Rocky Sullivan's Saving Grace example essay topic

During the course of watching movies in the gangster genre, one will encounter characters that are very different but similar in various ways, in respect to their motives and their beliefs. Rocky Sullivan from the movie Angels with Dirty Faces and Clyde Boner from Bonnie and Clyde are such characters. They are outwardly different, yet they have similar views and do what they have to do in order to get by. Rocky Sullivan gives the outward impression of being a real tough guy, and he is, but at times he appears to be nothing more than a great friend to his child hood friend Jerry Connelly, who also happens to be a priest. Growing up wild with no male guidance, Rocky and Jerry always got into one scrape after another until one day, Rocky got caught and finally wound up in the government institution. It is in this institution and later on in jail that Rocky learns the "tricks of the trade".

Rocky's main motivation throughout the film is to get his money and go one with his life with as little complications as possible. Unfortunately nothing ever really goes as planned. Clyde Boner is an easy going pretty boy who takes nothing too seriously and give others the impression of being a tough Gangster, which he isn't. Apparently Clyde and his brother use to be in it together for the sheer purpose of amusement.

This soon came to an end when Clyde was arrested for armed robbery and sent to jail. Upon his release it appeared that Clyde was pretty much attempting to ease back into his old life and then he met Bonnie. With this meeting Clyde was goaded by Bonnie to prove how tough he was, and simply to impress her, he did, and was thrust right back into his old ways. Sullivan's driving need and motivation is to re-attain his money which is being held for him so generously, but along the way he is also greatly influenced by his best friend Jerry Connelly, the priest. By allowing this outside force to guide some of his actions, Rocky is in a sense opening up to change and willing to try thing he never thought of doing before. One example of this influence is when Father Connelly asked Rocky to come down to the center to watch the boys play basketball.

Rocky eventually ended up coaching the game to make sure the boys played fair. It is here that we see Sullivan giving guidance to a bunch of kids that are just like him. Clyde's motivation and driving need is more basic than Sullivan's, though he too is influenced by an outside force, namely Bonnie. Clyde's main reason for being a gangster is to have fun and when Bonnie joined him, it added an extra splash to his life because she filled up part of the many holes in his soul. They were a team and Clyde even attempted to suppress his insecurities in order to do what he knew Bonnie wanted.

Unfortunately the insecurities resurfaced. With, minimal background information, it just seems like Rocky is the "real McCoy" as gangsters are concerned, he tough and he has the slight flaw of caring about his best friend, where as Clyde just seems plain soft and easily influenced when it comes to impressing a woman, and it also seems that he isn't cut out to be a gangster. Yet, even with these rash assumptions highlighting their key basic differences, these two perspective men do have similar qualities. Their similarities run like an artery through their lifelines, or in a different light, their saving graces. Rocky Sullivan's saving grace was of course Jerry Connelly, his best friend.

On the day of his execution, Jerry made Rocky an offer that he would have been crazy to refuse. This offer would allow Rocky to put an end to the life of crime that ultimately faced the young boys that he had so much influence over and it allowed him to regain the heart that he believed he'd lost so long ago. In the case of Clyde Boner, Bonnie was his saving grace, because she eventually completed him by giving him the best gift of all. She wrote and published a poem of their lives, which helped Clyde to abolish all of his remaining insecurities. This poem ensured their place in history and made them known nation wide. In summation, these two seemingly different individuals were more similar than could be expect in respect to the way the out side forces that influenced them changed their lives and with the "Fronts" they put on for society.