A Bronx Tale

Groups: What are all the groups that Collogero belongs to? (Think in terms of the circles exercise we did in class.) Would you put him in Sonny’s crew, or would you put him and Sonny in their own crew? What is Collogero’s Master Status? Why do you think so? Do you think his master status changes throughout the movie?

I think that Collogero's main groups are family, his friends, him and Sonny, him with Sonny's crew, his church, his school, being white and being Italian. Although Collogero has all of these groups, I think that the reason why he succeeded in growing up in his neighborhood is because he didn't fully commit himself to one of his groups throughout the majority of the movie.
The two groups that are subconsciously part of Collogero are being white and Italian. These two groups influenced the way that he grew up in his neighborhood. Throughout that time period, there was segregation and racism. Although Collogero didn't mind color, he was still influenced by the fact that he was a white Italian.
When Collogero was with his friends, with Sonny or with Sonny's crew, he was a part of each of the groups to fit in but in reality, I think he was more of an individual. He never fully committed himself to either of these three groups. When he was with his friends, he followed along with them to keep up his status in the neighborhood but he rarely agreed with the things that they did or thought. When he was with Sonny's crew, he was part of the group but it seemed as though he knew, and they knew that he was only there because Sonny liked him. When the crew would get into fights, like the bar fight with the motorcyclists, Collogero didn't fit in and he didn't try to fit in besides for sticking around so that it would look like he was tough. I think that Collogero being with Sonny was one of his main groups. Although Sonny wasn't the best influence, Sonny taught Collogero the morals and values that he didn't have so that he wouldn't end up like him. Sonny looked out for Collogero and made sure that he was leading a good life. While Sonny did all of these things, he still had no trust for Collogero and Collogero disagreed with many things that Sonny believed and did.
I think that throughout the movie Collogero was more of an individualist. He was involved in many groups but he never played a big role in any group. He wanted to be in the group with Sonny until he realized that his vision of Sonny didn't match with the actual man. The group that he always tried to stay away from, family, was the biggest influence on him overall. Throughout the movie, he was an individualist, but near the end of the movie, his master status became his family. Collogero's dad taught him many lessons about work ethic, friends, trust, talent, etc, but Collogero didn't want to believe what Lorenzo said because he was too interested in Sonny's perspective. Once Collogero realized that Sonny wasted his life away, he fell back on his group of family to help guide him through the rest of his life.