West Side Story And The Music Man

“Native Son” composed by Richard Wright was revolved into an American drama picture in 1986 by director Jerrold Freeman. This piece caused a lot of controversy on whether the protagonist, Bigger Thomas, is guilty or innocent in the unfortunate events that have occurred. The purpose of this argumentative essay is to examine Richard Wright’s film adaptation of Native Son and prove his innocence based on how society deceived and deprived African Americans, his living and social environment, and his fears.

life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy Maxson, and his two sons, Lyons and Cory. By analyzing the sources of this conflict, one can better appreciate and understand the way the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.

In past times, racism and economic injustice headline the many problems that present themselves to society. Some people accept the horrors that appear with the issues while others take actions to change the issues for the better. August Wilson reveals that in his play Fences.” Written in 1957, Wilson’s play portrays an African American family during the time of the civil rights movement who struggle to reach the self-proclaimed American Dream in the United States (Wilson 963-1018). The protagonist, Troy Maxson, is influenced by Wilson’s stepfather, David Bedford (Martin and Downing). During the civil rights movement, African Americans carried few to no rights as an American citizen, presenting controversy to the world of political science and economic power. Wilson also contributes to the theory of Marxism in Fences. Introduced by Karl Marx, Marxist Criticism paints an identical picture of the way society reveals itself in the twentieth century. “Marx’s main interest was in economic power and the ways in which it disguised and manipulated.” (Schakel and Ridl 1455). Wilson incorporates those views into his play Fences. Wilson also reveals his intake on the views of Marxism. “Today I would say that the conflict in black America is between the middle class and the so-called underclass, and that conflict goes back to those who deny themselves and those who aren’t willing to (Lyons 1024).” The author believes that African American struggle contributes to the theory of Marxism.

     The West Side Story portrays the lives of two different gangs living in America, as well as their beliefs and examples of living a good life. The expectations of what people consider the good life to be may vary on a person’s morals and their dreams of what life is truly about. In this movie, whether or not these characters were good people, lived a good life, or lived in a good society is a very controversial topic.

Both sides show that discrimination can destroy the lives of many people who haven't done anything to deserve it. Discrimination can harm the people with a certain race which can be seen in the play when Rudy says, “Twenty sailors, Marines… They grabbed me by the neck and dragged me down the stairs, kicking and punching and pulling my greña.” on page 93 and in the real world the racism from Donald Trump inspired some americans to attack other races such as mexicans. Many people are discriminated by their looks and ethnicity like the 300 mexicans in the play who were arrested on page 28 to be identified as criminals when someone claims to be a victim of a crime and President Trump’s plan to build a wall along the border of Mexico to prevent drug dealers, rapists, and crime from entering the country. The message of the play about racism is still relevant in the real world because of the discrimination towards other races in both of the

The origin of this novel stems from a time with great attitude changes within the African-American way of life. Tensions between gender specifically had begun to emerge, women, who were thought of as subservient, belonging to the house as well as to their husbands. During the timeframe of this story, women had been beginning to emerge with dignity, grace, and authority. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, during the 1950’s when the gap between genders had been shrinking, as women had been introduced further into society as more than just mothers. To most, this diminishing gap, to most would be a seamless concept, however, to the characters of this play would be a deciding factor for many conflicting scenes. The main characters of this play

the play are ―rich symbol[s]‖ that convey the barriers of a ―racist society‖ (Kenny par. 18). The

On the west side of Manhattan two groups compete for turf, the Jets, a group of white juveniles, and the Sharks, a group of young Puerto Rican men. The conflicts that arise from racial and cultural differences are what lead to West Side Story’s message. The Jets do not like the Sharks because they came from a different part of the world. They don’t want them in their neighborhood because they are worried that they will change things, take their jobs, and make the neighborhood dirty. People have always and still have this fear for immigrants because they can’t accept change. When Tony and Maria fall in love, it makes the two gangs’ rivalry even more complicated.

Though there was a heightened sense of tension over civil rights in the late 1950s when A Raisin in the Sun was written, racial inequality is still a problem today. It affects minorities of every age and dynamic, in more ways than one. Though nowadays it may go unnoticed, race in every aspect alters the way African-Americans think, behave, and react as human beings. This is shown in many ways in the play as we watch the characters interact. We see big ideas, failures, and family values through the eyes of a disadvantaged group during an unfortunate time in history. As Martin Luther King said, Blacks are “...harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what

Gangs have been occupied New York City for hundreds of years. In the 1950s, the city saw a rise of Latino immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, and notably Puerto Rico as well as a rise in gang violence. Leonard Bernstein’s musical West Side Story uses the real-world subject of gang warfare in New York City to depict a modern-day adaptation of Romeo and Juliet by playing into the ethnic divide between the two gangs, but in doing so it simultaneously acts as a medium through which the uninformed public can learn about the culture of the gangs from this time.

In the reading West side story by Alberto Sandoval he explains how the film perpetuates the image of racial problems explaining that the film has its profound structure expressing segregation and racial preferences towards Latinos. The film makers presented the immigrants as stereotypical Puerto Ricans making their skin tones darker, black haired, skinny. The jets are blond, strong, and healthy. The clarity

The west side story is a story about two gangs, the Sharks, who represent the Puerto Ricans and Jets, representing ‘the real Americans’. The two gangs are ever at loggerheads, with hatred and constant confrontations best describing their relationship. Many critics have shot down the praise of this film, by openly stating that, it falsely represented Puerto Ricans, by how it depicted them. The story itself is based in the 1950s, in one of the neighborhoods in New York City. (Hernández Vazquez 2002, 371). The neighborhood is a hard place to live in and from the start we are introduced to two warring groups fighting for the control of the neighborhood. This neighborhood is a place where ethnic and racial profiling are strife (Sandoval Sanchez 1999, 72). This paper discusses how the west side story, silences some of the historical injustices associated with the united states colonialism of Puerto Rico and then try to bring out how the Puerto Ricans characters are stereotypically portrayed in the film.

Kirsten Child’s Black Bubbly Girl Sheds her Chameleon Skin is a musical play describes the life of black woman Viveca who was brought up in a white centered culture. She developed a different feeling towards her white peers since in the kindergarten at Los Angeles suburban to Broadway. Since she was a young girl, dancing was her life ambition. She arrives at Broadway where she lives her dream despite the ever-changing politic of race and class discrimination. Using the style of performance by the author, the paper will focus on how the black woman Viveca despite the racial and class status discrimination, she manages to become an active and great dancer in Kirsten’s choir and how she gained her freedom. She is a freedom agent.

Jordi Casanova’s acclaimed play about youth’s unrest and the quest for hope, equality and justice, arrives in New York in an all-new Spanish-language production directed by Jorge B. Merced. The action has been moved from Paris, France, where the real life-incidents that inspired the show took place, to the streets of New York City, where immigrants and the sons of immigrants, struggle to find an ever-elusive American Dream. Five young millennials are at a crossroads: do they fight to stop the world’s chaos and bring peace, opportunity and justice to all, or do they embrace the status-quote and remain passive observants in a world that seem seemed destined to separation, war and chaos? Check it out in this internationally acclaimed docu-drama

This play manipulates stereotypes of ethnic groups and challenge social norms in different ways. Thus, Sharon Cooper represents the “culture issue” in plenty of ways in Mistaken Identity. The play ironically highlights a wide range of conflicts.