The movie Goodfellas, in my opinion, is a movie about someone trying to fit in. Henry is trying to get himself situated into his neighborhood’s norm. (On the micro scale, being a gangster is the social norm, whereas in the macro scale, it is not.) Thus Henry is never white till the complete end of the movie. The meaning of “white” is very difficult to explain. However, Richard Dyer tries to give some sort of definition in “White. Dyer states that one aspect of being white is that one have to conform to social norms. Henry however was unable to completely conform to the Italian- American gang, which was the norm of the neighborhood. From the beginning to the middle of the movie (after the opening scene of a man being brutally killed in the back of a car), the audience is placed in a little bubble. They are looking at one neighborhood full of gangsters. Thus it should come to no surprise that Henry wanted to be part of them. But the difference between the members of the gang and Henry is blood. In order to be completely “made”, one needs to be completely 100% Italian so that they can trace down his/her ancestry to the native land. Henry’s father was Irish and his mother was Sicilian. This automatically disqualifies Henry to become an official member. This fact becomes more apparent as the movie proceeds. In the beginning, there are subtle differences in Henry’s personality and the personalities of other gangsters (such as Tommy). These differences were clearly shown in the beginning of the movie when young Henry uses 8 aprons to help a man who was shot. When he grows up, he is the one who rushes to help Spider when Tommy shot him on the foot, and he is the first one who goes to see if Spider is dead while the others just continue playing. In addition, Henry was unable withstand the stench of a dead man like his partners could. As they were digging up a body that they hid before, Henry could not continue and ended up throwing up. Also throughout the whole movie, he acted as a mediator preventing as many killings/arguments as possible. However, the ethnic differences is what opens the audience’s eyes so that they can realize Henry will always be alone no matter how much the people who are Italian- American are like a family. (The movie even makes it obvious that they always stayed together. They spend birthdays, anniversaries and all vacations together.) This fact that Henry will never be a part of the “white” of this movie is when Paulie gives Henry $3,200 for a lifetime of work and then tells Henry that he has to turn his back on him. Throughout the whole movie, I viewed Henry as an adopted child that no matter how hard he tried was never fully accepted.
In addition to Henry not being white in the micro scale, he is also not white in the macro scale…not till the complete last minute of the movie anyway. Henry does not follow the laws society has placed. He robs trucks worth of hundreds of thousands in cargo, burns down homes and joints, sells drugs, and works his way around the legal system (without getting caught…most of the time.) In addition, he takes part in the hiding of the bodies his friend’s murdered. Henry was someone who lived the life of a king. All he had to do was rob a couple of trucks and cash from the airport and BAM he had more money than most people who worked 9 to 5 jobs. He would always have a large stack of dollars with him. There would always be a table of him in the most crowded restaurants. He had the respect of many. Even in jail, he and his gangster friends were able to have very nice dinners in a comfortable (what seems to be) apartment. The time that Henry becomes “white” and not the white of his neighborhood but the “white” of society was when he was wearing a robe getting the newspaper. When his thoughts tell the audience he lives a normal life, one without the fear of being murdered by someone “who comes with a smile”, without the adrenaline of getting caught during a bust, one where he does not get what he ordered, that is when it is safe to say that he fits the definition that Dyer gives.
