Sonny and confides in him about his black girlfriend. He cannot even tell his own father about her because he knows that his father will not accept her. But Sonny told him that if that’s what he wants, to go for it. Sonny also tells C that the friends he hangs out with are bad kids and that he should stay away from them. In the end, Sonny was right; C’s friends ended up getting killed in a car bomb. Sonny told C that no one actually cares for him and that when he dies, no one will care. When Sonny got killed, C realized that Sonny was right; no one at the funeral cared much that Sonny died. C realizes that they became really close and that he is one of the few people who actually cared about Sonny. C also realizes that learning to give love and to get love unconditionally is very important. For Calogero, the stages of his life matched the standard stages of life. His childhood consisted of “learning”, his adolescence was his time to search for independence and change, and his young adulthood consisted of making choices and establishing himself as an adult. His relationship with his father also came to full circle when his dad went to the funeral to pay his respects. He even called his son C, not Calogero. This shows that his father finally accepts C, even though he is badly influenced. This movie has great examples of socializing agents, total institution, resocialization, and life course. Calogero’s changing life shows that the environment of a perons’ dwelling really does change a persons life, drastically. It also shows how Calogero’s changing lifestyle is influenced by the people around him, Sonny and his friends. The Bronx Tale is a great movie to watch when someone wants to learn more about sociology.