On The Waterfront Environment

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“At the heart of On the Waterfront is an exploration of how people are products of their environment.” Discuss. The film ‘On the Waterfront,’ directed by Elia Kazan, explores a number of different characters’ personas and how they have been shaped in relation to their environment and the environment they grew up in. Contrasting individuals are Edie and Terry. There is Edie who has been brought up in a school with nuns and Terry, who has dealt with the corruption of ‘the mob’ his whole life. An authoritative figure on the Hoboken docks, Johnny Friendly is a clear victim of his harsh upbringing as is calculating criminal Charley Malloy who turned to a life of crime to survive. Father Barry struggles with the conflicting values of his Church…show more content…
He has been so compromised in fact, that he has failed to take care of Terry and enable him to create his own identity, away from where a life on the waterfront would inevitably lead him. Instead, Terry becomes ‘owned’ by Friendly and his identity subsumed by Friendly’s world. ‘You was my brother Charley…you should have looked out for me,’ Terry says to Charley when he is given the ultimatum ‘are you in, or are you out’? Charley is consumed with guilt over the fact, that if it wasn’t for his greed, Terry may have grown into the educated and respected individual he so desires to be. This guilt leads Charley to sacrifice his life to protect Terry in a way that he never could when they were…show more content…
Terry, Father Barry, Edie and Charley changed in a positive way, whilst Johnny succumbed to his negative influences. It is clear from the film that the environment in which the characters were in, predisposed them to a certain way of being, as each character was affected differently and came to be a product of their individual surrounding. The way that Edie changes from a shy school girl, to a strong-minded woman is the direct effect of the rough waterfront docks. When people are put into trying circumstances they can become a reflection of the environment they are in, and some choose to fight the stereotype they are pigeon-holed into and better themselves. Father Barry saw the damage being caused in his parish and stood up to stop it. Terry, Charley and Father Barry, with the help of Edie’s guidance, chose to no longer be products of their environment and, instead, fought for what was morally right to attain a better environment for their

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