Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Gangs and Families- Examples of Social Groups
After this week's discussion I started to think of examples of social groups in aspects not necessarily covered in class. What came to mind initially was Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and how certain families are major social groups. Romeo is born into the Montague clan and Juliet into the Capulet clan, obviously. In this story, the two households consistently have conflicts and disagree with ideas of the opposite household, much like two different races or countries may. This leads to fighting and bloodshed. We can see families in society everywhere who feel threatened by other family households, causing similiar conflicts. This can be a conflict as simple as fueding neighbors, a little more intense such as famous political families, or to extremes such as families of opposite races or countries literally battling in war. Referencing Romeo and Juliet also got me thinking of another film- West Side Story. This has supreme examples of a class of kinship group that is quite common; gangs. The gangs are formed due to the differences in their cultures and beliefs; the street punk Americans and the Puerto Ricans. People die and are hurt in this movie also due to the fact that the other gang can not accept the differences in race and thus they fight each other for street turf. A film with basically the exact same story (apart from the time period, setting, and cheesy love story) is Gangs of New York. The individuals in this movie belong to gangs according to race or beliefs also. Although the gangs fight over a specific piece of the city of New York, they more so battle because of their cultural differences. An ironic element of Gangs of New York is that the gang entitled "The Natives" are white people who were only just born in America. They hate the immigrants coming to New York, such as the Irish, but in fact, "The Natives" are no more native than the Irish. Actually, "The Natives" are descendants of Irish immigrants and people from other European countries. Often times social groups may hate each other because of differences in beliefs even though they are actually descendants of the same people.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I think it's interesting that you thought of Romeo and Juliet. That never crossed my mind and yet I agree with you. Reading your post made me think about the idea of rival schools. Even though the schools may be close to each other and the kids could have grown up around each other, they still feud just because they can. Most people don't have a problem with the other school, but the rivalry is so ingrained into their culture at their own school that they continue on the tradition. It could just be what happens when people are so near to each other like the neighbor example you mentioned. It's also interesting how people can be brought together over a common goal. Romeo and Juliet's families were, in the end, bonded because of the deaths. It goes to show that people can't judge others by their social groups because no one can ever know who they have things in common with on a broader scale.
I have to agree with Breanna, Romeo and Juliet is a very creative idea. It is so fascinating to me, the diversity in social groups within our own culture. Although it's right under us the whole time, you never really wake up and think, 'Hey, this is who I am and these are the people that I belong with.' It's crazy how we are just so used to diversity and the conflict that can come with it. Evolution seems to have taught us that it is okay to have conflict between groups, because it's natures way of playing, "survival of the fittest."
Post a Comment