Set It Off Response
"Cleo. . . may have a natural penchant for rebellion and violence, but the other three want desperatly to make it into middle-class comfort and respectability and have simply reached their limits of frustration" (Springer 180).
I think this quotation is very important while considering the intentions of the four female bank robbers in the film. Cleo is an off the wall character that shows mild violent intentions at various times in the film. A viewer can tell that she has lived a life around violence, especially considering the fact that she has grown up in the projects. Her bad mouth and temper illustrates that she has a natural penchant for such actions as seen in the film. The other three females have contrasting objectives, however. For Frankie, the object for her actions is a combination of revenge and opportunity. She is fired from the bank at the beginning of the film primarily because she knows the suspects. After she is fired, she can no longer get a job at any other banks, and must subject herself to low wage labor at the same cleaning service as her three friends. Robbing banks is easy money, but there is probably no greater reason for doing so than payback. I think this is evident right before she dies at the end of the film. The police officer attempts to talk Frankie down, but instead she points a gun to his head and reitterates the same words that came out of his mouth when he was interrogating her about the bank procedure during a robbery. I think she was trying to make a last effort point because she knew that her life was about to end. For Tisean, her motive was fairly simple. She needed money in order to raise her child. She wasn't making much money at the cleaning service and thus couldn't afford to raise him off of it. If she could raise some quick cash, she could provide a good living environment for him. Stony's motive is much more like Frankies. She does want to be in the comfort of the middle-class. This is evident at a number of parts in the movie. She wants to provide for her brother and send him to college, thus prostituting herself to a local business man. Even at the party she attends with her boyfriend later in the film illustrates her attempts at trying to fit in with a more classy society. The thing that pushes Stony over the edge, however, is revenge for her brother. Before her brother's death, she has the good sense to push back any ideas about robbing banks. Once Stevie is murdered by the LAPD, she decides to take part in the scheme. It's basically her rebellion against society. She tried to live life straight up, but it kept beating her back so she decided she wasn't going to do that anymore. Coincidentally, Stony is the only one to survive.