Similarity and Differences

A similarity and difference between How Bigger Was Born and Do the Right Thing are between Radio Raheem and Mookie. In How Bigger Was Born,  Richard Wright said, “If a Negro rebels against rule… his is lynched” (439). Radio Raheem rebelled against Sal by bringing his radio inside Sal’s Famous and not turning it off. Later, because Raheem wouldn’t turn his music off, Sal fought him and eventually the police came and physically hung Raheem by holding him up by his neck, with his feet off the ground, so he couldn’t breathe. Like Wright said in How Bigger Was Born Raheem rebelled against Sal’s rule and therefore was lynched. It seems that ultimately a black man is at a disadvantage in justice because Wright didn’t say that when all people rebel, they are hanged; he said when “negroes” rebel they are lynched. Black people lived in an unjust and unfair society. By throwing the garbage can at Sal’s Famous, Mookie demonstrated how he was trying to save Sal and his family because Sal’s family would have been mobbed and killed if the attention hadn’t been turned to their pizzeria. Mookie was one who was an example of a “so called leader” by Richard Wright. Mookie “went hand in hand with the powerful whites and helped to keep their groaning brothers in line, for that was the safest course of action” (439). Mookie didn’t rebel for the black people, he rebelled to save Sal’s families life. For Mookie the “safest course” of action was by throwing the garbage can and redirecting the mob’s attention. He wasn’t working for his fellow blacks, he was working for Sal. Therefore Mookie can’t be referred to as a leader for the blacks. A leader is one who acts, by rebelling, for their own race.