Boyz N the Hood Comparison

        When you first look, the movie Boyz n the Hood and the book Black Freedom Fighters in Steel they both seem to have nothing in common. However, once you read and watch them, the two stories correspond to one another in many intriguing ways. They are separated by the Civil Rights period and they both tell a story of oppression and solidarity.

        Oppression is the meaning of prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control and in both the movie and the book people of color are struggling to survive in a world that seems to be out to get them with a society built around a foundation of influential and personal racism and hatred. The stories in both piece together notions to surviving under such oppression with intertwining themes of solidarity, oppression, and a little bit of ambition.

Solidarity and ambition, although different in definitions according to the dictionary, both describe a strong desire to achieve or to do something within a group of unity among individuals. The theme of solidarity presents itself in both Boyz n the Hood (or lack of) and Black Freedom Fighters in Steel and everyone knows what it means and feels like to be ambitious. It encourages people that its possible to do something that seems unattainable for an individual to improve ones life to achieve whatever they are fighting for. If one lacks that ambition because they’ve been knocked down time and time again then it could be impossible to change ones situation and therefore becomes pointless to try.

In order to compare the theme of solidarity in both works, I will first emphasize the important plots in Boyz n the Hood, showing how solidarity effects the difficulty of people of color growing up in an urban environment. Then, I will highlight points of Black Freedom Fighters in Steel, which show solidarity and its effects on those struggling to make a better life for themselves and their families. Finally, I will do an overall comparison of how solidarity is presented in both Boyz n the Hood and Black Freedom Fighters in Steel.

At the beginning of Boyz n the Hood we see a young Tre Styles that is showing lack of respect towards his teacher, students, and his friends. Tre, ends up getting into a fight with one of his friends and ends up getting sent home and suspended. His mother, who is worried about his future, sends him to live with his father Furious in likelihood that he will learn some valuable lessons. Tre is then reunited with his childhood friends, Ricky, Doughboy, and Chris. The boys all go on a walk when Chris asks if they want to see a dead body and it’s at this point where we see the first sign of solidarity.

While the boys are looking at what it’s assumed to be a murdered gang member a fellow gang member intimates Ricky and attempts to take his prized possession football. Doughboy, who is Ricky’s brother, attempts to stand up for Ricky. However, in the end, Doughboy gets beaten up and the ball is taken, (although one of the gang members throws it back to Ricky in the end).

Furious Styles shows to be one of the more solid and grounded main characters in the movie. He shows that he’s willing to take care of his son when he is needed and isn’t out at the ‘corners of liquor stores’ like a lot of the people Furious grew up with. When Tre and Ricky go see Furious after they took the SAT’s he takes the boys to see a billboard in the middle of what looks like a bad area.

He starts talking about Gentrification, which is what happens when the property value of a certain area is brought down and others can buy the land at a lower price and sell it at a profit. While Furious is talking about this a gang from across the street comes over to listen as well as an elderly man too. The elderly man blames the gang for bringing down the market in the neighborhood while they can’t just allow another gang to take them out without repercussions.

Basically Furious is trying to teach Tre and Ricky as well as others who would listen about the cause and effect of what is happening to their neighborhood and how it can be stopped. He’s trying to unite people of all ages to stop the cycle that keeps happening. Young people go into the gangs, they shoot, kill, and go to jail, and the elderly people in the neighborhood blaming everything on them. By doing that he’s bringing solidarity into these different groups and trying to get them to think about their future and move on from the path that they’re going down.

Soon after Tre and Ricky hear Furious and what he has to say they go and meet up with Doughboy and the others where there seems to be a huge gathering of people hanging out. Ricky, who has a son of his own, is trying to go to University of Southern California on a football scholarship to make a better life for him and his family. He’s the favorite of his mother’s and seems to be the ticket for the family to move out of the urban lifestyle. Although he’s not in the gang life, he knows that he has to take care of himself when it comes to others.