Dinosaurs In The Hood Analysis

The making of film, or the concept of it, has been around since the beginning of the 18th century. The lens of the camera has captured some of the most beautiful things, but also the most prejudice. Stereotypes of races, ethnicities, and gender have always been around but were widely considered acceptable in films of that era. Almost as long as there have been people filming, there have been people fighting for equality to be presented on the big screen. Danez Smith is one of these modern fighters in his free verse poem “Dinosaurs in the Hood.” As Smith uses his words to create a poetic trailer for this stereotype-free movie, he tells the story of a young African American boy. Rather than being focused on his color, he focuses on his heroic actions when fighting wandering dinosaurs.

He uses juxtaposition when he says the movie will be “Jurassic Park meets Friday meets The Pursuit of Happyness,” creating a creature movie with the influence of “hood boys” (Smith, Dinosaurs in the Hood, line 2). In the last three lines of the first stanza, Smith uses imagery to paint the scene of an African American boy playing with a toy dinosaur as he gazes out his window to see a T.Rex because “there has to be a T. Rex.” Smith is saying that if this was a stereotype filled movie it would have to have a T.rex in it due to the overuse of that certain beast, but leaves the question open to if the dinosaur is stereotyped what African American cliches of the boy have to be in the