Introduction Goodfellas is a movie about a boy Henry Hill who gets into the mafia at a young age and all his following life story up until the point of his being in the witness protection program and therefore out of the mafia. At an early age he decided that he wanted nothing more to be a gangster and that was the highest he could rise. Throughout his life he participates and is surrounded by crime until one day he has no choice but to leave. As most of his life is crime filled, it is an easy choice for the essay which seeks to relate both macro and micro theories to the movie. The purpose of this essay is show how social disorganization leads to Henry Hill joining the mafia and how Henry adopts Albert Cohens idea of the subculture.
Structural …show more content…
It starts out in the mid-fifties when Henry joins the mafia and ends in the 80s when he is forced into the witness protection program along with his family. Henry grew up in a poor household, his dad an Irish immigrant and his mom a Sicilian, with multiple siblings in an apartment. Within his life the mafia seemed like the thing to do and being a gangster was one of the highest social positions he could attain. Everybody Henry deals with is either his family, in or deals with the mafia, or someone he will steal from. He stays close to what he knows, even when he gets locked up he rooms Paulie, Vinnie and Johnny despite each of them being in for felonies. Henrys environment drove him into his profession. He believed it was unrealistic for him to get stuck in a dead end job like all the typical poor people around. Even if he could have found a different job that would allow him to move up socially, he would likely still be in the …show more content…
A subculture comes about when a lesser class is judged by middle class values, doesn’t have certain statuses and thus creating a separate group with different goals and acceptable ways to achieve said goals. In Henrys case he didn’t create a subculture but was born in an environment that made the subculture of the mafia attractive. As previously stated Henry grew up in a poor household with an immigrant father and disabled brother. At a young age he got a part time job to help out. To Henry, a lower class juvenile, joining the middle class was not realistic for him. It ends up being that he does join the middle class at the end of the movie when he goes into witness protection, but he is no longer Henry
Structural …show more content…
It starts out in the mid-fifties when Henry joins the mafia and ends in the 80s when he is forced into the witness protection program along with his family. Henry grew up in a poor household, his dad an Irish immigrant and his mom a Sicilian, with multiple siblings in an apartment. Within his life the mafia seemed like the thing to do and being a gangster was one of the highest social positions he could attain. Everybody Henry deals with is either his family, in or deals with the mafia, or someone he will steal from. He stays close to what he knows, even when he gets locked up he rooms Paulie, Vinnie and Johnny despite each of them being in for felonies. Henrys environment drove him into his profession. He believed it was unrealistic for him to get stuck in a dead end job like all the typical poor people around. Even if he could have found a different job that would allow him to move up socially, he would likely still be in the …show more content…
A subculture comes about when a lesser class is judged by middle class values, doesn’t have certain statuses and thus creating a separate group with different goals and acceptable ways to achieve said goals. In Henrys case he didn’t create a subculture but was born in an environment that made the subculture of the mafia attractive. As previously stated Henry grew up in a poor household with an immigrant father and disabled brother. At a young age he got a part time job to help out. To Henry, a lower class juvenile, joining the middle class was not realistic for him. It ends up being that he does join the middle class at the end of the movie when he goes into witness protection, but he is no longer Henry