America (West Side Story) Introduction This document is the lyrics of the song America extracts from the movie West Side Story. This movie is a musical directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise in 1961. It sets in NY in the 50’s. It deals with a confrontation between two rival gangs : the Jets (american) and the Sharks (Portorican). It also deals with a love story between Tony and Maria. Their love story is based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as the two lovers belong to different groups
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whitewash the ethnic characters. West Side Story is one of those musicals. West Side Story is a loose musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The twist is that it’s set in 1950s New York‚ with the plot set around youth street gangs entangled in a racially charged conflict over their “territory” in the lower West Side of Manhattan. There is the Puerto Rican “Sharks” led by Bernardo‚ who has recently brought his family‚ including younger sister Maria‚ to New York from San Juan‚ Puerto
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existence and survival. The bond that he had created with the Royals was no more than ’business’ if you will. The author doesn’t emphasize on the unbreakable bond that the gang members felt toward each other. After evaluating some main points in West Side Story I feel that the author elaborated a lot on the inseparable bond that the Jets had with each other. The story was very light weight‚ and there was a very up beat feel to it. The boys were very cocky‚ but it seemed that together they could take
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Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Ernest Lehman’s West Side Story are similar in many ways; however‚ in those comparisons there are some minor differences. Aside from the similarities between Romeo and Tony or Juliet and Maria‚ there are many other likenesses such as the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet and the fire escape scene in West Side Story. In Romeo and Juliet the scene starts off with Romeo listening to Juliet give her "What’s in a name?" speech‚ and similarly‚ in West Side Story the scene starts
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In the 19th century‚ after a long period of isolationism‚ China and then Japan came under pressure from the West to open to foreign trade and relations. The Industrial Revolution in Europe and the United States had created a wide gap between them and the West‚ leaving the two Asian nations behind technologically and military. In that period‚ neither of them had the power to stand up to the Western nations‚ and eventually both had to sign unequal treaties that forced them to open their ports and cities
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How do both directors reflect atmosphere‚ mood‚ and staging techniques of Shakespeare’s play? Which version is most dramatically effective‚ and why? Romeo and Juliet‚ a tragic tale of two “Star crossed lovers”‚ is believed to be written by Shakespeare in 1595. The famous playwright and poet copied the original works of Arthur Brooke and William Painter to develop a play that dramatises the story of two youths who fall deeply in love. However despite their feelings‚ their plans‚ and their emotions
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“West Side Story” Analysis 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 “West Side Story”‚ author Irving Shulman gives us nothing but clues to these questions. The Sharks and the Jets are in a “ 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
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West Side Story: Education Beyond the Classroom Being at an Ivy League institution‚ it is easy to think that the best learning experiences for a student comes from the classroom‚ but I was able to witness that this is not always the case. This semester I had the privilege of participating in Melodramatics production of West Side Story. I was cast as Chino‚ second hand man of his best friend Bernardo who is the leader of the Puerto Rican gang called the Sharks. I was a bit unfamiliar with West Side
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Jared Malpass 1-29-2012 PD. 5 West Side Story Theme Essay In the movie West Side Story‚ there are many themes that were created. But the two that are the most important to me are‚ the importance of putting your differences aside‚ and that poor choices create bad outcomes. I think one of the themes that most reassembles West Side Story is‚ the importance of putting your differences aside is because both the Sharks and the Jets had there differences‚ but if they were to just put them
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someone is called Lust. In the book "West Side Story" by Stephen Sondheim‚ two people from different gangs think they love each other‚ but from my point of view‚ they are just attracted to each other. They don’t show true love because they keep on thinking about their looks and they showed desire towards each other. First of all‚ true love is when someone shouldn’t judge someone on their looks or think about their looks. Some characters in the book like Tony and Maria weren’t truly in love with each
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