West Side Story

The Sharks and the Jets, only two of the gangs that are rampant in the streets of New York City, create a visible division. Not only is there a racial distinction, but the gangs wear separate colors. At the dance, “the line between the two gangs is sharply defined by the colors they wear” (21). When Chino finds Bernardo’s gun, it is wrapped in Bernardo’s shirt, which is obvious because the shirt is in Shark colors. In the dream ballet, once Maria and Tony have broken through the violence, the gang members wear clothes that “are soft, pastel versions of what they have worn before” (88). As a symbol of belonging, the gang colors designate members as part of a family, either literal or figurative. As Riff asserts to Tony, “Without a gang, you’re an orphan. With a gang, you walk in twos, threes, fours” (14). The family is incontrovertible. It is a lifelong commitment, for better or for worse, as Riff argues when he convinces Tony that it is his duty to help the Jets in the rumble. For Bernardo and Maria, the gang equals both literal and figurative family.