Character Analysis
Turn Off the Red Light
Iris is only twelve and a half years old—a fact advertised by her pimp, Sport, in order to entice customers. (This is one of the many plot points in Taxi Driver that will make you want to gargle with dish detergent and wash your eyes out with bucketfuls of Visine.)
Iris' personality still is that of a child, but one who's been subjected to experiences that are way, way, way beyond her years. This has a disconcerting effect on the audience: We see how young she is, and note how her attempts to act and appear older actually highlight the fact that she's a child. She may try to look like a twenty-year old, but she still makes jam-and-sugar sandwiches. She's a baby.
We know, of course, that when she ran away from home, she wasn't actually planning on becoming a child prostitute—this is a net of vile circumstances she fell into, a trap. While she says things that demonstrate how she's been through all these rough experiences, the normal, twelve-year-old girl is still perfectly visible, as well. It makes it more disturbing when she first tells Travis that her name is "Easy" (before finally admitting its Iris). These things challenge the audience, the same way they challenges Travis: We're upset by Iris' condition because she exemplifies the sexual exploitation of children, something that happens all the time. The subject matter might make you queasy, but its part of the movie's harsh truth-telling.
Travis Bickle first meets Iris when she tries to get into his cab, but Sport drags her out, leaving a crinkled twenty for Travis—probably as an implicit payoff, so that he doesn't mention anything about this child-prostitute. Ho wever,Travis starts to get a little obsessed: He almost crashes into Iris by coincidence later on, and then follows her, verifying the fact that she's a prostitute. Soon, he starts to hatch a scheme. He wants to save Iris from the life she's living, and send her back to her parents, or at least somewhere safe. Yup: The character of Iris shows the audience that Travis can act like a decent human being—even though he's nuttier than a fruitcake, his desire to protect Iris seems to come from a noble, nurturing place.
Travis pretends to be a john looking to purchase her services, but when he gets in the room with her, he explains he doesn't want to have sex. Instead, he urges her to leave and stop being a prostitute. At first, Iris resists the whole idea—she claims that she's happy where she is, but there are obvious signs of discontent. Why else would she have tried to get in Travis' cab? She claims she was just stoned and that Sport was just protecting her from herself.
Of course, the crazy thing about that line of reasoning is that she claims she left home in order to find freedom… but now she thinks she needs someone to protect her from herself (which is, ostensibly, the kind of thing that parents do). She says of her parents:
"Why do you want me to go back to my parents? I mean, they hate me. Why do you think I split in the first place? There ain't nothin' there."
However, it seems like Travis has correctly identified Iris' real desire—she wants to leave her life on the street.
"If That's Movin' Up, Then I'm Movin' Out" – Billy Joel
Travis gets more evidence for this view when he meets Iris for lunch. At first, she claims that she's already a liberated woman, asking him, "Haven't you heard of women's lib?" Eventually, Iris admits that she fantasizes about leaving: "I'm gonna go up to one of them communes in Vermont." She invites Travis to go with her, but he says he doesn't think he'd get along with the kind of people who live in a commune.
Travis sets aside money, which he mails to Iris for her to use to leave town. He's still planning on assassinating Palantine, and plans on being dead—shot by the Secret Service or by himself—by the time Iris gets the cash. Since none of that works out, he goes and kills Sport and some of his associates… which, in the bloodiest way possible, allows Iris to go back with her family to Pittsburgh.
When Travis goes on his rampage, Iris actually begs him not to murder the brothel time-keeper—but he blows the guys brains all over the wall anyway. This shows that Iris is pretty merciful (and that Travis is a little trigger-happy).
Home Sweet Pittsburgh
After Iris has returned to Pittsburgh, we hear her dad reading a letter in which he thanks Travis for doing what he did. The letter also reveals that Iris' last name is "Steensma"—a Dutch name (which is also the ethnic background of the screenwriter, Paul Schrader).
Iris' father says:
"There is no way we can repay you for returning our Iris to us. We thought we had lost her, and now our lives are full again. Needless to say, you are something of a hero around this household. I'm sure you want to know about Iris. She's back in school and working hard. The transition has been very hard for her as you can well imagine. But we have taken steps to see she has never cause to run away again. In conclusion, Mrs. Steensma and I would like to again thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to come to New York again, to thank you in person or we surely would. But if you should ever come to Pittsburgh, you would find yourself a most welcome guest in our home."
While we can't say whether everything in Iris' life will be fine now, this seems somewhat reassuring, particularly when Burt Steensma notes that he and Iris' mother have needed to correct things about themselves too: "But we have taken steps to see she has never cause to run away again." Thanks to the murderous Travis, then, Iris and her parents are reunited. It's touching.