West Side Story

“Every single damn night for the last month, I wake up and I’m reaching out.”

As Tony describes the dream he has every night for what will turn out to be the last month of his life, his premonition turns out to be true but in a much more complex way than he imagines in this moment. He sings “Something’s Coming” and that something is almost certainly Maria. As a former gang member who has turned his life around, Tony is ready for something big to happen to him. His association with the Jets and the Sharks will both lead him to this something and take it away from him. Without Riff’s insistence that Tony remain loyal to the Jets, Tony would never have attended the dance and met Maria. However, he also would not have been at the rumble. Tony wouldn’t have been there to distract Riff, causing his death, or kill Bernardo. His life would have remained unchanged, but he would be alive. In this moment, Tony describes an unknowing, but insists, “Something’s coming, I don’t know what it is, but it is gonna be great!” (16). It is, but it is also tragic.

“Without a gang you’re an orphan. With a gang you walk in twos, threes, fours. And when your gang is the best, when you’re a Jet, buddy boy, you’re out in the sun and home free home!”

Although the Jets describe parents and actual families, the gang forms a street family. Gang pride functions like nationalistic pride, in that it creates an “us” and a “them” that can turn violent. Riff’s equating the gang with a family also calls upon a sense of obligation or duty. A person can outgrow a group of friends and no longer owe them his loyalty. But family implies a lifelong commitment.

“It is most important that I have a wonderful time at the dancing tonight. […] Because tonight is the real beginning of my life as a young lady of America!”

Maria, who is new to the United States, romanticizes America and Americanness. She refers to herself as a “young lady of America” – not a girl or a woman. To Maria, this dance marks her entrance into young womanhood and her exit from childhood. Her role as a young American lady is different than her role as a young Puerto Rican lady. After the dance, Anita tells Bernardo to loosen his grip on Maria, claiming, “Girls here are free to have fun. She-is-in-America-now” (38). 

“Go home, ‘American.’”

Throughout the musical, Bernardo emphasizes the unfair treatment that Puerto Ricans receive because they are first-generation immigrants. He pointedly calls Tony an “American” to emphasize that while Tony is considered American, that title is withheld from Puerto Ricans like himself, even though Puerto Ricans are legally US citizens. 

“I saw only him.”

When Bernardo asks Maria, “Couldn’t you see he’s one of them?” (26), Maria insists that she didn’t notice that Tony was a Jet and not Puerto Rican. Of course, when she and Tony meet and begin dancing, he asks, “You’re not thinking I’m someone else?” (24) and she responds, “I know you are not” (24). However, her comment to Bernardo suggests that she looked past their predetermined rivalry and saw Tony as a person. 

“I told you: there’s only one thing they want from a Puerto Rican girl!”

Bernardo’s assertion references the dehumanization that takes place with racism, claiming that Tony could only see her as an object for sex, not a person to be loved. Although this is untrue in Tony’s case, both sides dehumanize the other. The Jets especially demonstrate this in the second act, when Anita goes to Doc’s drugstore to give Tony a message from Maria. The gang members corner her, calling her names and racial slurs. Even though their friend is in danger, they refuse to acknowledge that the Puerto Rican woman before them is offering to help. Accepting Anita’s aid would be tantamount to admitting that it is wrong to paint all Puerto Ricans with the same brush. 

“I understand the rules–Native Boy.”

Just as the Jets use racial slurs to insult the Sharks, Bernardo likes to use “American” or, in this case, “Native Boy.” Since Riff was born in the United States, Bernardo is referring to him as native. However, as Riff is, like the rest of the Jets, the child of immigrants, Bernardo’s use of the phrase is sardonic. 

“In the USA, everything is real.”

Although Consuela is not particularly intelligent, and is actually referring to her dyed blonde hair, her comment encapsulates the Puerto Rican’s induction into American society and the seriousness with which both the Jets and the Sharks approach the gang war. In actuality, control of a territory is just as fabricated as Consuela’s hair color. As a blonde, Consuela is trying to remake herself in the supposed image of the American. In particular, the women talk about assimilating, which they sing about in “America” (42-45). 

“Si! And Chino makes half what the Polak makes–the Polak is American!”

Bernardo recognizes the racial inequalities that turn him and his friends into second class citizens. Tony is Polish but born in the United States, so he makes twice as much money at his job as a delivery boy than Chino does in his higher-level job as an assistant. Bernardo is referring to the exploitation of Central American immigrants as cheap labor, an issue that remains relevant. 

“The mother of Tony was born in Poland; the father still goes to night school. Tony was born in American so that makes him an American. But us? Foreigners!”

Responding to Bernardo’s complaint that Chino makes half as much money as Tony because Chino is Puerto Rican, Anita puts on an exaggerated Puerto Rican accent and gives the assimilation party line put forth by the dominant culture. Within the ideology of the American Dream, they too can follow the model of Tony’s parents so that their offspring can be American like Tony. While the Puerto Rican men–and the Sharks in particular–resist assimilation, Anita advocates for it. As Anita and most of the women articulate in “America” (42-45), anyone who doesn’t want to join American culture should return to Puerto Rico. 

“When you was my age; when my old man was my age; when my brother was my age! You was never my age, none a you! The sooner you creeps get hip to that, the sooner you’ll dig us!”

Action’s diatribe encompasses the attitude that contributes to the deaths of Riff, Bernardo, and Tony. The youths assert that no one of the older generation could possibly understand them. While it’s true that no generation experiences issues in exactly the same way as the previous generation, the broad, stubborn dismissal of adults and their advice leads the gang to make mistakes that could have been avoided. In response, Doc correctly predicts, “I’ll dig your early graves, that’s what I’ll dig” (48). But Action, who is particularly hard-headed, refuses to admit that Doc might have insight as an outside observer with considerable life experience.

“Fighting over a little piece of the street is so important?”

Doc repeatedly tries to convince the Jets that their wars over turf are asinine. He suggests that the gangs play basketball instead of fighting for territory, which the Jets dismiss. The “little piece of the street” is, in actuality, someone else’s property. Fighting for access is pointless. But to both gangs, seizing the street equals empowerment, something that they do not receive from the larger society they live in.

“No matter who or what is eating at you, you show it, buddy boys, and you are dead. You are cutting a hole in yourselves for them to stick in a red hot umbrella and open it. Wide.”

Riff’s advice to the Jets after Action tries to attack Lieutenant Schrank is eerily prescient. He tells the boys, “You wanna live? You play it cool” (51). But at the rumble, Riff acts impulsively, punching Bernardo out of anger because Bernardo is taunting Tony. Rather than staying cool, Riff responds to his emotionally-charged loyalty to Tony, his best friend who is like a brother, and hesitates when Tony tells him to stop. This allows Bernardo to literally cut a hole in Riff, and a figurative hole in Tony who then reacts by killing Bernardo.

“Clear out, Spics. Sure; it’s a free country and I ain’t got the right. But it’s a country with laws: and I can find the right. I got the badge, you got the skin. It’s tough all over. Beat it!”

Schrank demonstrates that as a police officer, he has power and authority over the Jets and Sharks regardless of what territory they claim. He shows obvious preference for the US-born Jets, using racial slurs to insult the Sharks and trying to exert his influence so that the Jets come out on top. This also illustrates the gap between the law as written and the law as imposed. For instance, Puerto Ricans are legally US citizens. However, they do not receive the full rights and benefits of a citizen. Schrank admits that he doesn’t legally have the right to force the Sharks to leave but asserts that he has the badge and that will allow him to do it anyway. 

“You saw how they dance: like they have to get rid of something quick. That’s how they fight.”

Anita’s view of the gang fights is enlightened until the violence escalates. She reassures Maria that the Sharks and Jets only fight to release tension. Anita, who promotes the assimilation of her fellow Puerto Rican immigrants, does not subscribe to the anger and hatred that Bernardo directs at the Jets. She also underestimates the power of that anger and hatred, as evidenced by the emergence of knives at the rumble and the deaths of Bernardo and Riff. In the second act, Chino reveals that Bernardo had hidden a gun, suggesting that something much more sinister than a need to work through anger had been burning below the surface before the rumble.

“Look: I don’t go for that pretend crap you all go for in this country. Every one of you hates every one of us and we hate you right back. I don’t drink with nobody I hate, I don’t shake hands with nobody I hate. Let’s get at it.”

When Riff asks Bernardo to shake hands before the rumble, Bernardo responds with a speech that echoes Tybalt, Bernardo’s Romeo and Juliet counterpart, who says, “What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word, as I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. Have at thee, coward!” This moment, this profession of hatred and rejection of rules, is when the fight between the two gangs becomes truly dangerous. Bernardo’s assertion of utter hatred is much deeper than a turf dispute. 

“I wish it was yesterday.”

In response to Baby John, who asks if A-rab got a good look at Riff and Bernardo’s bodies, A-rab expresses his regret for the events of the rumble. Not only have they lost a friend and leader, but the Jets are in hiding. This admission by A-rab, generally a jokester who is never serious, is particularly bleak. The exchange between A-rab and Baby John suggests that they were truly unprepared for the possibility that someone could die at the rumble. In a fight that was meant to be weaponless, all parties should have returned home alive. As the violence escalates, the gangs are playing with fire that most members are not equipped to handle. They are, in essence, children who are facing the ramifications of a game turned bloody. 

“To them we ain’t human. We’re cruddy juvenile delinquents. So that’s what we give ‘em.”

Action claims that since the police see them as criminals, not humans, it makes sense to act like criminals. This comment blames the deaths of Riff and Bernardo, the real, permanent result of gang activity, on the police. Action’s critique of the justice system highlights the ways in which an arrest, even for a minor crime, can mark an offender for life. Even belonging to a gang makes a person guilty by association. Recidivism becomes more and more difficult to escape. However, some of the blame that Action is deflecting belongs to both the Jets and the Sharks for continuing to cultivate an environment of hatred and revenge. And while Action is accusing the officers of dehumanization, he is a member of the Jets, the gang that Lieutenant Schrank keeps trying to offer an unfair advantage. Ironically, as Action complains about dehumanization, the Jets and the police repeatedly treat the Sharks as less than human because they are Puerto Rican. 

“And you still don’t know. Tony is one of them!”

Anita echoes Bernardo’s question in the first act when, after catching Maria dancing with Tony, Bernardo asks, “Couldn’t you see he’s one of them?” (26) Anita, who has previously avoided the “us vs. them” rhetoric, adopts it angrily to admonish Maria for continuing to see a boy who killed her brother, and Anita’s love. Her reaction shows how fear and pain can quickly become hatred. 

“A boy who kills cannot love, a boy who kills has no heart. And he’s the boy who gets your love and gets your heart–very smart, Maria, very smart!”

In her pain, Anita ignores the fact that Bernardo, whom she loved and gave her heart to, killed Riff before Tony killed him. Anita directs her anger at Maria but softens when Maria describes her love for Tony. Although she doesn’t approve, Anita recognizes that love cannot be reasoned with or dissuaded. 

“Bernardo was right…if one of you was bleeding in the street, I’d walk by and spit on you.”

As Anita leaves Doc’s drugstore, her lie about Maria seals Tony’s fate. For the first time, she has experienced the trauma and humiliation of being treated like an animal by the Jets simply because she wasn’t born in the United States. Anita’s impulsive decision to lie ultimately hurts Maria the most, but in the moment, it serves to separate Maria from Tony. If Maria is dead, Tony will no longer look for her. The abuse Anita receives at the hands of the Jets makes her anger justifiable. But in this moment, the Jets and Anita are equally responsible for Tony’s death, as they both act out of hatred. When the Jets assault her, they are punishing all of the Sharks for Riff’s death. Anita retaliates by punishing Tony, and by extension Maria, for Bernardo’s death. 

“What does it take to get through to you? When do you stop? You make this world lousy!”

After interrupting the Jets as they attacked Anita, Doc recognizes the assault as utterly reprehensible. While the gangs have continuously inflicted violence upon each other, the women have been protected and kept separate. Doc expresses his exasperation that the two deaths did not make the gangs understand that their war was dangerous and harmful. Although Doc has been loving and supportive throughout the play, offering advice and urging the Jets to stop fighting, in this moment, he accuses them of causing the downfall of society. 

“That’s the way we found it, Doc”

In response to Doc’s accusation, “You make this world lousy!” (115), Action turns the blame back onto the older generation, claiming that the young people didn’t ruin society, they are just following the rules that were already in place. But Doc and Action are both wrong and right. The gangs are at fault for the violence they have perpetuated, but the older generation bears blame for propagating a racist, xenophobic society. The Sharks and the Jets persist because fighting with a gang bestows an illusion of agency that society denies them as the children of working class immigrants.