Do The Right Thing

In the movie Do The Right Thing we were introduced to a neighborhood and community of mostly black people. There were White people, and Chinese people, and Italian people, but they were there as the minority. The town had a lot of stereotypes but the people living there that were not black understood that in this town the blacks are the majority and it was safe to say they had a lot of power. In How Bigger Was born, Richard Wright discussed the fact that one character came from a variety of different people. These people all represented violence is different ways. He shaped a variety of personalities into one character. Just like in the movie the town had a variety of people with different personalities who all represented violence in a different way. In the movie some of the black people had a problem with the fact that in Sals pizzeria there were only pictures of white Italian people on the wall. These people wanted to boycott his place. This related to bigger number 1 Richard wright talked about because he said that bigger number 1 always got what he wanted and if anybody tried to disagree with him he would fight them. When radio Raheem walked into Sals pizzeria and would not turn his radio off, was when we saw parts of Bigger number 2. Bigger number 2 was bitter that white people had better things then he did. He was bitter about that most of his life so he rebelled. We saw Radio Raheem Rebelling when he would turn his music off. Bigger number 3 was violent he would walk into movie theatres and not pay and not care. Again this is like Radio Raheem because he did not care if his music was loud and if someone to him to turn it off he would respond with violence. Bigger number 4 showed some connections with the police man that killed Radio Raheem. Bigger number four killed because he thought he could. If someone did something bad he would kill. When the police officer strangled Radio Raheem to death we saw that he thought he had enough power to be able to kill him because radio Raheem did bad things. Bigger Number 5 was a man who stuck up for himself. He would sit somewhere that he was allowed and use violence as his excuse. Kind of like Buggin' out. Buggin' out was violent and he did things without caring if it were right or wrong as long as he had support.
After finishing this movie I had a lot of mixed emotions with Mookie’s character. He is a black man working at Sals pizzeria. Him and Sals sons continuously talk about the word nigger. They talk about what the word nigger means to white people. Vito tells Mookie that his favorite black musicians and athletes are not "niggers", but a lot of the people living in their town are considered "niggers". I thought that this could have given Mookie a feeling of uncertainty toward them wondering if they thought of him as a niggger or not. When Sal told Mookie that he thought of him as a son I think that is when Mookie realized that he isn’t just any other nigger to their family that is why I think Mookie threw the garbage can. He did it as a way to save them as people. He knew how crazy the community could get especially when they are all violent against three people. Throwing the garbage can might not save his store, but it would essentially save their lives which is far more important. Mookie also knew that if he made it seem like he was completely on Sals families’ side then the black people would not only be violent against Sal and the boys, but also be violent against Mookie. When Mookie threw the garbage can he did that so that the crowd of people can put their violence on the store and not on the people. In my opinion Sal, in a way, understood why Mookie did that. He was mad that he store was ruined, but he understood that if it wasn’t his store it could have been him. He didn’t want Mookie to think what he did was ok, but he also didn’t want him to think he was bitter about what happened. That is why he gave him extra money. He wanted to show him that he was thankful for saving his life and that he partly understood why he did what he did.