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West Side Story Theme Essay

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Love
One of the many themes for the novel “West Side Story” is love conquers all. This means that no matter what is happening, through the highs and the lows. Love is stronger than it all and always ends up on top. Throughout the novel this theme is present avidly. We see it when Tony knows it is wrong to love Maria, but yet he meets her on the fire escape. We also see it when Tony dies at the end and the gangs are united together by the love that Tony and Maria had for each other. Even the undying hatred between the Jets and the Sharks could not continue after Maria wept over her true loves dead body.
I believe the author chose this theme because it is so realistic. Love makes people do crazy things but in the end the people in love always …show more content…

Loyalty is by definition “giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or institution.” One of the most obvious appearances in the novel of loyalty is the two gangs the Sharks and the Jets. In the book they will use the phrase “Once a Jet, always a Jet”. Sharks had a similar moto and so on so forth. They both were so consistent with what gang they identified themselves it’s hard to miss it.
Although I’ve read the entire book and watched the musical countless times I still find myself asking, why was loyalty such a prominent theme? Besides the oblivious few that read it and didn’t think it was a cheap replica of any other story, you would know that it is almost theme by theme, “Romeo and Juliet”. Loyalty is a virtue that many people should learn to possess, it’s also adds tension to the book. For example, when someone falls in love with the leader of a rival gang the loyalty of the members leaves us wondering what happens next.
The book takes place in the 1950’s, when WW1, and WW2 had come to an end. People enthused that the war had ended. The truth however, was that the wars were both caused by loyalty. Country’s turned against each other, and the ones that could stand each other formed alliances. People showed nationalism and loyalty. They were so glad to be…well themselves, it made other countries hate them even more.

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