West Side Story prejudices vs. Gentleman's Agreement prejudices
West Side Story and Gentleman's Agreement are two very different movies, yet with one basic underlying theme: prejudice. Prejudice has been present in our world since the dawn of civilization. Greeks and Turks, Whites and Blacks, Hitler and Jews, those hateful feelings between these, and many other, groups are unfortunately still present in today's society. Until people get a clear picture of what prejudice does, we may never know a day without it. In the movie West Side Story, the rival gangs in Manhatten (the Sharks and the Jets) are both prejudice against each other. But both gangs have common enemy: the authorities. When it comes the police, or any authority figure for that matter, both gangs stick up for each other. The Sharks are the Puerto Rican gang led by Bernardo. They are very passionate about what they believe in and would do anything to protect each other. The Jets, headed by Riff, is made up of boys with broken families and "white" skin. These boys all look up to one figure of respect named Tony. Tony falls in love with Maria, who is the much protected sister of Bernardo.
Together Tony and Maria fight against the odds to be together, until he shot and killed almost instantly. Gentleman's Agreement centers around the life of Phil Green, a talented young journalist living in New York City. When asked to do a series of articles on anti-Semitism, Phil decides to pretend he is a Jew to get a victim's point of view on the issue. In the process, he meets a smart young woman names Kathy Lacy. Not knowing that he is a "Jew", Kathy falls head over heels in love with Phil. When Kathy finds out that he is a "Jew", she changes her opinion on Phil. She still loves him, but has kind of "cooled her jets". After the articles are published, Phil tells Kathy the truth and all is well. In both movies, overcoming personal and social prejudices and true love are two major themes carried out by the main characters of each movie (Tony and Maria, Phil and Kathy). Tony and Maria had to get past society's thoughts about them being together, since they had no problem seeing each other for who they really are. On the other hand, Kathy had to surmount her own prejudice feelings in ord
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Approximate Word count = 745
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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