Honors 399 Final Paper Ideas

 

Honors 399 Final Paper Ideas:

 

-       How would Spike Lee make Do The Right Thing today?

-       Views about the ending of Do The Right Thing

-       Did Spike Lee do the right thing in his film?

-       Minor characters in Do The Right Thing and their significance

-       The role of music in Do The Right Thing

-       Symbols and images in Do The Right Thing—the heat, primary colors, names, the music

-       Women and organizing in Norma Rae

-       Race and ethnicity in Norma Rae

-       Race and class in Norma Rae

-       The outsider in films as different as Norma Rae and Just Mercy

-       Men versus women in these films

-       The issue of class in the films of this course

-       From the rainy streets of 1920s Berlin to the hot sidewalks of Bedford-Styvesant—what connects the films of this class, or what contrasts do we find?

-       From Murnaw’s doorman to Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp to Spike Lee’s Mookie, what do they share or how are they different?

-       The idea of struggle-whether it’s James Allen for freedom, Rip Murdock for justice in a friend’s death, Bed-Sty’s fight against the “Man”, and Norma Rae versus the cotton mill bosses—and how they might be linked or be different

-        A comparison/contrast of Do The Right Thing and Just Mercy

-       The evolution of race as an issue or at least a presence from I Am A Fugitive on a Chain Gang to Just Mercy

-       Systemic racism in Just Mercy

-       From I Am a Fugitive on a Chain Gang to Chaplin to Just Mercy, a critique of the criminal justice system