According to Richard Dyer, movies tend to use whiteness to represent order, rigidity, and rationality compared to blackness. Using Dyer’s idea of whiteness, Henry can not be considered white because there is no sense of order or rationality in his life. His life is full of risks, chaos, murder, and betrayal. Rationality is the trait that is the farthest from the people Henry associates with, particularly Tommy. I was so surprised and shocked when Tommy shot Spider because he chose to stand up for himself. Tommy went around killing people for no actual reason. Dyer also expresses whiteness as the social norm in his essay, which supports the idea that Henry is not white. As gangsters, none of them follow the social norm. Their lives are about illegal activity and running from the cops. The norm is to follow the rules, and not break them. Henry expresses in the movie that he enjoys the special treatment he receives where he doesn’t have to wait in line at the bakery because people respect him. According to Henry, “we were treated like movies stars with muscles, we had it all just for the asking.”
One thing that stood out to me throughout the movie was that though Henry is a gangster, he is a little more sensitive than any of the others. As a young kid, Henry uses eight aprons to cover up the wound of a man. Paul remarks that he just wasted the aprons and needs to toughen up. Also, when Henry, Tommy, and Jimmy are digging up the body, Henry can’t take it and starts to throw up. Also, when Tommy shoots Spider, Henry runs to his side and is the first to help him and see if he’s okay. When Spider dies at the hands of Tommy, Henry rushes to side once again and announces that he’s dead. It seemed like Henry wasn’t into killing people so much as he loved the privileges that came with the lifestyle.
As much as Henry loves the life that he’s lived, he has to sacrifice it all and become a schnook. He has to leave the life that he’s loved and is forced to live like an average nobody-a schnook. At the very end of the movie, Henry is becoming white as he begins to follow the social norm and has to live an average life, as whiteness is defined by Dyer to be following the social norm.
