Many non-New Yorkers think that New York City is the city “where dreams are made of”, where “there’s nothing you can’t do.” Alicia Keys and Jay Z state these lines in their song “Empire State of Mind.” However, movies such as Wall Street by Oliver Stone depict that achieving everything you want comes with consequences and difficulties. There are definitely loads of opportunities available for everyone in New York. But, these opportunities require a person to be willing to sacrifice different aspects of their lives.

Gordon Gekko epitomizes what might result from a New Yorker who attempts to achieve his or her full potential. Gordon Gekko rises to the top through corrupt means and heartlessly maintains his position in the upper class of New York. Gekko, a self-made millionaire, is willing to go to any extent to gain more money. His character is shown to be one with a huge ego and a small conscience. This accurately depicts how people in the upper class are willing to go to any extreme to maintain their wealth.

Additionally, Stone uses Bud Fox to illustrate that many people try to achieve their high dreams/expectations in New York. This also represents most of the population of New York City that tries to achieve this higher-class status. Therefore, Bud is a vital character in the film who serves as a representative of many New Yorkers. Bud’s attempt to attain success under Gekko’s wings is a very common situation in New York. Many people attempt to achieve success or money through networking/associations. Think about it… even students in college try to make connections knowing that they will one day come in handy. However, Bud’s attempt to transform from a middle-class status to a higher-class status leads to a character transformation. This transformation is shown through his character change and even his room change. He becomes more interested in material success and subsequently his values start to decline. His father also represents the people who are a part of the working class. However, unlike Bud, Carl is satisfied with his middle class position. Carl represents the hard workingman who earns money through honest methods. It is clear through the events in the film, that the working class struggles to maintain its money. The various characters and their positions in society represent Stone’s interpretation of the class structure that exists in New York.

To sum up, Wall Street was my favorite work of art this semester. I enjoy how Stone demonstrates how the capitalistic system works, the class structure that exits, and the various methods of achieving/maintaining success in New York City. This film demonstrates the truth about what living in New York City is like and it touches on every class that exists. Stone did a great job at exposing the truth and everyone who thinks that dreams just magically turn into a reality in New York should definitely watch this film!

As stated by Andy Warhol, “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” Art and money are two completely different aspects of life that intersect in so many ways. Many artists produce artwork as a career and depend on producing commercially successful work. As stated by Warhol, making money is actually ‘art’. However, the bigger question is whether this ‘art’ can contain social or political value. The answer to this question is yes! How many times have you watched a film or watched a play that you simply disagree with? How many times have you watched a film in which you felt disturbed or offended by (“Birds with Skymirrors”… Taxi Driver... Breakfast at Tiffany’s…)? Well, these emotions were triggered because the film or play had a deeper social or political message that you probably disagreed with.

Artists can obviously produce commercially successful work that also has important social or political value. I mean, we spent the entire semester discussing different forms of artwork and our opinions towards them. This alone should be enough to show that the works we have studied have important social and political value. For instance, Taxi Driver was a pretty commercially successful work of art. The Domestic Total Gross made from Taxi Driver: $27,300,000 and the Domestic Lifetime Gross: $28,262,574 (BoxOfficeMojo).

Not only was Taxi Driver able to be commercially successful, but also Scorsese incorporated many social and political messages in his artwork. For example, Scorsese addresses issues such as political corruption and alienation. He uses Palantine to represent how politically corrupt the world is. Palantine uses the phrase “We are the people” throughout the film; yet, his cliché statement demonstrates how empty-headed he really is. Additionally, alienation is show in various scenes throughout the film as Travis demonstrates how much of a lonely place New York City can be. Scorsese demonstrates that artists can definitely produce commercially successful work that can also have important social or political messages.

Another side of this topic that should be examined is whether or not accepting money for a commission means that an artist has comprised his or her art. Although making money is ‘art’, it does not necessarily need to be created by selling out. The process of accepting donations and money with the requirement of needing to comply to another person’s wishes requires the artist to give up his or her true intentions. Basically, in this process, the artist is buying into someone else’s beliefs and wishes. “Selling out” can occur in different industries of art. In the case of film, directors may compromise the content of the media they are producing for money. In the music industry, an artist who usually uses foul language may give up the vulgarity only to avoid offending a mainstream audience.

Ultimately, money plays a huge role on the type of art that artists produce. Artists can definitely produce commercially successful works that contain significant social or political value. This is illustrated in Scorsese’s film, Taxi Driver. With this being said, many times, artists “sell out” by compromising their morality and principles only for the purpose of gaining money and a commercial audience. However, “selling out” isn’t always necessary to become commercially successful. It is the process of an artist giving up his wishes and accepting money in exchange for making his or her artwork geared towards a conventional and commercial audience.

I have lived in New York City for my entire life and I cannot imagine growing up anywhere else! I have grown accustomed to certain aspects of this city including the busy morning commute on my way to school, the infinite cabs in every part of the city, the constant pushing and shoving in trains, and just the fast-pace of the city. New York has had a tremendous impact on shaping my identity because many of my behaviors are a direct result of growing up in such a fast-paced city. For example, I am always in a hurry to get everywhere, I know that I always have to be prepared to take a different train route to my destination, and I usually use the presence of cars on the streets (rather than the walk signs) to control whether or not I cross the street. Interestingly enough, the film Taxi Driver strongly affected my perception of New York City. Scorsese portrays a New York City that I am not familiar with- the New York City before Disneyfication.

The protagonist, Travis Bickle, strongly impacted my opinions of the film. From the very beginning, Travis appears to be an exceptional New York cab driver who claims he will not discriminate against his passengers. However, he offers the audience his opinions about the filthy streets of New York and expresses his disgust of the street crime and prostitution. Throughout the film, he proves to be a mentally unstable individual and he made me realize how corrupt New York City once was. Hypocritically, he takes Betsy to a porn film in Times Square despite claiming to be disturbed by all the corruption in the city. His actions are absurd and seem to be as a result of his inability to find himself. Through his actions, it is clear that he is a lonely New Yorker. He even refers to himself as “God’s lonely man” (Taxi Driver, Scorsese 1979).

The idea of loneliness in the film shows a grim side of New York City. New York City seems to be such an enjoyable place to live in, filled with many different forms of entertainment and diverse people. Still, the film shows how significant personal connections are difficult to develop. The people in the city don’t pay attention to Travis. He is suffering from loneliness throughout the entire film. Even the crowds that are shown in Taxi Driver are doing their own thing and illustrate how isolated everyone is from each other.

This theme, of loneliness, that Scorsese illustrates made me recognize that some ideas of New York City are misleading. The idea of living in an ideal city is not always accurate. Taxi Driver is now one of my favorite films because it opened my eyes to certain aspects of the City that I seemed to disregard. Films such as this one are necessary to portray the grim and dark aspects of New York because New York is not always an exuberant and dreamlike place.

“Carmen will never give way! Free she was born, and free she will die” (Carmen, Act IV). Carmen is my favorite character in the play! She epitomizes my idea of a strong woman. Carmen was the star of the show and I actually love that she was a “static character”! (Reveles, Podwalk #152) She didn’t change her personality for anyone or anything and simply did whatever she had to for her own benefit. Admirably, she was a constant manipulative and fierce woman. Throughout the opera, I fell in love with her character for her courage, strength and defiance! She impressed me when she refused to start a new life with Don Jose even when she knew that her life was on the line. Although her character may annoy many people, I actually feel that she effectively symbolizes strong women and I love that the opera featured a character like her.

Aside from the character of Carmen, there were many other parts of the opera that I surprisingly enjoyed. Coming into my first opera, I was excited to dress up and see what it was really like but I didn’t necessarily expect to love it. When I saw how far back we were sitting, my expectations just decreased. To my surprise, I was actually able to enjoy the opera from where I was sitting. I wish I was able to see the characters closer up but I was still able to appreciate the whole spectacle and music even from the family circle! I did find myself appreciating the spectacle more than the music. Nonetheless, the music was successful in setting the mood between and during the acts.

As I expected, the audience was mainly older adults. Often, the opera is thought to be only for the older, the rich, and the educated. However, after my first opera experience, I feel that I was able to appreciate the opera just as much as the older adults. I think it is ridiculous to classify the opera as an exclusive form of art because anyone can enjoy it! There seems to be something for everyone at the opera. This ranges from just the enjoyment of getting ready for the opera and being in the city to the actual spectacle and music of the opera. I would certainly love to go back to the opera and continue to explore this form of art!