8 Mile – The Other Midwest

By Lydia Grundlach, Pia Quast, & Cassandra Radtke

What pops into your mind when you think of the Midwest? Maybe you think of it as America’s heartland or rather fly-over country? Generally, the Midwest is known for its agriculture, small-town life, and its middle-class people living an average life. Also, the people stand for the “real” American values such as working hard, being down-to-earth without any fancy lifestyle. Images like trailer parks, industrial areas and poverty-ridden regions are probably not your first associations. However, these are typical images of Detroit City which is part of the Midwest, too.

We were interested in this “other” depiction of the Midwest which is why we chose the movie 8 Mile as our topic.

The movie is about “B-Rabbit, a wannabe [white] rapper from the wrong side of Detroit’s 8 Mile” (IMDb) trying to escape the vicious circle of bad jobs, living in a mobile home with his mother and not being accepted as a rapper in the black hip-hop scene.

But first some general information about Detroit: Detroit is the capital of Michigan, located in the south-east of the state. The total population in 2012 was approximately 700,000 with 82 per cent black persons. The high rate of black people living in Detroit is one of the common images of the city as well. In contrast to this, almost 80 percent of the suburbs are inhabited by white people. With the industrialization and the development of the car industry in the twentieth century, Detroit became “the automobile capital of the world” (Bromberg 621). Until today, Detroit is the domicile of one of America’s biggest car companies: General Motors. It also hosts the biggest motor show of the USA, the NAIAS.

Between the 1970s and the 1980s Detroit suffered from a weak economy indicated by high unemployment leading to social conflicts. The car industry produced only half as many cars as it did in the 1960s. Social conflicts were reflected in the population becoming poorer and an increasing number of crimes. All in all, Detroit became a run-down city (Bromberg 617).

8 Mile Road, as another symbol of the city, can be seen as a division line between the black and the white population, downtown area and suburbs and between lower and middle class. That’s also what the title of the movie hints at.

Rabbit comes from the 8 Mile Road and grew up in one of the mobile homes which are typical for this area. He works at a car factory in Detroit which he does not like but it earns the money. After he and his girlfriend have broken up he has to move back to his mother and his little sister Lily. His mother, an alcoholic, does not have a job and she has a relationship with one of Rabbit´s former schoolmates. At some point his mother is nearly being evicted from the trailer which causes a fight between her and her boyfriend. After Rabbit interfered, the two men end up having a bad fight. Summarized, one can say that this life in a trailer is dull and hard for everyone who lives there. They struggle from not having enough money and being without prospects. Rabbit hates it and is trying to get away from the trailer and this life by working extra-hours to get some money and by trying to become successful with his music.

This leads to the second conflict that is a major theme of the movie: The struggle of the white guy to be successful and to be respected as a rapper in the black hip hop scene.

Throughout the movie Rabbit and his friends Future, Cheddar Bob, DJ IZ and Sol George form the 313 (referring to the postal code), a group of wannabe rappers, keep having physical and psychological conflicts with their worst enemies, the “Leaders of the Free World”. Rabbit has a hard time gaining respect from the black rappers, they make fun of him for being white and call him a Nazi, gay and all kinds of other insults. After a performance failure in Rabbit’s first battle, he takes his chance and eventually wins every round in the second battle. In the final round he is performing so well that his competitor Papa Doc from the “free world” does not even try.

We think the movie depicts the stereotypical images of the Detroit area very well and by showing two major conflicts of the movie we tried to emphasize those images. 8 Mile shows the tough conditions under which the people live and how hard and sometimes hopeless their life seems. On the other hand it shows the story of Rabbit who succeeded in making something more out of his life.

In addition, the movie shows that there is also another part of the Midwest. Therefore, the City of Detroit can be seen as a striking contrast to the typical, rather rural areas. Not only the agricultural images but also people's values and goals differ a lot and need to be considered when talking about the Midwest.


Works Cited:

• Bromberg, Marita, Kruse-Etzbach, Dirk. “USA - Große Seen: [Tipps Für Individuelle Entdecker; Mit Reisekarte]“. Dormagen: Iwanowski, 2009. pp. 617-621. Print.
• "Detroit History." City of Detroit. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 June 2013
• "Plot Summary for 8 Mile." IMDb. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 June 2013