Similarities Between The Outsiders And West Side Story

In the movies "The Outsiders" and "West Side Story" I noticed that there were many similarities and differences. For example, West Side Story was a musical and the gangs were known for having one 'Hispanic gang' and one 'Caucasian gang,' but The Outsiders was not a musical and the gangs were based on the poor side of the town and the richer part of the town. Although, even with the many differences there were also many similarities like, most of the people in the movies were in two gangs who hated each other. As I was watching both movies I found that many of the similarities came from how the characters acted, their interests/the scenes and the plot so, I decided to write my paragraphs based on those three subjects.

Firstly, the characters

In The Outsiders one of the important object was a car but, in West Side Story cars were rarely shown. They also had the same type of weapons, they had guns and switchblades. The scenes in the movies were also comparable. In both movies there was a scene where a specific guy and a specific girl meet each other. In the Outsiders Ponyboy and cherry met at a movie drive in. In West Side Story Tony and Maria met at a dance. Also, the gangs in both movies always got into small fights. Also, there was one big fight in both movies. They both met at a time and place, although in the Outsiders one gang won and they were not allowed to use weapons, but in West Side Story both gangs lost because both their group leaders died. They were also not able to finish the fight because the police came, and they did not agree to anything, so someone randomly pulled out a switchblade. A lot of the scenes were similar, but in each movie, they also had something unique about each

The differences were that West Side Story was a musical at unexpected times they would start singing, they were also into dancing and one and a while they would have a dance fight instead of fist fights. Also, I believed that West Side Story was based off a love story and gangs. Meanwhile, The Outsiders was not a musical, they would not sing nor dance and there were no love stories, it was based off friendship and family problems. In addition to that, West Side Story was related to racism because the police would always take the word of the 'Caucasian gang,' also known as 'the Jets,' more often than the 'Hispanic gang,' also known as 'the Sharks'. While the Outsiders was more related to gang violence and the newspaper writers would always feature the rich gang, also known as 'the Socials' more often than the poor gang, also known as 'the Greasers.' Also, in West Side Story the gangs ended up being neutral, but in the Outsiders both gangs still despised each other. The similarities are that both movies were held in America, both movies had 2 gangs, 3 people died, and many of the serious fights started off with a girl. In the Outsiders a Ponyboy was almost killed because he spoke to the girlfriend of a member of the opposing gang and in West Side Story they started the fight because they did not want Tony and Maria to be