Analysis: The Gangs Of New York

In the famous movie “Gangs of new York”, directed by Martin Scorsese, is a movie about multiple struggles and rivalries taking place in a New York city town, called the Five Points. This movie presents a story between a boy seeking revenge against the antagonist- Bill the butcher- and a portrayal of the various gangs living in the Five Points. Gangs of New York is historically accurate in the way it interprets the New York city riots, the characterization of the gangs in The Five Points, and the hardships of the Irish immigrants.

In S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, two different gangs, the Greasers and the Socs detested each other. Using Ponyboy Curtis, the author demonstrates a Greaser’s opinion of the Socs. Ponyboy had an evolving conception of the Socs. At the beginning, he disliked the Socs because they are rich and he thinks they have no problems.Because of some discussions he had with a few of the Socs, he changes his opinion Recognizing that the Socs are just people after all, Pony’s final opinion is that they have problems too. Pony’s opening opinion of the Socs does not show them in good light.

Have you ever wonder what your life will be like when you have a chance to live in a different country other than you motherland? There are many challenges and obstacles people usually face when they start their new life in a new country. Moreover, people can totally change their life in different way due to their change in cultural environmental. The same situation has been demonstrated in the novel “The Gangster We Are All Looking For” by Le Thi Thuy Diem, an immigrant from Vietnam who left their motherland for freedom and new life. The novel “The Gangster We Are All Looking For” is a narrative fiction novel in which it describes the important of cultural differences, consequences of war and the maturity of the author.

Persecution amongst the rich and the poor had colossal influence in not just The New York Draft Riot of 1863 additionally the Watts uproar of 1992. Bigotry likewise brought on the tragedies that spread all through New York City and Los Angeles. April of 1863, President Lincoln issued a decree calling for 300,000 men, and if your name were called, you were going to battle in the common war unless you had 300 dollars, then you could purchase out of the draft. The Los Angeles uproar was the most noticeably bad mobs in the United States. The uproar was brought about by the absolution of policemen who wrongfully beat an African American man after he was pulled over for speeding.

The city of Las Vegas has changed rapidly from becoming a beautiful city to a violent place to live in. The city has seemed a rise in homicides as well in the last few years. The strong presences of these gangs are taking innocent lives and making the community a harder place to raise a family in. Many of the gangs in Vegas account for most the drug trade, as well as the staggering homicide rate. The gang problem is not only a problem in Las Vegas, but it is all over the world. Gang violence is a problem in every major United States city including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Las Vegas Metro Police Department (LVMPD) has implicated many programs to fight the increasing gang issue across the valley, from bringing back the gang unit to having more police officers patrol the known gang spots. These programs were implicated to stop the criminal gangs that are looking to build their territory in Nevada. The three criminal gangs that are mainly affiliated with Nevada are the Gersons’, the Crips, and the Playboys.

The Outsiders, written by the brilliant author S.E.Hinton is about the conflict between two rival gangs, the greasers, and the Socs. The main protagonist, Ponyboy is a greaser, who is portrayed as poor and distinguished by their greasy hair. Whereas the Socs is portrayed as rich and distinguished by their rich clothes and cars. The interesting part, however, is that Cherry Valance, a soc, described the Socs to be emotionless and apathetic, which led them to use violence to express their feelings. On the other side, Cherry characterized the greasers to be too emotional which led them to antagonize the Socs and causing conflicts. Throughout the book, the theme rich vs poor reflected the Socs and greasers. As the conflict continues, it slowly came to an end when the Socs became more humanized by the death of Bob.

Victor M. Rios was born in Mexico. When he was two years old he immigrated with his mother to Oakland, California. He went through a tough childhood and he and his mother moved several times throughout poor neighborhoods such as West Oakland, The Fruitvale District, and Elmhurst. As a result of growing up in this kind of environments he was forced to be part of Latino East Oakland gangs. Stealing cars, selling drugs, getting into street fights and having problems with police was all he would do until he was 15 years old. One of his best friends named “Smiley” died in a shooting right in front of him and changed his life. Thanks to Mrs. Russ, one of his teachers who helped him out, Victor’s was able to live a different life in which he had the chance to get a Bachelor’s degree. A few years later he enrolled at UC Berkeley and earned a PhD in Sociology. He began mentoring Oakland youth and working with them to get out of a life of crime and into college. (Biography)

When people make choices that could drastically change their life, the decision they make is based on the influence of others. In the novel, The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton a gang called the Greasers is stereotyped for being the "mean types" that slack off at school. Then there are the Socials who are know as the rich kids with cool cars that happen to like "jumping" Greasers. As these two gangs are rivaling, they both go through some dramatic events that change their perspectives on life. In the novel The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton the character Darrel Curtis is unquestionably influenced by his gang as it prevents him from being successful, leading him to becoming the father of the gang, and overall being someone to look up to.

(Gangs) A deviant subculture is defined as a subculture, which has values and norms that differ substantially from the majority of people in society. When a neighborhood or community favors illegal activities, a criminal subculture is likely to develop such as gangs. Walter Miller states that deviant subcultures don’t arise from the inability of a community to achieve success, but because of a lower-class subculture whose values and norms are different from the rest of society. Subcultures can be a good thing, because they can provide a sense of belonging, interaction with people who have similar interests, and gives members the freedom to express individuality. Subcultures, though, may also be a bad thing by putting people against each other,

South america is filled with over crowded streets. Slums are an over crowded area including the city and streets. There are very many drug problems in those slums because of the environment.

In Chicago, and all over the nation, the effects of gang activity have been displayed, specifically in low income and poverty torn communities. Poverty is measured depending on a family’s annual income and determining if the amount falls below the poverty threshold for the family’s size. If the annual income does fall below the threshold, then the family and every individual in it is considered to be in poverty. Gang activity is more visible in the areas specifically in major cities similar to Chicago where poverty is a commonality in communities. although gangs might add structure in order where the government fails to do so in the projects and and similar low income communities the negative effects such as the distribution of drugs, violence,

Gangsters Without Borders by T.W. Ward is an ethnography about the El Salvadorian gang Mara Salvatrucha. Ward chose to focus the majority of his research on the male members in order to earn their trust. With that in mind, I am presuming that the views of women portrayed in this ethnography are fundamentally the thoughts of its male members. Nonetheless, early on in my reading on this ethnography, I identified the role gender plays not only for the ethnographer but also for the gang members. The gender roles for these gang members mimic those of most societies, although some of the roles appear contradictory.

Prison gangs have become a big problem in the correctional facilities today. The gang has started to control the prisons and making the work life for correctional officers very difficult. They are able to run their criminal empire on the outside from the inside of the jail and also try and traffic drugs into the prisons and among many other things.

The term gang can be attached to a legion of groups which would include outlaws from back in the nineteenth century in the west of America, a congregation of unruly prison inmates, members of the triads, the mafioso, and other organised criminal entities such as sons of anarchy a know motorcycle gang, and groups of socially displaced inner city youths. Despite its diverse definition, the term gang most of the times denotes the involvement to illegal or disreputable activities.

Gangs has their own culture and characteristics that includes their dress codes, identifying symbols, language, graffiti, drugs use &trafficking, use of other narcotics, and involvement in other illegal activities. However the nature and characteristics of gangs differ from community to community. Gangs however are found to be more prevalent in high crime areas and are also responsible for the majority of crimes committed.