“Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is someone who stood up”

As Travis speaks to himself looking into a mirror holding a gun we can see how society in the 1970’s affected Travis’s mental stability. Travis’s job as a taxi driver opened his eyes to the filth and dirt on the streets.”Al the animals come out at night,” in the bizarre hours he was working he witnessed prostitution, crime, and garbage that took place while the normal people of the city were asleep, he experienced and was a part of what went on when the freaks came out to play. That was the key to Travis’s frustration that it was the streets he lived on. This irked him greatly. As Travis expresses his feelings about society’s chaos, how people were trash, how there was trash, and the crime, this perspective offered insight on how disturbed Travis’s mind was.

Even though the scene is more towards the end of the movie we can still see how involved the society’s downfalls affected Travis. His troubled mind would not find peace until action to store society took place. This is evident in his non stop plea to take out Betsy as well as his drastic actions to get Iris to leave Sport to go back home to her parents and to live a life a twelve year old should be living. Travis takes on a somewhat paternal role in trying to restore these women back to what he thinks is right for them. It’s not just the women he tries to restore, but the city of New York itself. He believes he is just the man to make the change happen. He buys a number of guns, cuts his hair into a mohawk and begins to talk to himself in a mirror. This is how we see society’s reflection on Travis. He becomes alone, desperate, depressed, and troubled.