Inevitably, social reality intrudes upon the inter-racial lovers' idealized world. Instead of the warring Montagues and Capulets, West Side Story revolves around two street gangs, the Sharks and the Jets. At this point in time, the impoverished white immigrant culture, which Tony represents, is being hreatened by the influx of new immigrant populations, especially the Puerto Ricans, who are beginning new lives in America. The young street gangs that arise from these ghettos demonstrate their frustrations and tensions through turf wars and street fights. Tony is a member of the Jets, the American gang. Maria's brother, Bernardo, and her Puerto Ri

As in Romeo and Juilet the male lover died at the end of the movie. Tony was shot because of his love affair with a women outside of his race. This is something that happens all the time and it is still viewed by many as being wrong. This basis of these feelings come from prejudice. The negative energy that one shares against another can cause the conflicts anf the deifferences between them to be more of a problem than they really are. There wasn't a real problem with Tony and Maria beig in love. The Jets and the Sharks and there families had nothing to do with there love. The two lovers didn't ask them to like each other, but they only wanted to be together.

can suitor, Chino, are members of the Sharks.

The word discrimination can always be a associated with racism. This is something that also takes place between the Polish-Americans and the Puerto Ricans. A large source of the racism that was present in the West Side Story society stems from one's pride in his own race. People will always have pride in their ethnic background because they are taught to tresure this at an early age. This process is referred to as socialization. This is when as a young peson you are taught intellectual, phyisical, and social skills. The gangs were not taught the correct social skills to deal with other cultures because when they were young they lived in a sheltered environment with there own kind. This is also a time where persons start to learn and gain there own personalities. Each gang membe,r whether in the Jets or the Sharks, has there own perosnlity, but they share some of the same qualities with the other memebrs in their gang. The funny thing is they also have something in common with the opposing gang, but they are not taking the itme to figure out because on the surface all they see are the differences in culture and the societies they grew up in. There is so much emphasis on a persons heritage and the importance of it that one might learn to think tht their ethnic background is superior and so the level of pride increases. Pride in one's race may eventually lead to covert racism thought.

The reason for some of this vilolence has to deal with the differences in culture between the two gangs and there ethinicity. As we have

Some common words found in the essay are:
West Story, Jets Sharks, Puerto Ricans, Sharks Gangs, Puerto Rican, Romeo Juliet, Romeo Juilet, Bernardo Riff, Tony Maria, Sharks Jets, west story, puerto ricans, puerto rican, jets sharks, street gangs, differences culture, culture discrimination, ethnic background, social skills, tony maria,
Approximate Word count = 1522
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)