‘Terry Overcomes the Role of a Bum That Others Have Marked Out for Him’ Do You Agree?

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‘Terry overcomes the role of a bum that others have marked out for him’ Do you agree? On the Waterfront directed by Elia Kazan explores the corrupted waterfront workers union run by ‘the mob’ and to what means they go to, to keep the workers ‘deaf and dumb’. The hazy, dark setting of The Bronx sets a perfect environment to follow the story of Terry Malloy, a young man with no real path or ambition for his life, who eventually overcomes the role of a bum marked out for him by others. Terry is considered a bum because of his ‘lost in life’ demeanor and his association with the brutal ‘mob’ and the murder of Joey Doyle. Originally we as the audience are positioned to see Terry as a segregated ‘nobody’ mainly through camera angles and different costumes. Throughout the film we see Terry not quite realize only he can rid himself of his role as a wharfie ‘bum’, not until Terry gets Joey Doyle’s jacket passed onto him do we see him step up against the mob and strip himself from the title of a bum and finally become a ‘somebody’. Terry Malloy, ex-boxer, now a waterfront ‘bum’, whose weak compliance with the ‘mob’ within the opening scenes and through Kazan’s film techniques show the audience the continuation of Terry’s fall from grace as a prize fighter. Within the opening scene Terry’s segregation is shown through the contrast of costumes worn by the characters in the shot, ‘mob’ members wearing rich suits compared to Terry’s tattered, checkered jacket, this costume choice also straight away shows the audience that Terry isn’t as well off and perfectly fits his role of a wharfie bum. The ‘mob’, Terry’s employees, see Terry as a ‘bum’ since his fall from fame as a prizefighter. In addition with this evident contrast between characters in the first scene we see Johnny Friendly, the ‘mob’ boss, say to Terry as he leaves, “Now you take it easy, slugger”. The term

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