Conflict in Romeo and Juliet

The most obvious conflict in Romeo and Juliet is the Montagues vs. the Capulets. It is made very clear that they are feuding families at the beggining of the book. Capulet men are walking through the streets of Verona, sharing with eachother how much they hate the Montagues. They soon come across Montague men and one Capulet man insults them biting his thumb. This sparks and large fight in the streets, including Benvolio, Tybalt, and several villagers. This conflict is important because it develops the theme of forbidden love. Romeo, a Montague, cannot be with Juliet because she is a Capulet.
I suppose the modern equivilent of the Montague vs. Capulet conflict would be gangs. My father works in a school district where gang violence is a problem and he has to work with kids who are involved in gangs. These kids are often in gangs because they have a family member involved in the gang. I don't know much about gangs but I do know they act like families or packs and violence is common between rival gangs, much like the conflict between the Montagues and the Capulets.

Romeo and Juliet in Modern Culture

This blog assignment reminded me of a book I once read called Romiette and Julio. It is basically a modernized version of Romeo and Juliet. They are almost completely alike, even the characters names mirror eachother, but the main difference between these two stories is that the reason why the families of two lovers are fighting is different. In the original, it is not made clear why the two families hate eachother (or maybe it will later. I don't know). But in Romiette and Julio, the families hate eachother because Romiette is African American and Julio is Hispanic, thus introducing a theme of race into the classic tail of Romeo and Juliet. Also, Romiette and Julio is not a tragedy. The main characters do not die in the end. It disappointed me that the author chose to go with the happy ending for a love story that we always see in todays culture. I definately prefer the original. It's just written better. But it's very easy to see how much Romeo and Juliet inspired Romiette and Julio. The author applied elements from Romeo and Juliet to her story but she also changed a lot of things and tried to get her own message across, which I can respect.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Romiette-and-Julio/Sharon-M-Draper/e/9780689842092/
Sorry, my computer still isn't letting me post images. Here is a link to the cover of Romiette and Julio.