Hello, and welcome!
Do The Right Thing and "How Bigger Was Born" have the theme identity in common, but the outcome of how that theme played out was different in both sources. When Richard Wright talked about characters like Bigger who he saw every day, he discovered "Bigger Thomas was not black all the time; he was white, too" (441). Bigger was a symbol of all the people who want to live life to its fullest, so Wright was saying that whites and blacks may not identity themselves with each other, but they both want the same things, and there are Bigger Thomases within both races, making them much more similar than they thought. Similar to Wright's thinking about Bigger, Spike Lee set up several groups of races who identified themselves with their race specifically. There were Italians, Mexicans, African Americans, Aisains etc. and each group wanted to have power and money. The characters had complex relationships with each other, and had similar goals just like how blacks and whites can identify with their own race, yet both want to live life to its fullest. The fate of most of the "Bigger Thomases" that Wright talked about was a violent death because they stood up to society for what they believed in. The fate in Do The Right Thing for each person of each race was different. The store of the Itialians got wrecked, an African American man died, an Aisian had to guard his store, but it was race vs. race, not person vs. society like in Richard Wright's case.
At the end of the movie I was a bit shaken up. Someone died, a store was demolished, relationships were torn, all in a very short period of time. I had to play back what happened several times to make what happened in the movie more clear. The whole situation was like something that happens in real life since there was no time for me to analyze the situation and think about better decisions during the movie since things were happening so fast, just like real life. After having time to reflect on the movie, I believe everyone had adequate reasons to do what they did, but I do not think they all did the right thing. For example, Buggin' Out had a good reason to want black people on the Sal's wall, Radio Raheem had a good reason to play his music, Sal had a good reason to smash Raheem's radio, the police had a good reason to defend Sal, Mookie had a good reason to throw the garbage can in the window, and the mob had a good reason to demolish the store. However, most of the reasons formed because of misunderstanding the entire situation, and external factors distracting people from good decision-making. For example, when Sal smashed the radio, he just got finished with a long day of work, fighting with his sons, and was just about ready to go home. The last thing Sal wanted to do was so I think the only act that was well understood was Mookie, saving Sal by throwing the garbage can into Sal's window. Mookie understood the entire situation, and knew that Sal and his sons were in big trouble if no one shifted the attention off of them. Mookie took it upon himself to save his co-workers, even if they would never understand what his true intentions were. Mookie acted humanely, for the greater good, really showing what it means to do the right thing.
