Boyz in the Hood - Thomas Kuppe
This was a great movie, and for me a walk down memory lane since everyone back in grade school talked like the people in the movie. The people in the movie are split between two kinds of people, people who want to get out of the hood, and the people who don't like it there but have just grudgingly accepted living there. This point is illustrated by Tre and Doughboy respectively. They both share a great deal of frustration towards living there but only Tre manages to escape near the end when he jumps out of the car on the way to get revenge. He realized that the cycle of revenge was never ending and was the trap that kept people in the hood. Doughboy seemed to have realized it, but he thought that it was his brother who was supposed to find a way out and that he was nothing more than a screw up, a view given to him by his mom. Had I been in the same situation I'm not sure what I would have done. Sure I would have been angry. As a middle class spoiled suburban white kid I probably wouldn't have gone through with killing out of revenge, but if I had spent my life thinking I was trapped in a bad situation with little or no possibility of getting out I probably would kill out of sheer apathy towards continuing my life. The people in the movie must have thought the same way, or maybe they came to the conclusion to kill a different way, point is when you have nothing to lose you are more likely to take risks. But as soon as you fight back someone else will come for you, and Doughboy and his crew new this. At the end he laments that someone will probably come and kill him too now that he has killed, and he was right. How can one get out of the cycle of violence? Tre's answer was probably the best, but just walking away. If you feel you are doomed to be stuck in a bad lot in life, however, this answer doesn't have much appeal since its allowing you to be further disrespected and dis empowered.