Professor Young
ENGW 1101
28 May 2018
Response to Do the Right Thing Questions
The theme of right versus wrong is very prevalent in Spike Lee's screenplay Do the Right Thing. There are several scenarios in which characters are faced with the choice to do the "right" thing. There is one character who time and time again makes the right choice and shows humility even when faced with adversity: Da Mayor. In one incident, we see that he needs money to feed his alcoholism; but instead of begging or stealing, he asks Sal to give him a task to complete in exchange for cash. Another incident portraying Da Mayor as a "Good Samaritan" is when he jumps in front of a car, risking his own life, to push Eddie to safety. He asks for nothing in return and simply carries on with his day.
I feel that i can relate to Da Mayor on many levels. First and foremost, we are both addicts. Although I am in recovery and he is not, addiction is still something that I deal with on a daily basis. One of the more interesting details about Da Mayor's character is that he is defined by his disease at first, but as the story edges closer to the climax, we see the many great acts of righteousness that he has performed; and the story conveys the message that a person is not defined by his or her addiction. However, at the end of the film, Da Mayor tries to keep the peace but is disregarded by the others due to his reputation as an alcoholic. It is a sad but true fact that many people are judged solely on first impression and not on what lies beneath the surface. . Da Mayor does acts of kindness including, but not limited, to saving a little boy, Eddie, from being hit by a car and protesting for peace while a
group of African Americans from the community burn Sal’s Pizzeria. He is a Good Samaritan of sorts because Da
Mayor understands that “violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors
and brutality in the destroyers,” so he avoids it altogether and advocates for
peace instead.
