FREE ESSAY ON DO THE RIGHT THING

DO THE RIGHT THING

The movie Do the Right Thing, a group of people in the district of Brooklyn, have had
enough and tensions are growing in this black ghetto area. The only local businesses are
a Korean grocery and Sal's Pizzeria. Mookie, Sal's delivery boy, manages to always be at
the center of the action.
The movie Do the Right Thing is a movie about a neighborhood that suffers from lack of
diversity. On a hot day, these tensions boil over and every thing race, hatred, and envy
comes out. It all starts with Spike Lee working in Sal's pizzeria. He is the only one of
his friends to have a job. He works in the pizza parlor as a delivery boy along with the
owner, Sal, and his two sons. The movie goes on and these teenager face the everyday
struggle of being black in a society that does not care much about blacks who live in
poor neighborhoods. And on a day where these blacks have had enough and finally decide to
take a stand, they revolt against the wrong non-blacks. They revolt against the two local
businesses, a Korean grocery store, and Sal's pizzeria, they rely on the most. The revolt
ends with one of the teenagers being killed, and a bad neighborhood gone worse. An
important character in the movie is Mookie, who is played by Spike Lee. Spike Lee's life
revolves around money. The ironic thing about the whole situation is he does not make
nearly enough of money to support his son and his girlfriend because he is still living
in his mom's house. He always talks about money, but he does not make enough to support
his son, and his own needs. This problem lies with a lot of young men this age. They feel
as long as they have a steady job, no matter the pay, they feel as if they are sufficed.
Spike Lee lives his life day-to-day, not at all planning for the future. He feels that as
long as he has a hundred dollars in his pocket that he is fine. But he never thinks to
save any of his money in case of any emergencies. Having money does not necessarily mean
that a person will be happy or be able to live their life to the fullest. Spike Lee
believes that as long as he has some money on him that he will achieve happiness. Spike
Lee also uses his money as power. Living in a small, impoverished neighborhood, Spike Lee
has power over all his friends who do not have jobs and do not have as much money as he
does. What Spike Lee fails to realize is that every person is different, and even though
it is nice to have money, people have different priorities in life. Some people need
money to stay alive, and others do not need it at all. Spike Lee needs money to stay
alive, because he has to take care of his son. Most of his friends do not need money like
he does because they do not have obligations such as a child. Because Spike Lee lives in
an enclosed world where the only thing that he understands is that without money, a
person can not exist. Which is true, but when money is the only thing a person lives for,
as is the case with Spike Lee, then that type of person can not exist either. Spike Lee
lives the life many young men choose to live. His surroundings and his friends also do
not positively influence his decisions.
Spike Lee grows up in New York City and is the subject of much oppression. He grows up in
a place where young blacks are constantly harassed by the police and are subject to a
great deal of racism. The only business around is the local grocery store owned by
Koreans, who do not take kindly of the local children. Also, there is Sal's Pizzeria,
where Spike Lee works. Italians run this place. The local African Americans have no
stores run by fellow African Americans, therefore, the money that they spend at these
fine establishments will not stay in the neighborhood. In other words, their money will
not come back to benefit them in no way. As a result, he can not go into a store without
people constantly worrying about him and his friends stealing something. This is one
reason why he is always flaunting his money to everyone. He must show society that he
does not have to steal from it to make a living. It is a shame that people must think
this way. This is how Spike Lee thinks, and he feels as if the world is out to get him.
The environment is the main reason why Spike lee and his friends act and think the way
they do.
Another important character in the movie is Radio Raheem. He is the stereotypical black
criminal. He is very big and muscular, tall, and strong. He strikes fear into the hearts
of many people who do not know him. He constantly walks around with his radio playing
really loud. The song that is always playing on his radio is "Fight the Power," which is
symbolic. This song explains how Radio Raheem feels every time he passes someone and they
automatically categorize him as a criminal. As a result, he wears two rings, one on each
hand. One ring says LOVE written across his hand the on the other the word HATE. Love is
on the right hand showing people that that is what is morally right. Hate is on the left
hand showing people that that it is morally wrong to hate. But in life, it is all
switched around. People would rather hate someone before loving him or her, and Radio
Raheem is a victim of that. People assume that because he is big, black and carries his
radio around with him all the time that he is a bad person, and they never really take
the time out to get to know him as a person. Spike Lee does and he realizes that Radio
Raheem is not a bad person. This is also seen at the end of the movie when the police
kill Radio Raheem. He is an innocent bystander to the whole situation but yet the police
pick him out of the crowd and decide to assault him because they say he looks the "most
dangerous." They ultimately end up killing him, when he did nothing at all to resist
arrest. Radio Raheem was a victim of something he had no control over. Because of his
skin color and his build other people forever saw him as wrong.
Another person who meant well but people saw as bad was Sal. Sal just like Radio Raheem
had no control over what ultimately led to his downfall; his skin color. Sal owned the
local pizza parlor and even though he was Italian he did not mind at all working in an
inner city, poor, black neighborhood. He knew this was a risk, but everyone in the
neighborhood seemed to like him because he never did anything wrong and he never did
anything to upset the local people. Sal enjoyed working where he worked and doing what he
did. There were several instances in the movie where his sons would ask him why he would
not move the parlor to a better neighborhood, and Sal would tell them that he liked being
where he was. Sal also knew that even though he had no problems with the people that
there was always going to be a difference between people in the neighborhood and himself.
Therefore, he did a brilliant thing and hired Spike Lee. He knew that if something went
wrong and someone came in the store trying to cause problems that Spike Lee might be
better off handling the situation because there is they have something in common. That
difference led to the burning down and vandalism of Sal's pizza parlor. Because when
Spike Lee finally realized that he was being used as this problem solver, he did not like
it, and he ended up starting the riot of Sal's pizzeria. 
The underlying theme of the movie is that the world is very diverse. If people do not
start to learn to accept other people's diverse ways and living then the world is going
to be a very hard place to live in. This neighborhood struggled to survive because these
diversities and society's bigotry became unbearable for these people. And because society
is unfair they automatically assumed that everyone not of the same race of them is
unfair. And Sal became a victim of this because he had plenty of chances to move his
store from the neighborhood because he felt that he was doing something good for the
neighborhood. He did not realize that the constant verbal abuse from the police and
physical and mental abuse from society began to take its toll, and the people needed
someone to blame it on, and since Sal and the Koreans were the only non black businesses
close by, they got the brunt of the violence.
Director: Spike Lee
Producer: Spike Lee
Main Characters: Danny Aiello (Sal), Spike Lee (Mookie), Giancarlo Esposito (Buggin'
Out), and Bill Nunn (Radio Raheem.