He goes into a local continence store to break a dollar so he can call back, the shop keeper is Korean and will not change the money unless he buys something, agitated but still cool he decides to buy a coke, but completely looses his cool when he gets charged 85¢ for the drink. As he get madder he starts to shout at the shopkeeper and very clearly says “Do you know what I would of paid for this back in 1965? 50¢!!”
The shopkeeper then mumbles something but “D-fens” can’t understand so he asks him to speak in English, “I might be able to help you if you speak my language” The shop keeper pulls out a baseball bat and says more clearly “I don’t want any trouble” he takes the bat off of him and starts to smash up the shop raving about prices being too high.
The comment about the prices in 1965 tells us that this man has obviously not been in mainstream culture for a long time and by protesting about the prices to the shopkeeper is showing that he has a very bad temper. Maybe he feels that America was a better place back in those days, this relates back to the expression he had to the black students in the bus back then neither of these things would be (that and the Korean shopkeeper). The fact that he smashes up the shop protesting to the prices helps the reader to relate to the character, how many times have you wanted to do that?
In the next scene he has found his way onto a hill he is sitting on a small concrete mound and is looking at the city through a hole in his shoe. This makes the reader think he is down on his luck and maybe he is just snapping under the pressure, like in the store. Whilst he is sitting here two young Mexicans approach him and tell him that this is their hill and they don’t accept trespassers, he replies by using street slang like “oh I’m sorry I’ve wondered onto your patch and now I’ve messed with your posy” this is delivered with a patronising tone, you can tell that he doesn’t like them this may be racist or maybe that they are immigrants and they are degrading the country, he doesn’t like them because if the way they are stereotyped and their aggressive behaviour towards him. Again like in the shop the Mexican ma is talking to him and he replies with “Speak English I may be able to understand you if you speak English!” The other man tries to take his briefcase and threatens him with a knife, but “D-fens” reverses it and knocks him back with the bat he took from the Korean shopkeeper he than turns round and knocks the other one down the steps leading to the hill, here again he shows his temper and appeals to people who are like him, middle aged white people who have encountered people of this nature, they would of wanted to teach them a lesson as well. He is doing what the reader says they will do. He takes the knife and shouts, “I’m going home, I’m going home!!”
The film then cuts to Vandergas (the policeman) who is hot on the trail (even though he doesn’t know it) of our man. The Korean shopkeeper is brought to him at the police station; before he leaves he mentions that he was wearing a white shirt and tie.
Meanwhile “D-fens” has found another phone box right in the middle of the worst part of town, he keeps the enigma code going by phoning his wife and not saying anything whilst he is on the phone the Mexican people who hw beat up earlier see him from the other side of the street and decide to do a drive by they have a hysterical girl in the car who they throw out, then hang out of the window and try to shoot “d-fens” as they drive pass, they completely miss this whole sequence uses the action code, the camera runs in slow motion so you can see all the normal “innocent” people on the pavement getting shot the music is dramatic as the car goes round the corner and out of shot it hits another car and stops. “D-Fens” walks over to the car and finds one of his attackers lying on the ground with a gun hanging out of his hand; again in this situation he does what we would all like to do but never would. He walks over and takes the gun out of his hand then turns it around and points it at hi, at this point you can know he is a military man but you don’t know what experience he has had, weather he has been behind a desk all his career or weather he has been promoted. He takes a shot at the man lying on the floor but misses and says, “You missed, huh and so did I” as he says this there is a slight laugh in his voice, this is the only point in the film where he is in a potentially violent situation that he is calm but he does shoot him in the leg, he then takes the bag of guns and walks off.
So far in the film most of the codes of narrative have been used, Action in the sequences with the drive by and in the shop. Enigma, with the situation between him and his wife, and also about his name. Symbolic, at the start of the film there were symbols of Americanisation in peoples cars, one had a Garfield toy stuck to the window, and in the corner shop he bought a can of Coke without even thinking about it. Cultural, in the film so far he has met many different cultures. These are all part of one enigma code, does he like other cultures? The main character has also been very easy to relate to, he does all the things we would like to do but would never have the guts to do, a classic example of this is a bit later in the film where he complains to the staff in a fast food restaurant about the quality of the burger he gets in comparison to the picture of the burger on the wall. This is meant to make the audience like him and slightly warp his character on one hand he is a maniac with a bag full of guns, but on the other he is jut an average man who is just trying to get home. This causes mixed feelings for the audience, they don’t know if they should like or dislike him, which you will do depending upon the type of social class that you are and how he treats that class in the film.