1.

SETTING
A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a nighttime taxi
driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze
feeds his urge to violently lash out, attempting to save a teenage
prostitute in the process.

2. NARRATOR
-Catherine Lim
O SUMMARY
Travis Bickle is an ex-Marine and Vietnam War veteran living in New York City. As he suffers from
insomnia, he spends his time working as a taxi driver at night, watching porn movies at seedy cinemas
during the day, or thinking about how the world, New York in particular, has deteriorated into a cesspool.
He's a loner who has strong opinions about what is right and wrong with mankind. For him, the one bright
spot in New York humanity is Betsy, a worker on the presidential nomination campaign of Senator
Charles Palatine. He becomes obsessed with her. After an incident with her, he believes he has to do
whatever he needs to to make the world a better place in his opinion. One of his priorities is to be the
savior for ris, a twelve-year-old runaway and prostitute who he believes wants out of the profession and
under the thumb of her pimp and lover Matthew.
Vietnam vet Travis Bickle is 26, a loner in the mean streets of New York City, slipping slowly into isolation
and violent misanthropy. n solving his insomnia by driving a taxi on the night shift, he grows increasingly
disgusted by the low lifes that hang out at night: "Someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off
the streets." His touching attempts to woo Betsy, a Senator's campaign worker, turn sour when he takes
her to a porn movie on their first date. He even fails in his attempt to persuade child prostitute ris to
desert her pimp and return to her parents and school. Driven to the edge by powerlessness, he buys four
hand guns and sets out to assassinate the Senator, heading for the infamy of a 'lone crazed gunman'.
New York City taxi driver Travis Bickle constantly, almost obsessively, reflects on the ugly corruption of
life around him, and becomes increasingly disturbed over his own loneliness and alienation. n nearly
every phase of his life, he remains a complete outsider, failing to make emotional contact with anyone.
Unable to sleep night after night, he haunts the local pornography emporiums to find diversion, and
begins desperately thinking about an escape from his depressing existence.