Boyz n the hood Assignment

I had never seen a movie like Boyz n the hood, but I grew up in Dallas and I have a pretty good idea of the outlook for children growing up in an urban area. Although I was raised in the suburbs, I had some friends from the downtown area and my school even had a large number of people in gangs, a high rate of pregnancy, and a drug use problem. The movie was very good at showing multiple perspectives and sides to the situation that is prevalent in more than one urban area while at the same time relating it back to our lives specifically as we live and go to school at the University of Southern California. Ricky was an example of positive masculinity being promoted, he was athletic and very well mannered. Most importantly, Ricky was an example of of someone who had the opportunity and the drive to escape his situation his family's poverty cycle. Although he was the father of a child born out of wedlock and was a teenager, two things that do not have high success rates, Ricky had the structural support of his family and friends to help him deal with the stresses of being a teenage parent trying to go to school. Tre and his father Furious also had positive masculine qualities. They were both perceived as good looking and able to provide for their families, as Furious owned a business and Tre was very intelligent and college-bound. Doughboy on the other hand was seen as "dangerous" because he had been in jail multiple times and did not take his studies seriously enough to get into college or a trade school to improve his situation. He was also an avid drinker and very aggressive towards others, qualities that can be seen as dangerous. Race was predominately showcased by the fact that all the characters were African American, therefore showing the dominance that the African American culture had over southern Los Angeles.

Women seen to also only have a few options for lifestyles in the movie. Ricky's girlfriend, although a teenage mom, had a pretty good outlook because she had Ricky and his family to rely on, and Tre's girlfriend was doing well in studies and ended up in college, where she had the opportunity to succeed and escape her situation. There were plenty of examples of girls however, who did not spend their time on studies and instead spent their time drinking and with boys; their futures did not seem so right, and were also demonstrated by the lifestyle of the mother of Ricky and Doughboy, and the mother who was on drugs. Tre's girlfriend seems to be an active agent in her own life, but the film did not focus on her struggle and other women in the movie can be seen as passive.