Set It Off
I chose a quote from Kimberly Springer's piece "Waiting To Set It Off," from page 187 (196 in CP)
"Most of the women in Set It Off are provoked to violence by their economic situation, believing that
robbing banks is their only recourse."
In this film all four women are struggling to come up with enough money to support their different lifestyles. Frankie, in the beginning loses her job at the bank because she is suspected of helping the bank robbers. She is then forced to get a job with her three other friends working for a man cleaning buildings, because she needs the money. No one is making very good money but they are getting by until problems in their lives begin to arise. First of all, Stony has to pay for her brother to go to college. She isn't making enough money where she works so she has to resort to prostitution. Then Tisean loses her child because of suspected child neglect. Tisean had to bring her child to work because she couldn't pay for a sitter and the boy got into some of the cleaning chemicals and was poisoned. So Tisean needs money to get her child back. In the end they all decide that robbing banks is the only way to get themselves out of the situations that they are in and out of there social class into a better life. It turns out that robbing banks isn't as rewarding as the women thought it would be and when they become greedy and money hungry they begin to turn on each other and resort to violence to satisfy their hunger.