Dead Rabbits Gang Research Paper

In the Gangs of New York, there was a massive influx of immigrants to the U.S due to the persecution and danger in Europe. New York was the largest port city in the U.S. so they received most of them. This very large increase in immigrants made many American citizens fearful of losing their jobs. They began to discriminate in an attempt to force them out. Members of The Dead Rabbits gang fled their respective homelands to escape persecution and danger; in reality they were met with more opposition and violence than they originally faced.
Many immigrants joined the Dead Rabbits Gang as it provided safety in numbers and shared food and shelter. The opportunity to join the gang culture and be free of persecution persuaded many immigrants to cast off their pasts in order to meld as one group. “Ethnic and national strangers merged with the ‘Americans’… the children of each
ethnic group denied their background and their ancestral language” (Steinbeck 12) Steinbeck’s proposition is a mirror image of what is portrayed in the film; in order to merge with the larger group for security, many immigrants denied their backgrounds and instead accepted the new rules of their respective gangs. Though most of those who joined the Dead Rabbits gang joined by choice, there were other reasons as well. Many other immigrants were forced to join the Dead Rabbits gang because it provided shared food and shelter; that which they were unable to obtain by themselves. Members of the gang who were proficient at a specific skill, such as metal-smithing, could make crafts that would benefit others. In return for their crafts, these people would be provided with food obtained by those members who would steal from shops. On the other hand, by joining The Dead Rabbits gang, members were subject to a different discrimination and more violence.
Due to the formation of these large groups of immigrants, many American citizens were afraid of losing power and jobs, they then formed opposing gangs, specifically The Natives gang. On the streets, members of The Natives would discriminate against members of The Dead Rabbits to try and drive them out of New York. “People would ask me, ‘Where are you from?’ I was born in this country, but I knew the question meant to decipher my darkness, my looks.” (Richard Rodriguez 331) Similarly to Rodriguez’s example, even though both the Natives and Dead Rabbits shared immigrant ancestors, the fear of losing power compelled the Natives to find ways to discriminate. The Natives officially defeated the Dead Rabbits in a bloody struggle to cast them out for good. The surviving immigrants had to blot out their past and join new gangs to once again attain that security they again had lost. This endless cycle meant that even the offspring of immigrants would be unable to
assimilate. In conclusion, what the immigrants sought was the opposite of the reality that they were forced to partake in. In an attempt to escape persecution these immigrants moved to America and joined the Dead Rabbits. They were met with an accepting family and were quick to swap their past beliefs to join the new culture. Short lived was the dream, reality hit and these immigrants were then faced with more persecution and violence. Members of the opposing Natives gang fought them and won, survivors of the defeated gang scattered and found new gangs, but the cycle was inevitable. In the end, the immigrants did obtain a feeling of security, just a façade to the dangers that it came coupled with.