A Bronx Tale and Hallway Traffic

social construction of reality- how people create the basic facts/realities of the world; society's unwritten rules

In A Bronx Tale, people in the neighborhood live by certain unwritten rules determined by people's social construction of reality. These rules are rules that everyone knows and lives by, and have been passed down and followed through generations. These rules include never going against Sonny and his crew and always go against cultures that aren't your own.

Rule #1: Never go against Sonny and his crew. Sonny rules the neighborhood and making him unhappy could bring harm to you and your family. In the beginning, Calogero is only a kid, and even though he knows that Sonny murdered someone, he doesn't turn him in. Also in various parts of the movie, when Calogero and his friends are fooling around and Sonny comes around, the kids know to listen to him and disappear from sight immediately. The rule is never spoken, but implied by every character in the movie- Don't mess with Sonny. The consequences of doing so are not quite known, however, they keep people from doing it.


Rule #2: Always go against cultures that aren't your own. The amount of racism in this movie is astonishing, yet is still a reality of the time period. Kids in this neighborhood are raised to hate African Americans for very little reason. While Calogero wasn't raised this way, his friends were. Every time his friends would see a black person, they would make degrading comments and threats or even take action to attack. Calogero always asks "Why? They ain't botherin' nobody," and his friend can never find a reason other than "because." This is because of the social construction of reality. "They aren't like us, so we must hate them." The same concept goes with the scene when the bikers come into Sonny's bar and he and the crew beat them up for very little reason other than the way they dressed. This way of thinking basically stems from the way you are raised and the social in and out groups that influence people.

One of my social constructions of reality isn't a very deep one, but it is one that I value greatly: Walking in the right side of the hallway.

There are no rules posted around school saying kids must walk on a certain side of the hallway. but we do anyway. This comes from the way our roads were built and driving rules. But at the same time, it gets me SO MAD when people walk at me on the wrong side of the hallway. It is obnoxious and rude, yet no one is actually doing anything wrong, society just thinks it. Especially now a days where everything is so systematic, the hallways have become roadways of their own and people who don't follow these unwritten rules will face the consequences of getting trampled to death. A few other laws of high school hallway etiquette include:

1) No sudden stops.
2) Slow lane stay right; Fast lane stay left
3) Don't form a slow walking chain across the hallway either slowing down traffic or completely stopping it.
4) Don't trip up other people with your rolling backpack.
5) Check your blind spot before changing lanes.
6) If you need to turn around do not turn right back around yourself to run into the person behind you. Make a smooth U-turn when oncoming traffic clears.

^^ Rules that are never said, but have been passed down to us by older generations of students and experienced drivers^^