Boyz n the Hood, filmed in 1991, illustrates the problems young African Americans endure while growing up in “the hood”. The Outsiders portrays similar struggles with young white males of a low socioeconomic class. Both films take place in tough neighborhoods where many young men are killed due to violent crimes, like drive-bys or street fights. Both films also depict a main character who is struggling with his own identity and place in the community; however, The Outsiders takes on a much darker tone than Boyz n the Hood likely due to the point the director of Boyz n the Hood was trying to make on ending black-on-black violence. In both Boyz n the Hood and The Outsiders, the directors portray the young male’s struggle to overcome impulsivity …show more content…
Tre, from Boyz n the Hood, struggles to balance his impulsive nature with the upstanding education his parents have instilled in him. From fighting with a classmate to pressuring his girlfriend to have sex, Tre is introduced as a boy who does not consider future consequences. Furious Styles, Tre’s father, urges black people within the community to “think young brother, about your future.” The lack of consideration young black men have for their futures may ultimately lead to a lack of a future. Tre is ultimately able to save himself by taking his father’s lessons and experiences to heart. He actively chooses to go against his impulsive instinct and decides not to seek revenge for Ricky’s death. However, Doughboy’s constant heed towards his impulsive nature leads to his inevitable murder. Likewise, in The Outsiders, Bobby, a Social (Soc) who attacked Ponyboy and his friend, is the epitome of impulsivity. Bobby first demonstrates his impulsivity by pressuring Cherry, his girlfriend, to have sex despite her repeated refusal. His later jealousy fuels a blind rage that eventually leads to the final fight that ends with his death. Both films highlight the impulsive natures of the characters with various point-of-view shifts and close-up shots during the attempted drowning of Ponyboy, Doughboy’s murder of Ricky’s killers and Tre’s decision to leave. By …show more content…
In order to survive, the main characters must fit in with the community or risk alienation. In The Outsiders, the rivalry, between the Greasers and Socs, remains because generations of innocent boys have grown and fit into their deemed places in adolescent society and fueled the rivalry under the assumption that “nothing ever changes…Greasers will still be Greasers and Socs will still be Socs,” a self-fulfilling prophecy. The only way for boys on the east side to protect themselves from Socs is to assimilate to the Greaser community and participate in the fights against the Socs. Boyz n the Hood depicts Tre’s struggle to assimilate to hood culture where women are treated poorly and used for sex. Tre affects a “hood” vernacular and regales his father with tales of his sexual adventures, despite being a virgin, with a woman named Tisha. Despite knowing his father’s stance on the contraception, Tre claims not to have used protection inciting his father’s disappointment and anger on purpose. The film emphasizes the struggle between Tre’s background and his environment by blocking the two characters in a tight frame with Tre backed up against a refrigerator and Furious invading Tre’s intimate space, symbolic of education
Seven years later all the boys are in high school. Ricky the one who wants to become a football player has a girlfriend and a baby boy. Ricky wants to become a football player because he does not want to become like his brother Doughboy, who doesn’t do anything with his life. Ricky and Doughboy are half-brothers, they have the same mother. Tre moved in with his father when he was younger so his dad can teach him to become a “man”. Tre learns life lessons from his father, there is one part in the movie where Furious, Tre’s father, says “a black man has no place in the military.” Doughboy who is Ricky’s half-brother doesn’t have any plans for his life. All he does in the movie is hang out with 3 other people on his mom’s porch drinking beer, selling drugs, carrying guns and driving around. Doughboy has been in and out of jail. Doughboy, his girlfriend
Discusses how race is a conceptualized concept most often through stereotypes of different groups with the presence of a systematic structure of racism where the dominant group has placed themselves as superior and all other groups are deemed inferior. This structure often produces a negative impact on same race relations. Identity, according to this theory is created due to psychological enforcement of repeated racial oppression. The movie “Boyz N’ The Hood” demonstrates the effect of this enforced systematic structure and its negative impact on same race relations which lead to the ultimate death of some of the characters in this film (Singleton,1991). The movie takes place in impoverished South Central Los Angeles and depicts scenes of violence perpetrated by gangs against the main characters of the movie. Janet Helms points out that racial theory consists of four models White Identity, Black Identity, People of Color, and the Racial interaction model. She points out that the more an individual becomes aware of the social constructs of race and the racist system the closer
In the 1991 drama “Boyz in the Hood”, Written and Directed by John Singleton. He successfully attempts to portray what life was like and in some areas in America still is for African Americans living in a rough Los Angeles neighborhood. It displays a portrait of the harsh realities that plagues the black community and by displaying uninviting living conditions that is South Central L.A, Singleton aims to share to the world the self-destructive deviant behavior that is to this day, destroying the African American community. Some of the self-destructive deviant behaviors include gang life, selling drugs, and gun violence. Various issues are displayed in this movie involving the black community including deviance, poverty, gentrification, the importance of a father in a young man’s life and black on black crime. Singleton displays a tale of three friends growing up in the “hood”, plagued by drugs and violence and layers textures over rough and compelling visuals of black culture that shows us what it means to come to maturity, or die trying, as a black male. In this essay, I will be giving a thorough analysis of the film, as well as covering certain points from the movie from a sociological perspective to explain why singleton chose to write this film.
Ponyboy Curtis in the fourteen-year-old boy that explains the story in both the book and the movie, and also the youngest of the greasers. Ponyboy is very intelligent compared to the rest of the gang he is most defenatly the smartest to them all. Because his parents have died in a car accident, Ponyboy lives with his two brothers Darry and Sodapop in both the book and movie. Darry repeatedly accuses Ponyboy of lacking common sense in the book more so then in the movie, but Ponyboy is a much brighter then his brother takes him for. Throughout the novel, Ponyboy struggles with class division, violence, innocence, and familial love but in the movie they dont focus on his school as much. He matures over the course of the book and the movie both.
Throughout the 1992 film, “Boyz in the Hood,” John Singleton takes a closer look at urban black America in South Central Los Angeles. Doughboy, Ricky and Trey, along with their parents are chronicled from childhood to adulthood. Each person, though living in the same neighborhood chooses different paths in life. These characters were raised in a very deviant community, however there were many causes as to why they did not all become deviant. Deviance is defined as behavior that goes against what is socially acceptable. It is when a person disregards what is normal in a specific society and acts upon it. Throughout the movie these characters had many chances to engage in deviant behavior, as some did while
The characters: Tre Styles and Mookie are two young African-Americans in the films “Boyz N The Hood” and “Do The Right Thing” respectively. Both films were released around the same time period, with DO THE RIGHT THING being released in 1989, and BOYZ N THE HOOD in 1991. Both films are coming of age tales for Tre and Mookie, they both reside in a low-income, predominantly black neighborhood. Both films share a common theme: the idea of hopelessness and survival as a young black male in the “hood.” Both men are a product of what can only be described as “urban decay;” they are trying to find their place in a society that doesn’t care much for their well being or success. BOYZ N THE HOOD and DO THE RIGHT THING have a common
Boyz in the Hood is a statement of how urban youth have been passed a legacy of tragic indifference, and the writer has shown that it is an almost inescapable fate for those born into racism and poverty to repeat the patterns they wish to escape. The movie’s characters are clear representations of how the system fails young black youth in the United States, and the difference one mentor can make for these kids. During segregation young black children became targets for white brutality. This movie reflects what the European mentality and what it has done to the African American culture.
Fracis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders” (1983) is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by E.Hinton published in 1967. There are many theories that can be found throughout the movie, victim precipitation theory, differential association theory, strain theory and labeling theory are the most prevalent. The story takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma and revolves around the story of a 14 year old Greaser named Ponyboy Curtis. The town is split into two conflicting adolescent groups, the Greasers and the Socs. The Greasers are of lower class standings with harsh upbringings, poor kids from the wrong side of town (north) and are considered delinquents. The Socs, are privileged kids living on the south side who have an easy life where everything
Johnny , Ponyboy and Dallas also possessed specific interpersonal skills like openness and empathy which can be clearly seen in the scenes where they rescue the kids from the burning church without thinking about the consequences. They valued others life more than theirs that they were ready to sacrifice their own lives for saving the children. Their selfless sacrifice is evident in the scene, where while turning the pages of Johnny's copy of ‘Gone with the Wind’, Ponyboy finds a letter from Johnny saying that saving the children was worth sacrificing his own life. To conclude, the story of ‘The Outsiders’ is inspiring and it contains violence and strong language. I think its themes and conflicts are highly valuable as they still address many of the issues in the modern world. This film’s realistic portrayal has created a new kind of filmmaking which portrays poor teenagers from the wrong side of the tracks .I feel it is an easier way to lead the new generation in the right track through this effective form of communication. The movie also uses various elements and principles of interpersonal communication in many scenes. It would be a good action movie for the young generation to watch as they are mainly related to the realities rather than fantasy that
In The Outsiders, a book written by S.E. Hinton, there are two polar opposite gangs, the socs and the greasers. The socs, who are high class, have mustangs and “tuff” cars and wear plaid clothing called madras. The Greasers, who are lower class, are known for their long and greasy hair, wearing leather jackets and being hoods. They only have each other and always have everyone’s back. No matter the situation like leaving a door open in case they need to run away from home because of an abusive dad , they can count on one another. Ponyboy, a 14 year old Greaser, who is also the protagonist, along with other characters lose themselves while trying to be someone else they’re not. Hinton teaches us that it is important to remember that individual
“Need a haircut, greaser?’” “’How’d you like that haircut to begin just below the chin?”(Hinton, pg.5) A Soc says, as Ponyboy gets jumped by a few Socs. There is a colossal rivalry between the Socs and the greasers, and it has always been that way. The two gangs cannot see each other and put aside their differences, thus the greasers, the poorer gang, on occasion, experience “jumps”, or in other words gets injured by a couple of Socs. This goes the same for West Side Story, a movie created in 1961. In West Side Story, two gangs, the Sharks (Puerto Ricans), and the Jets (White), are rivals, and one gang is thought of a lesser group of people. Slowly but surely, both gangs in both The Outsiders and West Side Story and eventually put aside their differences. In both West Side Story, and The Outsiders, the gangs learn a very important theme: “I should do what is right, even if it means crashing the stereotypes.”
The film Boyz ‘n the Hood, directed by John Singleton is more than just a Hollywood blockbuster. The film incorporates numerous criminological theories and also demonstrates the concepts of conformity and deviance. This paper will analyze the characters of Tre, Ricky, Doughboy, Furious and other friends and family and show how criminological theories and the concepts of conformity and deviance play a part in their lives.
Boyz in the Hood starts off with the character Tre Styles as a young man who lives in South Central, Los Angeles with his mom Rita. The social work student viewed this beginning portion of the movie portraying his young life as a social worker. The social work student noticed that Tre lived with his mother in an apartment in a rough neighborhood. Tre went to school but had problems acting out and being the class clown. Tre and the friends he hung around here had foul language and used profanity as young kids. This is just one example of how Tre’s surroundings influenced his life. According to Newman & Newman (2014), the Social Role theory suggests that a person learns behaviors from observing in their environments. Young Tre Styles learned profanity from somewhere in his rough environment and this is a method of learning socially. Rita, his mother was working on her Master’s degree and wanted better for Tre, so it is unlikely she promoted the use of profanity in her household. A contract between the two was drafter and Tre agreed with his mother that if he did not behave he would move in with his father. Rita stayed true to the contract they drafted and took Tre to live with his father Furious, so Tre could learn how to be a man.
In the movie “Boyz in the Hood” director John Singleton, paints a clear image of the problems that happen very often in the African American communities. The movie deals with issues such as: the importance of a father in a young man’s life, the ongoing violence of black on black crime, and how black people are put in situations where they are put to fail and not succeed in life.
Have you ever read a very hard hitting and the phenomenal story about rival gangs and the effect it has on the lives of the people and the society. In The Outsiders, is a story of 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis and his two older brothers, Soda and Darry. The boys are orphans and struggle to stick together in their lower-class neighborhood, known as the East Side. They and their friends are part of a gang of tough street boys called the Greasers. Even though other people might think you're unimportant and below them. You will always have your friends and family. In The Outsiders, we see the idea of the difference in the society based on the economic level of the characters, honor among the lawless and violence among the youth.