Plot Summary Of West Side Story By Arthur Laurents

Tony is very smart but also quite poor. His family didn't have enough money to send him to school but since he was smart and the nuns had faith in him they were able to provide him with a scholarship: “His family could not afford to send him to school. But the nuns believed in him because he was smart and a good boy.” (McKay 44). This shows how tony was viewed as a person before everything with the LRA happened. Tony also had a dream to become a priest when he was older. He never openly said it but it was very obvious to others; “ He has never actually said to his friends, but everyone knew that tony really wanted to become a priest.” (McKay 45). This shows that Tony wanted to go to school to repay god and how much of a good kid we was and how he didn't deserve to have to become a rebel soldier.

Tony loves him so thats the main reason why she gives him another chance, but he also did allot for her to realise that she could be losing her soulmate, another person who helped her find that out was her friend Jone. Jone helps her out by kicking her out of her house and telling her what a great husband she has and how she has become a better person with him.

Tony, Wes's older brother, serves as his primary role model throughout his life. As a child, Wes looks up to the Tony, who holds his own street corner and sells drugs. "To Wes, Tony was a 'certified gangsta.' Tony had started dealing drugs... before he was ten. By the time he was fourteen, Tony had built a fierce reputation in the neighborhood. Despite his skinny frame and a baby face, his eyes were lifeless and hooded, without a spark of optimism" (27). All Wes wants is to be like Tony. He looks up to his older brother and is incapable of seeing his flaws with the drug dealing and violence in his life. By the time Tony is a teenager, the drug game has made him "lifeless". Wes decides to look up to this lifeless figure, even though Tony has barely any hope for his future. Wes respects Tony's "fierce reputation". Tony, instead of working hard to gain his respect, intimidates and threatens others for it. Wes is taught that this is the only way to gain respect, because there is no one else in his life who shows him the right

He grew up without a father, it was because of this loss that he often wondered what it would be like to have one. The fact that his own brother was hanging around the wrong people and falling deeper, and deeper into the world that demolishes any chances of a decent future for young people. A world full of violence, drugs, and imprisonment. Tony undoubtedly influenced Wes for the worst. This is obvious when the author writes, “To Wes, Tony was a “certified gangsta.”

Romeo and Juliet shared a secret, forbidden love, much like Tony and Maria’s. The Montagues and the Capulets- both sophisticated, wealthy families would have been driven mad to hear that their children had fallen in love, and had plans to marry secretly and run away together. The jets and sharks- two street gangs- would quite literally kill one another upon finding out about Tony and Maria’s short-lived romance. Neither of the groups wanted for the two to fall in love- whether it was because of a family hatred traced back for generations or because of a simple dispute over the street- their love way truly forbidden. When their love was discovered, there was a sense of betrayal, that by loving their enemies they were destroying their allies within their own groups. The gang members of West Side Story felt as if they had to get revenge for the death of their leader- and that led to more killing. Revenge became a common denominator in both

     Although the characters believed they lived a good life, in my own perspective I saw the exact opposite. The good life is demonstrated through success, success through a career, education, goals, and love. The gangs only had one another and without the support of that gang, these boys would not exist as individual human beings. The Jets did not want to have jobs, and they mocked the ex-gang member, Tony, for leaving the gang to make a future for himself. Life outside the gang was not an option for the Jets. None of the boys had any future plans or felt the need for anything else in their lives. Tony did not live the good life, but he did have dreams. He knew there was a better life for him out there, and parting from the gang allowed him to search for that life. He wanted to get away from the city, have a peaceful home, and a wonderful wife. His future was important to him; he wanted to be a successful man. Tony’s character contradicts the beliefs of the Jets, allowing viewers to see into the minds of the gang members and their beliefs about the good life.

Although it seems like their stars are crossed, Romiette and Julio still love each other. It is their love for each other that saves them in the end from the hate of the Devil Dogs. Draper is trying to make a point here. Although the nation has come far in the recent past, America is still plagued with hatred surrounding racial issues. In this book, Draper is trying to convey the message that love, not violence is the answer.

In the novel West Side Story, by Arthur Laurents, we see a forbidden love. This forbidden love consists of Tony (an ex jet) and Maria (the sister to the leader of the sharks). This love story is doomed from the beginning as Tony and Maria come for two completely ethnic backgrounds that can not stand each other. This story of romance would ultimately end as tragically as we would all suspect. Riff (Tony’s best friend) is killed by a stab wound to the chest, Bernardo (Maria’s brother) is killed by Tony and Tony ultimately meets his fate when a bullet strikes him in the back. There has been many modern stories similar to the one above but the movie Gnomeo and Juliet from 2013 is the best comparison to the novel. As in the West Side Story,

Who is the antagonist, or the person who causes the conflict for the protagonist? What is he like?

(26) he feels his soul grow under Ultima guidance. One of Tony’s obstacles in life is to become a man. His mother does not want him to become a man but his father argues saying “everything Tony sees and does makes him a man”(37) but Maria says that it is a sin for a boy to grow to be a man by saying that “life destroys the pureness God gives”. (36) but this is not the only diction Tony has to make. His first dream portrays his insecurity about his identity. He has to choose between the two is he a “fine vaquero” or a “farmer-priest”(9) He is confused, on one side its his mother and on the other its his father. Who should he become? He is also confused about which God to believe in. the golden Carp, who he marvels at the “bright golden-pagan God”(114) on the other side the catholic God “who could not forgive”(120) He does not understand why God cannot forgive Narcisio who is a good man while the Virgin Mary can forgive the evil Teronio. Tony is confused throughout most of the novel. Tony believes that the women always forgive, therefore in his child’s logic he thinks women in general do not judge but always forgive. He has a lot of decisions to make. He remembers his dream where he sees Andrew at Rosie’s and remembers what Andrew had told him in his dream that Andrew “will wait and not enter until (Tony) looses (his) innocence”.(85) Tony’s belief that

     Tony himself went through the process of growing up and losing his innocence as well throughout the novel. In the beginning of the whole story, Tony is concerned with nothing much but his own little world like every child ought to be. His worries and experiences are really nothing compared to what he had in store for him later on, but although his later experiences would be rather unreal it still would be how any child would grow up, very gradual learning and taking things in stride. So as the story

West Side Story came out in 1961 as a melodramatic musical that took place in New York. It takes the same theme as Shakespeare's, Romeo and Juliet, in that it is about two lovers whose relationship is not accepted by others because of conflicting backgrounds.

Finally, Tony Stark’s most obvious change was simply in becoming a superhero. From the start of the movie, Stark was a rich, self-interested playboy who would be more concerned over a scratch on the finish of his Audi R8 than the fate of the free world unless it benefitted him. Taking a completely different direction, Tony used his Iron Man suit to pursue those who wrongfully used Stark Industries weapons. Stark even stated, “I shouldn't be alive... unless it was for a reason. I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right”. (Iron Man) This

This is especially true for Tony in BMU as he is torn on a myriad of levels. Is he Marez or Luna? Is he a future Catholic priest or vaquero? Tony verbalizes the quandary he is in when he asks, "What life will I choose" (Anaya 41)? Through Tony's dreams, the depth of the ambivalent dilemma is elucidated.

fact that Tony has the guts to do what he wants and at the same time gets the