Page - 144 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

144 The search for the self – identity behavior – quite the opposite. In the grey area between legality and illegality, adolescents experience clear limits set by their parents as helpful, even when they may protest them. In the popular musical West Side Story, with music by Leonard Bernstein, the leaders of two rival gangs battle against each other – a modern version of Romeo and Juliet. Two gangs fight in a New York slum for the upper hand: the white “Jets” and the Puerto Rican “Sharks”. Tony, who has left the Jets and found work, lets himself be persuaded by his friend Riff, the leader of the Jets, to attend a dance where the Sharks are also expected. There he meets Maria, the sister of the Sharks boss Bernardo. Maria has just come from Puerto Rico and is meant to marry Ber- nardo’s friend Chino. Tony and Maria fall in love at first sight. They meet secretly, and Tony promises Maria to make sure that the impending rumble between the two gangs will be limited to a fair fistfight. But Bernardo stabs Riff, and Tony reflexively grabs the knife and kills Bernardo. Chino brings Maria the news. She believes that Tony did not consciously kill her brother and asks her friend Anita to protect him from those seeking revenge. But when Anita is sexually assaulted by the Jets, she claims that Bernardo’s friend Chino has killed Maria. Tony hears of this. He runs into the street screaming. Suddenly he sees Maria. In this moment, Chino shoots him and Tony dies in Maria’s arms. An unconventional balletic choreography made this musical a great success in the theater and on the screen. It impressively demonstrates how quickly the life of gang members goes out of control.