The West Side Story

The Jets

The Sharks

The Jets was a gang that was started by Riff and Tony. The Jets are Caucasian Americans that are racist towards people who come from foreign countries, such as Puerto Rico. They don't want anyone taking their territory from them, especially the Puerto Ricans.

The Conflict

The Sharks is a gang that was started by Bernardo, Maria's brother. All of the gang members are Puerto Rican. They recently moved from Puerto Rico to the United States and are trying to fit in.

The conflict was created when Tony and Maria fell in love at the dance. However, the hatred of the two gangs started when Bernardo got mugged the first day he moved to the United States. Bernardo wants Maria to marry and be with Chino, another member of the Sharks, and not with Tony, a Jet. Tony feels that his parents won't like Maria. Maria feels the same way about her parents with Tony. Some of the Jets don't like Tony being with Maria because he worries about her instead of being with the gang. Tony and Maria plan to get money and run away from the drama of gang life. The conflict sadly ends when Chino sees Tony with Maria, and jealously shoots Tony. Tony dies in Maria's arms and Maria is furious and heartbroken. The scene ends when both Jets and Sharks carry Tony away from the playground, where he got shot.

Teenage Violence Cause/Effects

The members are Riff, Tony, Action, A-Rab, Baby John, Snowboy, Big Deal, Diesel, Gee-Tar, Mouthpiece, and Tiger. Their girls are Graziella, Velma, Minnie, Clarice, Pauline, and Anybodys.

The Sharks members are Bernardo, Chino, Pepe, Indio, Luis, Anxious, Nibbles, Juano, Torro, and Moose. Their girls are Maria, Anita, Rosalia, Consuelo, Terresita, Francisca, Estella, and Margarita.

Compare and Contrast Book with Movie

Teenage violence can create problems in the lives of many. Some causes of teenage violence are gang memberships, relationships with girls/boys, and attempts to be the strongest/toughest in their neighborhood to gain respect from others. Gang memberships causes many problems as an effect. By joining a gang, people usually can never leave one, so they can't start a new life. Relationships with girls/boys can cause fighting over one another that can lead to death because someone is jealous. When people want to be known as the strongest/toughest in their neighborhood, some other gangs would probably want to test them to see if they actually are by having a rumble.

Setting

There are some similarities with the book and the movie of West Side Story. The plot is the same, how two people from rival gangs fall in love. The setting is the same (West Side of New York City in the last days of summer in 1957). The dialogue is very similar if not the same from the book to the movie. All the characters in the book are in the movie, but a few more characters may have been added in the production. One difference between the book and the movie is background music in the movie only. There are eleven Jets in the book, but there are twelve Jets in the movie. The twelfth was Joyboy. There are ten Sharks in the book, but there are eleven in the movie. The eleventh was Chile. Also, the book usually never scripted when the actors and actresses should be dancing.

The setting of The West Side Story is in the West Side of New York City. It takes place during the last days of summer in 1957.

The West Side Story

Tony

Maria

Bernardo

Plot

The story is about two people, Tony and Maria, that fall in love. However there is a problem. Tony belongs to the gang, Jets. He helped start this gang. Maria belongs to the gang, Sharks. Her brother, Bernardo, is the leader of this gang. The Jets and Sharks are rival gangs. The Jets are racist Americans who believe that the West Side of a New York Park belongs to them. The Sharks are Puerto Ricans who recently came to America. Some Jets don't mind Tony being with Maria, however some do. The same is with the Sharks. Some don't mind, but Bernardo is definitely against her being with Tony. The jealosy and the hate of each gang could cost the lives of the two lovers.

Author: Arthur Laurents

Bernardo is also one of the main characters in West Side Story. He is the older brother of Maria, and is the leader of the Sharks. Bernardo is really protective over his sister Maria. He wanted her to marry Chino, not Tony. When he found out that she was in love with Tony, he became furious. Unlike Tony and Maria, Bernardo is pessimistic. He tells the girls that Puerto Ricans have no place in America and that they would have been better off living in Puerto Rico.

Author and Authors Purpose

Maria is one of the main characters in West Side Story. She is the sister of Bernardo, the Sharks leader. At the dance, she sees a member of the Sharks, Tony. Maria and Tony fall in love. Maria faces members of the Sharks being angry at her with this because Tony belongs to their rival gang.

Maria is very nice, caring, and loving towards others, especially towards Tony. She is optimistic about being in America, and she thinks that the Puerto Ricans will fit in fine.

Tony is another main character of West Side Story. Tony helped form the Jets with Riff. However, in the story, Tony doesn't show the passion of being a Jet. He works at Doc's Drugstore and is a really helpful employee. He would rather work with Doc at the drugstore than get into a rumble when his gang fights other gangs. Tony met and fell in love with Maria at the dance where both gangs went to. He is really caring towards Maria. Like Maria, Tony is also very optimistic, always thinking that everything is going to be fine with their relationship. Maria and Tony's job at the drugstore are the two most important things in life to him.

The author of West Side Story is Arthur Laurents. Arthur was born on July 14, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York City. Arthur wrote West Side Story in 1957, that portrayed a different and newer version of Romeo and Juliet. His purpose was to discuss the issues of two people falling in love. The two hac many issues because they belonged to two different groups and ethnic backgrounds. I believe Arthur Laurents wants to tell us to be careful of what troubles we get ourselves into, especially gangs. Also, I think Arthur wants to show us to accept ethnic diversity, because people are immigrating to the United States from everywhere.

By:

Chris Rassias

The Song "America" sung by the Sharks

Thanks For Watching

The song "America", sung by the Sharks, is primarily focused on Anita and Rosalia. This song was included to show how the two women thought of their presence in America. In the song, Rosalia sings how she misses Puerto Rico, "the Island of tropical breezes" as described on page 167. She compares life in San Juan, Puerto Rico to life in America. Anita disagrees by singing that Puerto Rico is an ugly island that doesn't have any new features like America does. As seen from this example, Anita and Rosalia are both very opinionated. Anita is in favor of living in America while Rosalia is in favor of returning to Puerto Rico.