Do The Right Thing Analysis

Who did the right thing?

“Do the right thing” is a 1989 movie written and directed by Spike Lee. The focus of the movie is Sal’s famous pizzeria which is owned by an Italian man named Sal along with his two sons- Pino and Vito- and his employee Mookie. The movie depicts what racial tension between whites and blacks looks like in a black dominated neighborhood. It comprises different characters with the rush to do the right thing. In this essay, I will deeply delve into 4 characters from the movie: Sal, Da Mayor, Tina and Radio Raheem, and discuss whether their action was the right thing to do or not. For each character, I will provide analysis of a situation and their response to it. I will use an illustration from the movie to bring a specific

In the movie, he is portrayed as a person who respects his place and a typical businessman who prioritizes getting money above anything. He has a “wall of fame” in which he hanged pictures of white Italians. Sal doesn’t show bad feelings towards the blacks openly, as they are his number one customers. He exhibited a fair behavior despite Mookie showing bad work ethics, such as taking so long to deliver a pizza. In his conversation with Pino, Sal said that he has never had trouble with the people but rather he is happy that they grew up on his food which makes him proud and hence, he prefers to stay there as it is the best place for him to get money. However, Sal gets into a disagreement with Buggin’ Out, who wants him to have some pictures of black people on the wall as it is a black neighborhood, for refusing to do so. From Sal’s perspective, refusing this is the right thing to do, because it is his own place and he has the right to do anything with his own space. I don’t think Sal is showing his racist behavior by refusing it, but rather he is celebrating his own values as he hanged pictures of Italians specifically; not whites or blacks but only Italians. Nonetheless, Sal calls Buggin’ Out the “N-word” towards the end of the movie when their fight gets heated up, which is not the right thing to do. This shows

Radio Raheem is a young black aggressive man with a boombox who rambles the street playing public enemy’s “Fight the Power”. He is portrayed as a very impolite person who tends to get into trouble wherever he goes. This is exemplified when he visits a supermarket to buy a battery where he yells and curses at the Korean shop owners and makes fun of them for not speaking fluent English. Furthermore, he always plays “Fight the Power” loud on the street and refuses to shut it off when people ask him to do so. The most remarkable incident is where he comes with buggin’ out with his radio playing loud and shouts at Sal to hang black pictures on the wall. I think what he did here is not the right thing. He came after the shop was closed, played the song really loud and refused to shut it off when Sal told him to. One can’t force a person to do things that they don’t want in their own shop. If Radio Raheem wants black pictures he should ask him more politely, instead of initiating a fight. This incident is what resulted in his death, which is not Sal’s fault but the cops’ fault for killing him; if not for the cops, Sal might have died instead. Disturbing a shop after it is closed, for something we don’t have any right over it is definitely not the right thing to