The hoplessness of youth : drug, alcohol, unemployment, in the movie BOYZ IN THE HOOD ( by john singleton).

EN001b 04 /05 /08

Prof . Mott

Alshalan Faisal

The Hopelessness of Youth : Drugs , Alcohol , Unemployment John Singleton 's Boyz in the Hood is not only a favorite movie of many but it is also a commentary on the way that some individuals are forced to grow up within communities that are not able to offer much support In particular , the inner city area of Los Angeles is the setting where many young men fall victim to the harsh realities of the real world and the ghetto simply because not enough

people took the time or gave the effort to help them survive . The reasons why individuals have such a hard time in that type of environment have as much to do with the overall lack of a father figure as they do with the difficult environment . Those two things combine to create a situation where most children growing up in South Central Los Angeles never hear of the idea of morality and certainly do not get the chance to exercise any morals in their decision making . Because of this , many of the children opt for a life full of crime instead of one that can add something to society They are often stripped of any type of future before they get started simply because they are in so much legal trouble that they have few other options

HYPERLINK "http /www .imdb .com /name /nm0000421 " Tre Styles : I didn 't do nothing

HYPERLINK "http /www .imdb .com /name /nm0272481 " Officer Coffey : You think you tough

[pulls gun on Tre]

HYPERLINK "http /www .imdb .com /name /nm0272481 " Officer Coffey Scared now , ain 't you ? I like that . That 's why I took this job . I hate little motherfuckers like you . Little niggers , you ain 't shit ! I could blow your head off with this Smith Wesson and you couldn 't do shit Think you tough ? What set you from ? Look like one of them Crenshaw mafia motherfuckers (IMDB

Crime , poverty and misery in ghettos are bound with social , economic and political consequences discussed by Zurin (1998 ) as "institutions and intentions (p . 512 . The community around them forces these children to live lives where crime is commonplace and it is in their best interest to not get caught . The only way that any person within the community will be spared this fate is if someone from the outside - a father figure or some other type of mentor - takes the time to show them the difference between right and wrong before it is too late

The initial problem exists within American ghettos , where life is much different than in the suburbs that are located just down the road . On the whole , American ghettos are rough places to live and the entire community has a sense of lawlessness that seems to permeate the lifestyles of those who occupy the ghetto

The empirical evidence clearly indicates that ghettos hurt blacks a great deal . Ghetto walls separate residents from mainstream society from mainstream jobs , and from contact...