On the waterfront film critique
...worker set up by protagonist Terry Malloy. After the murder, Joey’s father, known to his coworkers as Pops, gives his son’s jacket to Kayo Dugan. Pops thinks of some of the dockworkers as his children, so the jacket naturally means a lot to him. The passing of the jacket symbolizes Joey as well as everyone’s love for him but also foreshadows the murder of Kayo Dugan. After the Waterfront Crime Commission (WCC) starts putting pressure on Dugan and Malloy to testify against the mob run union, Dugan decides he will testify after a meeting of workers with one of the local priests. Once the mob gets word of this they put a plan into action and murder him as well. While all this is happening, Terry Malloy is falling in love with Joey’s sister, Edie Doyle. She is constantly searching for the truth about what happened to her brother and encounters Malloy on her journey. After Dugan’s murder, Edie passes the jacket to Terry, thus symbolizing her love for him. This is also could symbolize the change in Terry from mob errand boy to upright citizen. Shortly after receiving the jacket, Terry rises up and testifies against the mob. Ultimately the jacket symbolizes three things, 1) The passing away of Joey Doyle, 2) The love between Terry Malloy and Edie, and 3) the decision to testify by Terry. The second symbol I will discuss is the use of pigeons by Elia Kazan. Throughout the course of the film, the director uses pigeons to symbolize two things. There is a coop of pigeons on top of the building where Joey was thrown off. After the murder, Terry Malloy and a young boy begin to care for these pigeons, dubbing the coop “JOEY’S COOP.” Everyday Terry would feed the pigeons just as Joey would have, thus carrying on Joey’s legacy....