Random question about The Wire: Why do you think colvin was able to get namond out of the game but prez couldn’t help dukie? Like narratively what exactly are they trying to say w that
prefacing this by saying im SORRY it took me 2 years to answer that and i know you’re probably not out there anymore but it was truly bothering me that i never answered it so here i am fresh from a s4 rewatch
i deeply feel that the wire is about the impossibility of change but that’s not because individuals in general, and characters in the wire more particularly, don’t want to change or implement change — on the contrary i think that we see almost every character try to change at some point of the five seasons — but because individually they don’t have enough power to go against society/the american institutions/everybody else.
i think this idea is reflected in the dukie/namond/michael/randy storylines. when it comes to namond, colvin manages to help him because namond asks for for colvin’s help when he says that he can’t go back to his mother/be what she expects him to be and also because colvin doesn’t have to measure himself up against the american institutions in order to help namond. he goes directly to wee-bey and convinces him that namond can be something other than a corner boy/soldier, and because wee-bey wants that for namond he allows colvin to help namond. but when it comes to dukie, prez tries to help him while staying within the system, most of what he does to help (except for doing his laundry) happens on the school grounds. when he tries to convince the assistant principal that dukie isn’t ready for high school she immediately reinforces the idea that dukie is only one child/one student among all the other children/students prez is going to deal with during his career, he’s only a small part of the middle school machine. randy’s case also makes that clear, carver tries to help him, even suggests that randy could stay with him, but he doesn’t get anywhere because he’s also going against the foster care system.
i would add, but this is less on a narrative level and more on a psychological one, that colvin has reached a point where he’s more than fed up with the whole system: it’s shown in s3 when he decides to do his own thing to reduce crime and it’s shown in s4. the whole point of the experimental class is to compensate for the system’s failures and even that ends up being shut down. he’s fed up and bold enough to realise that the only way to implement change is to operate out of the system whereas prez, while clearly fed up with the police system, still seems to believe that he can operate within the school system.
so to sum up yeah, i think that the reason colvin is able to help namond is because 1) namond asks for help 2) colvin doesn’t operate within the system because 3) he’s fed up enough to know that trying to operate within the system wouldn’t work
as for what they’re trying to say with that i would say that it reinforces the shows main idea that change is impossible if it’s just one person against everyone else. but it also points out that individual change is possible and that you can escape what once seemed to be an inescapable fate which, i guess, is as hopeful as the wire ever gets
