Introduction
The film “Boys in the Hood” happens in Los Angeles, California, and focuses on a set of African American youth that matures together in the same locality. The film gives us an overview of the world and the situation that numerous African Americans have to endure.
In the course of the trials, sufferings, and confrontations that young men experience, we can witness some of the social and financial setbacks that confronted many African Americans in the past and presently (Chantal par. 2). This paper will analyze the urban planning of the film by considering three major topics covered by the film: Importance of role model or friendship in urban slums, the importance of education, and gun violence.
Gun violence
Aggression in the urban areas will forever be a setback in the society unless something is done. Most of the residents portrayed in the film resided in tiny homes and had many economic difficulties that were evident in their day-to-day lives. In a community that upholds financial prestige above everything else, the transformation would be complicated. The imbalance in the allocation of resources is an important basis for violence (Chantal par. 3).
A common presumption portrayed in the film is that the American youth desires what it cannot get. The movie reveals the inability of the youth to handle the pressures of urban life and eventually being carried away by them, through peer pressure. The moral decay of urban society is evidenced by the ease with which teenagers are acquiring and accessing guns and drugs.
It is evident in the film of how Ricky is gunned down by a group of youth after an argument, leaving his young child fatherless. This violence does not end there, and his friend, led by Doughboy, commences a search for the killers in order to revenge the death of their companion.
A further indication of gun violence occurs when Doughboy and his friends find the group responsible for the murder, and exterminates them. One big question that arises is how teenagers access guns. Why are guns so commonly available to boys of such an age? In an effort to show how the menace of gun violence was far from over, Singleton notifies the audience that Doughboy would be killed a couple of days after his brother’s burial (Singleton 28).
The theory of urban modernity and its effects on society are well demonstrated in this film. President Obama recently tackled the issue of gun aggression when he addressed the South Side high school in Chicago. The young people in Chicago expressed their living as hard due to the expected panic of being stabbed, gunned, or murdered.
Importance of education
It is evident that the lack of access to education in the movie arises due to difficulties surrounding the family and community at large. Children who lack parents, or those who only have a single or no parent, have difficulties accessing education. This is evidenced by Doughboy in the film, a youth who does not have a father.
Doughboy has no education ambitions and does not concern himself with education simply because he is not aware of its importance and because of his ignorance. As a result, Doughboy’s companions easily lure him into alcohol and substance abuse. Such behavior could have been avoided if Doughboy had access to education since he would be knowledgeable about the effects of drugs and would have work to do.
On the contrary, the key character, Tre, who has a father, strives to evade his neighborhood’s brutal sequence by getting admission to a good university. Because Tre was aware of the implications of alcohol from the education he had obtained from his father, he throws it away when his peers give it to him (Singleton 29).
This problem is becoming rampant in the United States where many young people, due to poverty and lack of education, are turning their unutilized potential into dangerous actions such as drug trafficking. Experts have associated the mass murders committed in Newtown, Aurora, and Connecticut to a group of ignorant and idle youth who have nothing to do and loiter in the streets.
However, the federal government has attempted to solve this problem by introducing various local youth programs like the Benning Terrace Soldiers and the Beautiful U to assist the youth sail through their difficult environment (Singleton 30).
Importance of role model or friendship in urban slums
The urban society depicted by the movie is one where shooting is a normal reality, where forthcoming vehicles may disguise death, and where ordinary disagreements can turn lethal. Therefore, it is necessary for the youth in that neighborhood to have role models and good friends whom they can emulate and follow.
One of the major topics of the film is the importance of a father to his child’s sound maturity and the devastating consequences that a father’s absence has on children and the community. For instance, Tre has a father who stoutly molds and directs him. The presence of his father in his life enables him to learn the virtues of accountability, devotion, and decency. Therefore, Tre evades the social vices that saturate his Los Angeles locality, like gang attachment, fights, drug involvement, and obsession (Chantal Par. 1).
Unfortunately, Los Angeles is full of children who do not have fathers or who have irresponsible mothers. A good example of such a youth is Doughboy who lacks a father figure and who has an uncaring mother.
He lacks someone to teach him about perseverance, devotion, and responsibility during his youthful stage, and yields to his neighborhood social vices. His friends do not advice him and instead recruit him into selling drugs and engaging in murder. All these occurrences evidence the roughness and brutality of urban life to the youth (Mennel 36-37).
Conclusion
While many movie makers have presented comedies about urban brutality, impoverishment, and drugs, only some have addressed the moral resilience needed to endure such an inhumane atmosphere (Mennel 37-39). Boys in the Hood is the narrative of one black boy approaching maturity while fortified with the inspirations, principles, and hardiness handed to him by his harsh, but loving father.
The director, John Singleton, has performed a notable work demonstrating the intensity of the temperament required to grow up being insightful and accountable. This film talks to our hearts with its meanings about accountability, adulthood, companionship, optimism, and confidence. This paper has indicated the need for the government to initiate reforms to transform the urban setting and design to make it more friendly and simple to delicate and vulnerable youth.
Works Cited
Chantal, Hailey. “The Devastating Impact of Persistent Crime on Teens.” The Atlantic cities 2013: Par. 1-3. Place matters. Web.
Mennel, Barbara. Cities and cinema, New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.
Singleton, John. Boys N the Hood, USA: Columbia University Press, 1991. Print.