West Side Story Society and Class Quotes

How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from West Side Story.

Quote #4

A-RAB: Officer Krupke, you've done it again.
This boy don't need a job,
He needs a year in the pen!
It ain't just a question of misunderstood;
Deep down inside him, he's no good!

RIFF: I'm no good!

JETS: We're no good, we're no good,
We're no earthly good,
Like the best of us is no damn good!

The song ends with the Jets confirming all of the class prejudices levels against them. Kind of a bummer for such a funny and upbeat song, but it shows that Riff knows the score.

Quote #5

SCHRANK: Now look, fellas. Let's be reasonable. If I don't get a little law and order around here, I get busted down to a traffic corner. And your friend don't like traffic corners. So that means you're gonna start making nice with the PRs from now on. I said nice, get it? Because if you don't, and I catch any of you doing any more brawlin' in my territory, I'm gonna personally beat the living crud out of each and every one of you and see that you go to the can and rot there.

Schrank is the film's representative of the class in power. We're guessing he himself isn't much higher in the social pecking order than the Jets and the Sharks and he knows it could get worse. That gives him the motivation to keep them in line, or throw them in jail or even shoot them if the circumstances are right.

Quote #6

SCHRANK: All right, wise guys. Now you listen to me. All of ya! You hoodlums don't own these streets. And I've had all the roughhouse I'm gonna put up with around here! You wanna kill each other, kill each other! But you ain't gonna do it on my beat. Are there any questions?

BERNARDO: Yes, sir. Would you mind translating that into Spanish?

Again, the Jets and the Sharks can't do much about Schrank, and the higher classes he represents. The best they can manage is giving him a hard time. It's not much, as acts of defiance goes, but it's really all they've got.