West Side Story Anaylsis Essay Research Paper

West Side Story Anaylsis Essay, Research Paper

West Side Story Critique / Analysis

As a contemporary musical, West Side Story differs from Romeo and Juliet in form and detail, but stays true to the tragedy of innocent love caught in a complex social web that predestines its demise. In West Side Story, love at first sight between Tony and Maria set off a tragic chain of events which bring the story to its heartbreaking conclusion. Maria is Puerto Rican, Tony, Polish-American; they are young, innocent, rebellious-indifferent to the societal boundaries which they are trespassing. Like Romeo and Juliet, love is all that matters to.

Inevitably, social reality intrudes upon the inter-racial lovers? idealized world. Instead of the warring Montagues and Capulets, West Side Story revolves around two street gangs, the Sharks and the Jets. At this point in time, the impoverished white immigrant culture, which Tony represents, is being hreatened by the influx of new immigrant populations, especially the Puerto Ricans, who are beginning new lives in America. The young street gangs that arise from these ghettos demonstrate their frustrations and tensions through turf wars and street fights. Tony is a member of the Jets, the American gang. Maria’s brother, Bernardo, and her Puerto Rican suitor, Chino, are members of the Sharks.

Gangs are one of the results of poverty, discrimination and urban deterioration. Some experts believe that young people, undereducated and without access to good jobs, become frustrated with their lives and join gangs as an alternative to boredom, hopelessness and devastating poverty. Studies have attempted to determine why gangs plague some communities but there has been no definitive answer. As a result, people working to solve gang problems have great difficulty. They find the situation overwhelming, and the violence continues.

The reason for some of this vilolence has to deal with the differences in culture between the two gangs and there ethinicity. As we have learned in socilogy culture is the basically a bluepriont of for living in a particular society. The society that the gangs are living in is a rough city like environment that has poverty, no strong family ties and other sociological problems tht will cause the cultures to be different. The immigrants that are moving in priamarily Puerto Ricans are finding it hard to live with the Americans and dealiing with there unfiarness and having to live by the American norms. For the members of both groups are suffering from culture shock. This takes place when people hav ea hard time adjusting to a new culture that is different from their own. For the Americans and Puerto Ricans, they are not used to each other and they are unwanting in the beginning stages to try and understand the differences. So both are fighting each other to keep there culture alive. I think that is what all the fighting is for.

Language is also involved with these gangs. The Americans are at a disadvatage because they have never had to learn a language besides there own. The Puerto Ricans have had to learn two languages because they left their home for whtat they thought was a new and better life. The language barrier causes problems in itself.

With one one group being American and another being Puerto Rican both ethnicities that carry with them very different cultural traits. These beliefs, values, and ways of doing things are brought to the table and the or culture doesn?t recognize these traits so they automatically find problems with the other group. Culture is the ultiamte reason these groups are fighting and is the reason why these groups as well as any other ethnic groups will never fully get along. For some reason people feel the need to separate themselves by there culture and this is why discrimination has always been a big deal.

The word discrimination can always be a associated with racism. This is something that also takes place between the Polish-Americans and the Puerto Ricans. A large source of the racism that was present in the West Side Story society stems from one’s pride in his own race. People will always have pride in their ethnic background because they are taught to tresure this at an early age. This process is referred to as socialization. This is when as a young peson you are taught intellectual, phyisical, and social skills. The gangs were not taught the correct social skills to deal with other cultures because when they were young they lived in a sheltered environment with there own kind. This is also a time where persons start to learn and gain there own personalities. Each gang membe,r whether in the Jets or the Sharks, has there own perosnlity, but they share some of the same qualities with the other memebrs in their gang. The funny thing is they also have something in common with the opposing gang, but they are not taking the itme to figure out because on the surface all they see are the differences in culture and the societies they grew up in. There is so much emphasis on a persons heritage and the importance of it that one might learn to think tht their ethnic background is superior and so the level of pride increases. Pride in one’s race may eventually lead to covert racism thought.

Another difference that the gangs love to point out about their enemies is the status or social identity that they have. Each gang has a social deinfed posito