West Side Story Essay Example for Free

West Side Story Essay Do you believe that everyone has a reason to hate someone or something just because of the way they look? May racism be the starting point to hatred? In â€Å"West Side Story†, author Irving Shulman gives us nothing but clues to these questions. The Sharks and the Jets are in a â€Å" turf † war. But two people, one from each side fall deeply in love. Irving Shulman writes how interracial relationships cause hate to increase in an instant and how racism leads up to hate. The story tells the reader how the Puerto Ricans and the Jets cause the world to shake because of racial prejudice. West Side Story† shows how racial prejudice and interracial relationships cause hate to grow. â€Å"West Side Story† shows hate between almost anyone and yet we have no answers on why people hate. After reading â€Å"West Side Story† it made me believe that racism caused by interracial relationships may be what causes hate in this story. In â€Å"West Side Story† two gangs, the Jets and the Puerto Ricans hate each other just because of the way they look, where they are from, and how they live. Racism is a big part in this story. The main part of hate came from an interracial relationship that began between a man of American descent and a Puerto Rican woman, which caused hate to grow between two gangs in the streets of New York. Racial prejudice was very bad in the time this story was written. Anyone can relate to racial remarks. This story truly shows how people used to be and how much the idea of interracial relationships happening changed. Now, it doesn’t matter if two people fall in love even though they are not from the same race. From this you can infer that racism might be what inaugurates hate. Racism might seem like just a word but it’s more powerful than just a word. It only leads to no good in â€Å"West Side Story†. Hate, what is the definition of hate? Everyone has a different perspective of it, but no one can really see what it can lead up to. I don’t understand why people hate for no reason. I think that they are influenced by what they see. Racism is a terrible thing in this story. It makes hate grow a thousand times bigger and causes a huge impact in others’ lifes. Throughout the story there was a part where both gangs went to a dance and one of the gangs were dancing on the contrary side of the building so they wouldn’t mix with the other race. This shows some sort of proof of how both gangs show hate towards one another. Even those that weren’t in any of the gang’s side were involved in discrimination against the other race because they were following what the others were doing. This made me think about how racism begins. It can be caused by those around you, which might be the influence. Racism is an organization in our country. It has existed since our country’s beginning, and there is not much that anyone can do to stop it but ignore it. Anywhere and everywhere you go, there will be someone different but this doesn’t mean you have to hate or criticize those who are different. Towards the ending of â€Å"West Side Story†, the unexpected happened. There was a death and I can conclude that hate and racism were the leading products to this horrific tragedy. For example, Tony had died and Maria was devastated without him. These violent delights have violent ends. Maria had then realized what had killed him and said, We all killed him I can kill now because I hate now. This shows how the racism and hatred of the two gangs lead to event of Tony’s death. People have to understand that love happens. It doesn’t make sense how some people despise the love that happens between two races. It doesn’t matter if both of the people are from a different race. You can’t keep hating on interracial relationships your entire life and being racist against them. Because like this story much of your hatred and racism can lead onto a terrible catastrophic event such as the deaths that happened in â€Å"West Side Story†. Everyone needs to understand that racism isn’t a pretty thing to live with and it’s as bad as hating someone without a purpose. Even if you had a purpose, hate is an evil and powerful thing that can control someone’s mind and influence others. Not only Tony had died in this story but Bernardo, Maria’s brother died too. That is how hate influenced Maria’s supposed to be husband to murder Tony. This interracial relationship caused hates to grow in everyone’s eyes and no one refused to let go of on whose fault it was. It led on, to bigger tragedies. To conclude, the hate that goes towards interracial relationships and racist remarks cause hate to expand in â€Å"West. My final thoughts for this story are that hate and racial prejudice remarks are not the way to situate things, because all they do is hurt others. I want the world to love everyone for who they are. Nothing makes sense anymore, because many are being influenced by hate. How can someone hate two that fell in love? In my opinion the definition for hate is death, because I feel that hate will always lead up to death. You will end up alone in life. Racism is a synonym for hate and even though we can’t do anything about racism we should at least try not to influence it. â€Å"West Side Story† made me think twice about life and that everyone is different and yet equal in the same way, we are all human beings. As I stated earlier racism and interracial relationships cause hate to grow in this world and should be avoided everyday. The world isn’t perfect but we can at least try to make it perfect.