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His God-fearing grandparents, who eventually throw him out of the house. A friend who has an athletic scholarship.

There are people in Caine's life who care for him. Eventually dozens of people will know who killed the grocer, but nobody will be charged with the crime, because such violence is so common and the laws are such that many murders simply slip through the fingers of the police. During the course of the movie, O-Dog will use the videotape for entertainment at parties, freeze-framing the moment of the grocer's death. He sees it in terms of his own misfortune: He went out to get a beer, and now he's an accessory to murder. That is all O-Dog needs to hear, and he murders the grocer and then forces his wife to hand over the store's security videotape before killing her, too.Ĭaine is shocked by this sudden violent development.

"I feel bad for your mother," the grocer says as they are about to leave. Caine and O-Dog engage in a little meaningless verbal intimidation, aware that because they are young and black they can score some points through the couple's fear. The grocer and his wife, who don't want trouble, ask them to make their purchase and leave. The movie opens as Caine and O-Dog, his heedless, violent friend, enter a Korean grocery store to buy a couple of beers. For him, "respect" is the product of intimidation: If you back down because you fear him, you "respect" him. He adopts the street values based on a corruption of the word "respect." He wants respect but has done nothing to deserve it. The tragedy of Caine's life is that he cannot stand back a little and get a wider view, see what alternatives are available. The film's narration tells us he is society's nightmare: "He's young, he's black, and he doesn't give a -." We see that it is more complicated than that. By the time he is in high school, Caine wears a beeper on his belt and is a small-time drug dealer. He takes an older neighborhood man as his mentor, only to see him go to prison. As a small boy he sees his father murder a man over a trivial matter.