A common gangster story involves a rise to success after living a hustler’s life. For example, in “Billy Bathgate” by El Doctorow, Billy is an orphan who quickly gets involved in a life of crime because he saw it to make money and leave his old life behind. However, this struggle to success is often met with an unfavourable end. In “The Gangster as a Tragic Hero” by Robert Warshow, Warshow emphasizes that a gangster’s life is a struggle to assert an individual identity to stand out in the crowd. In most cases, the gangster must be alone to succeed but often leads to alienation. The gangster embodies the American dream, but Warshow frames this dream as a nightmare often leading to death. Warshow describes the modern world as a “dangerous and sad city of the imagination.” (Warshow pg.2). He explains that this city is what best represents a gangster’s life – they embody both the desires and fears of society.
To make it, gangsters are tasked with making a name for themselves but still must fit into the box society has already created. “…originality is to be welcomed only in the degree that it intensifies the expected experience…” (Warshow pg. 1). However much gangsters strive to make a name for themselves, to have something to show for their accomplishments, they are still boxed in by the already predetermined expectations society places on them.
So, what is the point of all their hard work, if they still must conform to some pre-determined standard either way? With an outcome like death, what are they really working towards?
Works Cited:
Doctorow, E. L. Billy Bathgate. Random House, 1989.
Warshow, Robert. “The Gangster as Tragic Hero.” The Immediate Experience: Movies, Games, Theatre, and Other Aspects of Popular Culture, 1962, pp. 127-133.
