Good Example Of Sociology Essay

The Movie “Menace II Society” is a movie based on the life of one Caine Lawson and his peers growing up in South Central, Los Angeles. It narrates the experiences of the black youth through the eyes and actions of Caine and his close friends. The story shows the actors lives that are riddled with despair, violence, drugs and anger. The story captures the bleak despairing look at a black youth’s life from the time they are born to their early violent demise. This film presents the dark and violent reality of every urban neighborhood. Menace II Society, unlike other black movies that predominantly focus on the American racism, dwells on the inter-black hatred and contempt of their own.
The movie depicts violence in the black society that is brought about by lawlessness and unemployment. Caine Lawson, the main character of this film, engages in violence which he sanitizes as hustling and survival in the “hood”. The opening scene of this movie attests to this. Cain and his accomplice O-Dog engage in acts of violence where they murder and rob a Korean store owner. The two have no remorse for their actions a fact that clearly illustrates how crime is embedded in the way of life of the black urban youth. The film like sociology, though subtly, tries to show the root cause of this violent mentality in the black youth in America through Cain’s childhood. The movie through dreamlike flashbacks show the poor family set-up of the lead character. Cain’s parents were both into drugs; his father was a drug dealer and mother a drug addict. Cain’s father was also a killer. The young Cain witnessed his father casually shooting a crony over money in a card game. These two scenarios, easily exemplify the eventual violent nature of the lead character in maturity. Alcohol and drugs are seen as catalysts of many crimes in the South Central society. The society in entirety has to deal with the negative effects of these two factors. The old such as Cain’s parents and the young -Cain’s peers are all “hooked on” drugs. Prostitution and wanton sexual behavior are also heavily linked to the drug abuse menace in this society. The “crack” addicts for instance are portrayed offering oral sex favors in exchange for drugs.
Crime and criminal justice as portrayed in this film are interrelated. The law enforcers in this film are also part of some of the crimes ravaging these urban centers. In one scene the lead character, Cain and his friend Shariff are wrongly pulled off the streets and battered. The two are later on left in the Latino sidewalks where Latino gangs resides and where they could easily be executed. The police in this case can only be described as unnecessarily unjust and brutal, a fact that clearly explains why the hatred for police never subsides in the black neighborhoods. The injustice committed by the custodians of law can be said to be the strongest factors that foster violence and desperation in these black societies. The tension between the justice systems and the young black youths continue to be intensified due to the other underlying factors in the society such as racism. Many of the law enforcers are predominantly white and racist. They view all idle black youth as potential delinquents. The black youth, on the other hand, understand the bias that exists in the criminal justice system. They, thus, engage in crime with the least concern of the laws of the land after all the police are just criminals like them, they are only just above the law.
Economic problems are also prevalent in the black society as portrayed by the Menace II Society flick. The main themes surrounding economic problems are wealth and poverty. These two themes each influence the activities and actions and all the Watts society constituents. Poverty drives most of the black youth into drugs, crime, prostitution and other vices. Cain’s parents were each driven to drugs by poverty but in different contexts. His mother became a drug addict due to the desperation brought about by the abject poverty she found herself in. His father, on the other hand ventured into the drug business as a means of acquiring means to sustain his livelihood. The dream of making it big and becoming wealthy is another factor that runs events in this film. The black youth try to “hustle’ by all means: legal and illegal to make it. Many of the youthful individuals want to live large but do not want to work in any formal or informal platform. Virtually every luxury in Menace II Society was never earned through proper means but rather stolen or people killed for it. The rich in this neighborhoods are mostly gang leaders and drug lords who unfortunately are admired and form a social template for the black youth on prosperity.
Gender inequality and the changing family are also some sociological perspectives that are incorporated in this film. The women are deemed inferior as the black community in this context is patriarchal. The women in most cases are dismissed in sexist terms such as “bitch”, “whore” and only viewed as sex objects. The lead actor, Caine, after many sexual encounters with a girlfriend impregnates her and leaves her. Many of the women playing minor roles in the film are reduced to acting out sexual scenes. The film also illustrates the dominant single mother family set-ups that are as a result the male negligence in the society. Many of the families are also turned single due to the crime rates in the black neighborhoods. Most of the young fathers lose their lives as they engage in criminal activities leaving young families in the hands of their wives and girlfriends. In the lead actor’s case, he was raised by his grandparents after the demise of his parents to drug-related issues. The gender disparities however are portrayed differently in the case of Caine’s loving grandmother and Ronny, a single mother aspiring the best for the young son.
In recap, the movie is the ultimate portrayal of the social context that many black urban neighborhoods find themselves in. The themes of violence are graphically illustrated with snapshots of past historical 1965 Watts riots. The film makers must be credited for living up to the sociology elements in their production. They try in most cases to link problems with their root causes. The film, however, positively shows that there are few in the society willing to escape from these problems given an opportunity. The lead actor, Caine, dies as he tries to change his life for better with Ronnie and her son in Atlanta. The profanities and violence as captured in the movie are by all means justified to show the reality in the black “hoods”, the menace in this society.