In his analysis of Taxi Driver as a revisionist western, Robert Ray places Taxi Driver's protagonist, Travis Bickle, squarely in the mold of the lone heroes of the western genre. He notes Travis's unspecified origins as well as the character's initial "disinterest" in becoming involved in what he sees as the venality and decay of New York City (352). Perhaps also like these Western heroes, Travis is directionless in his life. In addition to battling his profound loneliness and apparent psychosis, Travis struggles to find and maintain a true identity in an environment that is increasingly problematic for him. Against the backdrop of the commodification of people, politics, and sexuality in 1970s America, Travis struggles for self-realization and to carve out an identity distinct from his profession. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay At the beginning of the film, Travis is introduced as an unemployed newcomer to New York applying to be a taxi driver. Show a certain detachment during the interview for this job. When asked, point blank, why he wants to become a driver, he simply replies, "I can't sleep at night," and, later, "I mostly drive around at night. Subways, buses. I thought, you know, if I "I'll do it, I might as well get paid for it." Travis's impassivity in applying for the lead position in the film is compounded by the lack of clearly defined goals in his life. Montages in the first act show Travis appearing to wander around New York at night in his cab, staring blankly at people on the street. Travis's moral intentions are equally uncertain. He lashes out virulently against New York's "whores, pussies, bastards, queens, fairies, junkies, addicts." porn theaters also regularly. In an early scene, Travis, in a voiceover, reveals his lack of direction: "All I needed in my life was a feeling of somewhere to go. I don't believe that one should devote one's life to morbid attention to oneself, I believe that someone should become a person like other people." Later in the film, Travis explains his feelings to his fellow Magician: "I just want to get out and, and, you know, like, really, really, really do something... I just want to go out and I really, you know, I really want to... I've got some bad ideas in my head." Travis's attitudes and behavior represent much more than simple loneliness or psychosis that partially define his character. They are instead symptomatic of a broader desire for identity and purpose in society. Travis's subtle backstory – he served in the Marines in Vietnam – reinforces this interpretation Vietnam in the 1970s struggled to integrate both into a society that viewed their efforts negatively and into a nation that was gripped by economic crises, political instability and social upheaval. Traumatized by their war experiences, PTSD has been another major obstacle for many young people in building a post-war life. While Travis doesn't seem to have any particular interest in being a taxi driver at any point in the film, he is ultimately closely tied to his job. The relationship between one's work and one's identity is bluntly stated by Wizard in his monologue while lecturing Travis seeking advice: Look at it this way. A man takes a job, you know? And that work… I mean, so… it becomes what it is. You know, like: you do one thing and that's who you are. Like I've been a taxi driver for thirteen years. Ten years of night. I still don't own oneTaxi. Do you know why? Because I don't want to. It has to be what I want. Being on the night shift driving someone else's taxi. You understand? I mean, you become… If you get a job, you become the job. A boy lives in Brooklyn. A boy lives in Sutton Place. You have a lawyer. Another guy is a doctor. Another boy dies. Another boy recovers. Peopleare born, you know? I envy you, your youth. Go ahead, fuck, get drunk. Do anything. You have no choice, however. I mean, we're all screwed. More or less, you know. [emphasis added] Travis dismisses Wizard's ideas, saying "I don't know. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Yet Travis is ultimately characterized by his work as a taxi driver. At the end of the film, a series of newspaper headlines refer to Travis as a "Taxi Driver" or "Cabbie" and mistakenly (particularly in Robert Ray's estimation) assess him as a hero during the film's surreal conclusion. The film's characters and events are seemingly reduced to a very superficial and imprecise urban fable - "a hero taxi driver kills mafia members and saves a child prostitute" - the details of which (e.g., Travis' first murder attempt) are overlooked. in favor of an unlikely happy ending with various one-dimensional characters picked up off the street. In the film, a metonymic relationship is therefore established between a person and his profession. Furthermore, some of these relationships are arguably more sinister and harmful than the relationship between Travis and the taxi driver. The commodification of people - from a child prostitute to a US senator - is a key theme latent throughout the film. The character of Senator Palantine is presented as a rather uninteresting presidential hopeful who offers a vague message of change and unconvincing platitudes about empowerment as embodied by his campaign slogan, "We Are The People." Robert Ray calls Palantine "another in the long line of good-hearted community men whom Westerners have shown are too weak to deal with real problems" (353). Within the film, Palantine is mostly a virtual presence, represented largely by his campaign staff and his posters that appear sporadically in the background of various scenes. The audience actually "meets" Palantine only once in a heartfelt setting: when the senator, by pure chance, appears in Travis' taxi. In this scene, Travis encourages Palantine to "flush" the "dirt and scum" of New York "down the fucking toilet." To this Palantine can only meekly respond, "Well, I think I know what you mean, Travis. But it won't be easy." Palantine appears only twice more: via a television interview and on stage at the rally near the end of the film where Travis attempts to assassinate him. Palantine is depicted as packaged for mass consumption by its media-savvy campaign workers. Even Palantine's name – a combination of “pal” and “Valentine” – evokes this “brand” of politicians. (His opponent, whose name appears on a poster but is not seen in the film, has the pleasant nickname "Goodwin.") The film's views of the downtown Palantine elections office partially describe the inner workings of this marketing. In one scene, Tom encourages his colleague Betsy to "emphasize the mandatory welfare program" in the senator's program. This exchange follows: Betsy: Push the man first, then the problem. "Senator Palantine is first and foremost a dynamic man, an intelligent, interesting, fresh, charming person--" Tom: You forgot "sexy." Betsy: "-- man." No, I didn't forget "sexy". Tom: Listen to what you say. You sound like you're selling mouthwash. Betsy: We're selling mouthwash. [emphasis added] The original version of this scene, as writtenin Paul Schrader's original screenplay, includes a longer reflection on the marketing of people in politics and the media. Betsy rhetorically asks Tom why CBS News has the highest ratings, explaining: Do you want to know why CBS has the highest ratings? Do you think their news is different than NBC and ABC? It's all the same news. Same stories. Same order usually. What, you thought they had good news for the people, didn't you? Did you think this was why people watched CBS? I'll tell you why people watch CBS. Cronkite. The man. Understood? Not the news, not the problems, man. If Walter Cronkite told people to eat soap, they would. We're selling cars, dammit (15). [emphasis added] This depiction of Palantine as an empty suit cynically marketed as mouthwash by her campaign staff forms the film's political backdrop, in which the commodification of politics through the mass media is a key part of the New York milieu of the 1976. The reduction of Palantine to a commodity whose vaguely defined personal characteristics take precedence over his problem positions is evident in Travis's relationship with the candidate. Travis, when he offers to volunteer for Palantine to meet Betsy, is asked how he feels about the Palantine's stance on welfare; Travis responds, “I don't really know the senator's position on welfare, but I'm sure it's a good position.” Even after Betsy breaks up with Travis, Travis retains an inexplicable fascination with the candidate. His obsession is expressed visually through the walls of his small apartment covered in Palantine posters and newspaper clippings about the candidate, as if the Senator were Travis' favorite band. In particular, Travis' interest seems to lack any kind of in-depth understanding of Palantine's agenda. In Travis' mind, Palantine is thus reduced to an object of irrational fetishism. Sexual commodification is another important theme in the film. Iris is a teenage runaway and child prostitute under the aegis of her pimp Matthew, who she calls "Sport". She is literally held in sexual slavery by her pimp; the audience meets Iris in the midst of an impulsive escape attempt, which ends with Matthew violently removing her from the backseat of Travis' taxi and "tips" Travis $20 for his "trouble". Later, when Travis tries to save her, Iris insists that she was not treated badly by Matthew and tells Travis that she "must have been stoned" during her escape attempt. Later still, in a scene peculiar to Travis's absence, Iris and Matthew dance tenderly with each other while he whispers reassuring assurances of love to her; she seems genuinely softened by him. As a drug-addicted child prostitute, Iris is extremely powerless, and her clingy subservience to Matthew is therefore unsurprising; she herself admits that: "When I'm not high, I have nowhere else to go. They only protect me from myself." She is essentially considered a slave, and her rationalization of this - her belief that she still has control of her own destiny and can leave at any time, but simply chooses not to - is nothing more than a consequence of her desperation. caused by his dependence on Matthew to survive. Iris, acting in much the same way as hostages and women trapped in abusive relationships, has formed a bond with her exploiter and captor to the point that she actually seems to "love" him. As a child prostitute, Iris's sexuality is effectively commodified for the public. extent to which it destroys his personality. Iris "sells" herself with flamboyant costumes, described in the script as "flabby, à la>.