SOC-325 3-2 Milestone One

The film "Boys in the Hood" focuses on racial profiling, gang violence, and poverty in South Central Los Angeles. The main characters, Trey, Ricky, and Doughboy, live in the same neighborhood but have different paths in life. The film highlights social issues like police brutality, gang violence, and poverty. Sociological analysis can shed light on these issues from different perspectives: functionalist, conflict, and interactionist. Questions to explore include the film's impact on perceptions of race, the connection between gang violence, and mental health in such environments. The film I have chosen for this final project is Boys in the Hood. I selected this film because it focuses on racial profiling, gang violence, and poverty. Boys in the Hood is focused on life in South Central Los Angeles, California. The main characters are Trey Stiles, Doughboy, and Ricky. Trey, Doughboy, and Ricky are three close friends that live in the same neighborhood and eventually grow up to live very different lives. Trey is smart, does well in school, and plans to attend college. Ricky is an all-star player on the high school football team and has been recruited by the University of Southern California. Doughboy was a dropout and is involved in selling drugs and gang violence. There are many social issues within the film, police brutality, gang and gun violence, and death. The police brutality is shown in the film when Trey is held at gunpoint during a traffic stop and the cops threaten to blow his head off. Gang violence and gun violence is shown many times throughout the film, like when Trey's father's house was broken into in the middle of the night and Trey's father loads his gun and attempts to shoot the burglar. There are many drive-bys that happen throughout the film, some shown and some spoken about. Ricky was shot and killed by gang members while walking home from the convenience store with Trey. Doughboy seeks revenge on Ricky's killer by shooting him and killing him and two other men. Poverty is shown throughout the film by the environment, like the houses being run down. The social issues can be brought to light and can change the way viewers see these social issues by using sociological analysis. Sociological analysis will look at the social issues through perspectives, interactionalist, conflict, and functionalist. The functionalist perspective focuses on how society functions as a whole with things like gang and gun violence, poverty and police brutality. The conflict perspective focuses on conflict between those who agree and disagree with things like gang and gun violence. Interactionist perspective focuses on how those behave in certain environments and act differently in another. The questions I am interested in examining, does this film impact the way those view race and the connection between gang violence and how does growing up in an environment like Boys in the Hood impact one's mental health?