Tension In West Side Story By Irving Shulman

West Side Story by Irving Shulman is a realistic fiction story that gives the reader an insight into what life was like during the 1950’s in Manhattan. During that time teenage gangs ruled the streets; but none were as dominant or well know as the Sharks and the Jets. The Sharks were made up of the Puerto Rican population and the Jets were made up of the Americans. So naturally tension would rise. This tension would rise to a breaking point in the 50’s when these gangs would declare war on each other: with their prize being more land or “ turf “. Now being teenagers these wars were fought by doing pranks and minor stabbings with ice picks. Nobody was in any real danger until Tony Wyzek and Maria Nunez fall madly in love with each other.

In this classic rendition of Romeo and Juliet: there are four main characters along with many secondary characters as well. Tony Wyzek is a former Jet and he is smart, loyal, and has more common sense than the rest of the Jets combined. He left the Jets to start a new life and get away from gang life. Riff his best friend is on the opposite side of the spectrum. He is determined, stubborn, methodical, and aggressive. He has a unyielding love for the Jets which sometimes leads him and the Jets into trouble. Bernardo is the leader of the …show more content…
Love is very common idea throughout this entire story. The first theme that involves love is: “love makes people do strange things”. This was extremely prevalent in Tony’s actions. Tony was out of the gang life, but was dragged back in because of Maria. Maria wanted him to end the gang's all together, but that action brought him back into the forest that was gang life. Another theme that involved love was: “love conquers all”. This was also brought out by the actions of Tony and Maria. After Tony was brought back into gang life Maria was not very pleased with what followed, but she remained in love with