Water is constantly referenced in dialogue, as well as shown visually throughout the film. One of the most clear examples of this appears while Travis writes in his journal, “Thank God for the rain which has helped wash away the garbage and trash off the sidewalks...Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.” These lines are in reference to the Old Testament story of Noah’s Ark, in which God sends a great flood to wash away all of the sinners and evil people of the world. Although there is no reference to a messiah in this story, it is important to consider that Travis hopes the evil around him in New York, will dissipate in an epic biblical fashion. Moving along to visuals, after Travis drops off a prostitute and a John from his cab, he purposefully drives through a spewing fire hydrant as if to wash away the passengers’ indiscretions. Travis is disgusted by the immorality he witnesses in the back of his cab, and seeks baptism by driving out of his way to “cleanse” himself in water. Ironically, right after this scene Travis visits a sexually explicit theater surrounded by lowlives, thereby voiding his desire to be cleansed of any sexual immorality. These allusions to the cleansing powers of water are what put the idea of vigilantism in Travis’s mind. While hanging out in the diner frequented by Travis’s fellow cabbies, one of the drivers proposes Travis should get a gun for protection, and offers him a connection to obtain such weapons. Upon this suggestion, Scorsese focuses the camera for a few moments on a glass of water Travis is drinking. This is meant to suggest that Travis is thinking he can cleanse, or be a savior to New York, by using purchasing guns and using them as he does later in the film. This is a clear criticism of vigilantism because the use of water as religious
Water is constantly referenced in dialogue, as well as shown visually throughout the film. One of the most clear examples of this appears while Travis writes in his journal, “Thank God for the rain which has helped wash away the garbage and trash off the sidewalks...Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.” These lines are in reference to the Old Testament story of Noah’s Ark, in which God sends a great flood to wash away all of the sinners and evil people of the world. Although there is no reference to a messiah in this story, it is important to consider that Travis hopes the evil around him in New York, will dissipate in an epic biblical fashion. Moving along to visuals, after Travis drops off a prostitute and a John from his cab, he purposefully drives through a spewing fire hydrant as if to wash away the passengers’ indiscretions. Travis is disgusted by the immorality he witnesses in the back of his cab, and seeks baptism by driving out of his way to “cleanse” himself in water. Ironically, right after this scene Travis visits a sexually explicit theater surrounded by lowlives, thereby voiding his desire to be cleansed of any sexual immorality. These allusions to the cleansing powers of water are what put the idea of vigilantism in Travis’s mind. While hanging out in the diner frequented by Travis’s fellow cabbies, one of the drivers proposes Travis should get a gun for protection, and offers him a connection to obtain such weapons. Upon this suggestion, Scorsese focuses the camera for a few moments on a glass of water Travis is drinking. This is meant to suggest that Travis is thinking he can cleanse, or be a savior to New York, by using purchasing guns and using them as he does later in the film. This is a clear criticism of vigilantism because the use of water as religious