Kazan's Portrayal Of Good And Evil In On The Waterfront

Elia Kazan's portrayal of good and evil in 'On the Waterfront' is more than it meets the eye. Good and Evil appear in seperate characters and also at different times on the same characters. More importantly, Elia Kazan gets an important message across; No character is truly evil. Good is symbolised in numerous ways throughought the film. The church is one such example of this. It represents the highest order of purity and goodness, yet it is always on the background of the film. During Edie and Terry's walk through the playground, the Church could be seen in the background, yet unlike other structures in the film such as the docks, the Church cannot be seen prominently, but rather it is mostly present in the background. Elia