The character of Radio Raheem, played by Bill Nunn, in Spike Lee's film Do the Right Thing is meant to symbolize anger in the face of oppression. It is the Radio Raheem character, who seems to wander in and out of several key scenes in the film, who ultimately sparks the violence that leads to the cathartic and notoriously ambiguous conclusion to the film. In what follows, I intend to analyze the role that Radio Raheem serves in Do the Right Thing, showing how his death at the end of the movie was inevitable, given the circumstances of the characters' lives; in a word, his death makes perfect sense in the world of the film – a world that is very close to real life in New York in the 1980s.
             We first meet Radio Raheem early on in the film, in a segment in which each of the characters are being introduced in a series of scenes. Radio Raheem walks by a group of teenagers hanging out on the street. He is carrying his huge boom box, which blasts the Public Enemy song "Fight the Power" – a song that will become Radio Raheem's trademark throughout the course of the movie. He also wears the same outfit, including a Bedstuy t-shirt, throughout the course of the film, which takes place during a single summer day. As he walks by the teenagers, they laugh at him and mock him – unsurprising, considering the fact that this apathetic bunch tend to laugh at and make fun of nearly everyone who crosses their path.
             Radio Raheem is constantly on the move. He walks nonstop throughout the neighborhood, even though it is not clear where his ultimate destination lies – or if he even has one in mind. Unlike the other characters in the film, we learn very little about Radio Raheem in the course of Do the Right Thing. He appears to have come from nowhere – his background is kept vague, and there is nearly no character development. It is obvious that Spike Lee intended this. He is meant ...