Film: "West Side Story"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that discrimination of all sorts at many levels is a main theme of the film "West Side Story", which is a modern day version of "Romeo and Juliet" with many of the same problems of prejudice, male domination of the family, and social unrest. The author points out that the film presents the difficulties of an inter-racial marriage in New York City during the 1960s when racial issues were boiling over around the nation. The paper relates that this film illustrates very well the theories of group membership and how the group members live by the accepted norms and govern their actions by the attitudes they have internalized.

From the Paper:

"The two main groups are racially segregated gangs: the Puerto Rican Sharks and the White Jets. The members of each of these groups see themselves as the in-group and the others as the out-group. The struggle is for the control of the New York City West Side streets. The actions of the characters seldom deviate from the accepted group norm. When any character acts differently he or she is suspected of disloyalty to the group. Even pronouncing the Spanish correctly makes Tony's loyalty suspect. Group membership is the driving force behind the actions of most of the characters."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Broom, Leonard, and Philip Selznick. Sociology: A Text with Adapted Readings. 3rd ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.
• Sloan, Tod. Life Choices: Understanding Dilemmas and Decisions. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996.
• Smelser, Neil J., ed. Sociology: An Introduction. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1967.
• Terry, Deborah J., and Michael A. Hogg, eds. Attitudes, Behavior, and Social Context: The Role of Norms and Group Membership. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000.
• International Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055614/

More papers on Film: "West Side Story":

• Comparison Essay # 144739 : "Similarities Between "Romeo and Juliet" and "West Side Story"
• Film Review # 11041 : "West Side Story"
• Comparison Essay # 35237 : "A Comparative Analysis"

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