Analyze Big Night as a story of Italian emigration

Answer one of the following questions in essay form. Formulate a coherent, thoughtful essay that incorporates both the films and the course readings. This paper should be 5 pages in length. Use the attached rubric as a guide to how the paper will be evaluated.

1. Early on in the film Do the Right Thing, Da Mayor tells Mookie, “Always do the right thing.” What do you think this means in the film? Does Mookie “do the right thing” when he destroys Sal’s pizzeria? Why or why not? Use specific examples from the film and readings to explain what, in your view, the title means in terms of the relationships between the various ethnic groups in the film.

2. Analyze Big Night as a story of Italian emigration. How does it differ from a film like The Golden Door or The Godfather II in the telling of this story? Think back over the different readings and films from the course to talk about Primo and Secondo’s experience in terms of their arrival in the United States, their struggles, their assimilation (or lack thereof) to their new culture, and their realization (or not) of the so-called “American Dream.”