Cultural props stick out in Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee successfully portrays the culture as well as the time period of Bed-Stuy neighborhood through his use of culture specific props. Since this movie takes place in the 80's music was a big part of Latino and African American culture as a means to express their want for freedom and equality. Lee emphasizes this part of history not only through the specific music that is played like the African American National Anthem and the beginning song "Fight the Power" but through the cultural significance of the boom box. The particular boom box I am speaking about is the one Radio Raheem carries in the movie. Although it is an instrumental prop as well as a cultural prop, it also holds a deeper meaning as the movie progresses making it a contextualized prop. We see this prop for the first time about fifteen minutes into the movie and before we even see Raheem's face we see a close up of the boom box. The characters talking to Raheem make a skittish comment about how big his boom box is and he walks off with the music blaring. This is a literal statement about the boom box itself, but I would like to theorize that this boom box represents the friction between the African Americans, Italians, Caucasians, and Koreans in this movie. The extra-large size of this boom box acts as a metaphor for how significant prejudices are within this neighborhood. There are a few more times where we see Radio Raheem, but all these scenes lead up to a breaking point in the movie dealing with the boom box itself. When Sal destroys Radio Raheem's boom box after him and Buggin' Out come to fight to get their "people" on the wall all hell breaks lose. If you were uncomfortable watching this movie before this scene makes it almost unbearable. I felt the tension between Sal and the others. It is the boom box that builds this tension up. Like I said before be aware this is a hard movie to watch, but it has an important story to tell.