Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing: The Symbolic Role of Character Radio Raheem
The character of Radio Raheem, played by Bill Nunn, in Spike Lee's film Do the Right Thing is meant to symbolize anger in the face of oppression. It is the Radio Raheem character, who seems to wander in and out of several key scenes in the film, who ultimately sparks the violence that leads to the cathartic and notoriously ambiguous conclusion to the film. In what follows, I intend to analyze the role that Radio Raheem serves in Do the Right Thing, showing how his death at the end of the movie was inevitable, given the circumstances of the characters' lives; in a word, his death makes perfect sense in the world of the film - a world that is very close to real life in New York in the 1980s. We first meet Radio Raheem early on in the film, in a segment in which each of the characters are being introduced in a series of scenes. Radio Raheem walks by a group of teenagers hanging out on the street. He is carrying his huge boom box, which blasts the Public Enemy song "Fight the Power" - a song that will become Radio Raheem's trademark throughout the course of the movie. He also wears the same outfit, including a Bedstuy t-shirt, throughout the course of the film, which takes place during a single summer day. As he walks by th
In the film's famous fire hydrant scene, in which some of the neighborhood teenagers, driven crazy by the heat, open a fire hydrant on the street and begin spraying some of the residents with water, until they are eventually stopped by police men. The Latinos react in anger, and turn up their music in order to drown out Radio Raheem's. Mookie admires Radio Raheem's brass knuckles - the ones on his right fist read LOVE, while the ones on the left read HATE. The enraged African American denizens of the neighborhood then turn their violent attention away from the men and on to the destruction of the pizza parlor instead. As a testament to the respect he garners in the neighborhood, however, he is allowed to pass by without being sprayed by the water. They are listening to the radio, which is blasting Latin music. Despite the fact that no one seems to know much about Radio Raheem, he is clearly respected by the community he lives in. The "fight" against the "power" has been won - at least momentarily. Buggin Out is enraged that Sal does not have any African Americans on his "wall of fame," which consists wholly of Italian Americans. It is obvious that Spike Lee intended this. As Radio Raheem marches down the street, leaving his victims behind, a small black child runs up next to him. Together, Buggin Out and Radio Raheem go in to confront Sal in the scene of the film that will lead to the bloody climax. At the same time, it could also be argued that it is Radio Raheem's uncontrollable anger that got him killed. But it is a violent act - namely, the murder of Radio Raheem by the New York police - that sparks off the rioting that results in the destruction of Sal's pizzeria.
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Acceptance Essays
