American Studies: 2022-- The Wire

Topics for short response paper:

Please respond to *one* of the following questions in 1-2 pages (double spaced; approx. 300 words).

The dialogue between characters is often difficult to follow. They speak fast and in ways that are very local to Baltimore or an East Coast city. Does it help to have the subtitles on, or does it distract from the experience of watching the show? Also, why do the characters use such coarse language when talking with each other? Analyze how the word "fuck" works in conversations involving only police, only drug dealers, and involving both police and drug dealers.
The music (the hip hop tracks, etc.) in the episodes comes out of actual narrative moments (from the open windows of cars, from radios, the sound sytem in the club, and jukeboxes) rather than as a soundtrack played on top of, or outside of the plot. (Recall that this is called "digetic" music rather than "exigetic" music.) What effect does this have on viewing the episode?
Consider the references to 9/11 in episode 1(at 45:00 and 52:50); how do these scenes compare the "War on Terror" and the "War on Drugs" (i.e., what are the similarities and differences between the two, and why are the characters making the comparison)?
Figure 1 is a screenshot from the opening of The Wire. The perspective is from a CCTV that points down toward "the pit" in "Franklin Terrace Towers." Someone has just thrown a rock at the camera and broken its lens. Why would someone do this? What might the camera symbolize? How does the camera fit into the show's commentary on the politics of surveillance?

Figure 1:
Closed circuit TV, shattered lens;
from The Wire, Episode 1: "The Target" (2 June 2002)

Figure 2:
Long shot from behind a metal screen, down on to the "The Pit" in public high-rise housing projects
of "Franklin Terrace Towers" in Baltimore. (You can see the couch down there.)
Episode 1: "The Target" (2 June 2002)

Figure 3:
D'Angelo Barksdale (Larry Gilliard, Jr.), Malik "Poot" Carr (Tray Chaney) and Wallace (Michael B. Jordan)
are sitting on a battered old couch in the middle of the Pit as drug deals go on around them.
Episode 2: "The Detail" (9 June 2002)

In Episode 2 ("The Detail" 8:12 - 9:44), D'Angelo Barksdale (Larry Gilliard, Jr.), Malik "Poot" Carr (Tray Chaney) and Wallace (Michael B. Jordan) are sitting on a battered old couch in the middle of the Pit, eating Chicken McNuggets [See figure 3, below]. Here is what they say:

Wallace : (eating Chicken McNuggets)Yeah man, these shits is right, yo.
Poot: Mmm. Hmm.
Wallace: (checking beeper) Mm. Go with the hot sauce too, yo.
Poot: Most definitely.
Wallace: Yo D, you what some nuggets?
D'Angelo: Naw. Go ahead.
Wallace: Man, whoever invented these-- yo, he's off the hook.
Poot: What?
Wallace: (as D'Angelo watches a drug deal in the distance) Mm. Motherfucker got the bone all the way out the damn chicken. Til he came along niggas been chewin' on drumsticks and shit, gettin their fingers all greasy. He said: leave the bone, nugget that meat up and make some real money.
Poot: Think the man got paid?
Wallace: Who?
Poot: The man who invented these?
Wallace: Shee.. He's richer than a motherfucker.
D'Angelo: Why? You think he get a percentage?
Wallace: Why not?
D'Angelo: Nigga please. The man who invented them things just some sad-ass down at the basement of McDonalds, thinkin' up some shit to make money for the real players.
Poot: Naw, man, that ain't right.
D'Angelo: Fuck "right." It ain't about "right." It's about money. Now you think Ronald McDonald gonna go down into that basement and say "Hey Mr. Nugget, you da bomb. We sellin' chicken faster than you can tear the bone out-- so I'm [g]onna write my clowny-ass name on this fat-ass check for you." Sh. Man, the nigga who invented them things, still working in the basement for regular wage, thinking of some shit to make them fries taste better or some shit like that. Believe.
Wallace: Still have the idea though.
D'Angelo: (shakes his head, looks away into the distance) Pht...

Why does D'Angelo refuse the McNugget? Consider the McNugget as what Marx defined as a commodity fetish-- what are the different ways that these characters attempt to understand the processes of inventing, manufacturing, consuming and profitting from the McNugget? How might you apply Louis Althusser's notion of "ideology" to this scene? Why is this conversation taking place on this orange couch? What words seem most important in this conversation and why?

Wallace :	(eating Chicken McNuggets)Yeah man, these shits is right, yo.
Poot:	Mmm. Hmm.
Wallace:	(checking beeper) Mm. Go with the hot sauce too, yo.
Poot:	Most definitely.
Wallace:	Yo D, you what some nuggets?
D'Angelo:	Naw. Go ahead.
Wallace:	Man, whoever invented these-- yo, he's off the hook.
Poot:	What?
Wallace:	(as D'Angelo watches a drug deal in the distance) Mm. Motherfucker got the bone all the way out the damn chicken. Til he came along niggas been chewin' on drumsticks and shit, gettin their fingers all greasy. He said: leave the bone, nugget that meat up and make some real money.
Poot:	Think the man got paid?
Wallace:	Who?
Poot:	The man who invented these?
Wallace:	Shee.. He's richer than a motherfucker.
D'Angelo:	Why? You think he get a percentage?
Wallace:	Why not?
D'Angelo:	Nigga please. The man who invented them things just some sad-ass down at the basement of McDonalds, thinkin' up some shit to make money for the real players.
Poot:	Naw, man, that ain't right.
D'Angelo:	Fuck "right." It ain't about "right." It's about money. Now you think Ronald McDonald gonna go down into that basement and say "Hey Mr. Nugget, you da bomb. We sellin' chicken faster than you can tear the bone out-- so I'm [g]onna write my clowny-ass name on this fat-ass check for you." Sh. Man, the nigga who invented them things, still working in the basement for regular wage, thinking of some shit to make them fries taste better or some shit like that. Believe.
Wallace:	Still have the idea though.
D'Angelo:	(shakes his head, looks away into the distance) Pht...