Nicky's Set It Off Response
“ Frankie saw that working for The Man in his bank will get you nowhere
because you are still guilty by association.� –Waiting to Set It Off,
Kimberly Springer (193-194)
I think this quote is significant to the findings of the movie. You don’t get the impression that these girls were showered with the idea of opportunities. I think they finally hit their low in terms of social depression when Frankie was laid off just because the guy that robbed the bank she worked in happened to live in her “hood,� for Tisean when her baby was taken from her, for Stony when her brother was killed even though he had no criminal record and graduated from high school and Cleo had a number of things on her record and never believed she was “better than that� as evidenced when she and Stony had that conversation about “where do you see yourself in five years� after their fight. The fact that their first bank robbery was successful gave them a false sense of opportunity… that they didn’t have to worry about their economic situations and it happened so quickly. I don’t really think they ever really expected to get out of the hood. I think they just let the hood engulf them until it seemed to be the only thing left to do.