On the Waterfront

I believe many people in On the Waterfront approach the concept in many different ways. Although Terry's struggle is the highlighted one, many other characters in the film try to find the answer to that question as well. Edy's father at the beginning accepts Joey's death, and does not decide to do anything about it. He realizes the mob controls everything and he is not going to try and go the same way as Joey. However in the end after looking at what Terry, and Joe Doogan have done to stand up to the mob, he decides to go with it and even pushes Joe Friendly into the water. He seems to want to go wherever the wind blows, and when he sees that the power of the mob has been diminished he even gets his justice and pushes Joe Friendly. Charlie, in the scene with the taxi, also tries to deal with that question. He is torn between love for his brother and what he thinks the mob will do to him. He even goes as far as to pull out his gun, but Terry easily disarms him, and it shows how Charlie really does feel love for his brother at the end. He is truly caught between two opposing forces trying to dictate what he should do. In the end, he feels sorry for his brother and decides to support him. Unfortunately that ends up costing him his life, however he does appear to be vindicated before he died, leading one to feel as though there must be some losses in the quest for truth.
I believe that a traitor is someone who betrays a group or somebody for their own benefit. They can get money, power, protection, or any assortment of things, but at the end of the day they are doing it for selfish reasons. A whistle-blower is doing it for their own beliefs and truly believes what they are doing is right. They must also be doing something that will benefit society as whole. This is much harder to decide who is helping society and who only thinks they are helping society. Osama Bin Laden beleives he's doing the right thing but nobody thinks of him as a hero. This is because he does not have a plan for creating things, he only wants to destroy. He doesn't want to enrich the world, he only wants to go back to the way things were four centuries ago, and will do anything he can to make sure it happens.