Weird question (SPOILER ALERT)...

I've always wondered that too.

I always think of when they're kids and they go to see that dead body. The body had clearly had been there for sometime. I'm assuming growing up seeing that kind of thing just made them think that if they didn't take Ricky's body away then nobody would.

This questioned can be answered by the very first word that is said after they say "lets take him home." After they pull up to the house, as they are walking towards the door, Doughboy yells "Momma!". In congruency with the rest of the movie and its title "Boys n the Hood", they are depicted as boys. Quite literally running back to "momma". During the movie, the viewer is invited into the world of the characters, and are invited to become fooled just like they are. Adulthood in the movie is measured according to willingness to fight, have sex, and at times even kill, which somehow fool the viewer into thinking that we are dealing with grown men since these are comparatively grown, adult issues. However, during the entire movie, all the men are demonstrated to be childish and immature in nature. There are hardly any signs of reasonable maturity within the whole movie. Even Furious is depicted as largely immature. Although he plays the part of an active and involved parent, he is depicted of largely immature or youthful in nature. This is made evident when he talks to his son as though they are friends, and ultimately offers the advice of wearing a condom during sex. He does not offer Trey any further advice on the matter. He does not emphasize the importance of responsibility, self-control, love, or even empathy. All these things are missing from the movie and their absence is responsible for all the chaos and violence. Tre may appear to be somewhat more ethical than the other guys, but he replies "But catholic girls are supposed to be one of the biggest hoochies!" after his girlfriend states that she has morals. So even Tre has no interest in morality, and is comparatively small-minded and immature.

This all adds up to something in the scene you mentioned. Throughout the movie, women are for the most part shown to more mature and moral than their male counterparts. Doughboy's mother is almost infinitely more mature and moral then his seemingly non-existing father. Even, the woman who proposes to fellatio Doughboy for crack is comparatively "better" than the baby's seemingly non-existent father. So then, when Doughboy takes Ricky's body home, he is demonstrating his seeming lack of awareness. As they are in the livingroom, Doughboy attempts to remove the baby from the scene, therefore demonstrating some basic sense of empathy as he states that the baby doesn't need to see any of that *beep* However, it was Doughboy's very own actions that brought the corpse to the baby's sight.

Therefore that particular scene is the culmination of the story and highly symbolic. It is immature men bringing the result of their actions and strife to the almost literal doorsteps of women, who are left to deal with the frustration and inconvenient tragedies of the actions by the males.

If you remember earlier in the movie, it was a woman who stated "can't we have one night where nobody gets shot around here?" To which Doughboy mockingly replies "Shut up, bitch". Therefore, the scene you mentioned is highly symbolic, since it is almost karmic and ironic in nature. Doughboy says "Shut up bitch"to a woman who almost pleads for peace, specifically regarding shootings. Then, it is he who takes the his brother's shot corpse to a woman, his mother.

you have to remeber this is south central. cops and ambulance take hours to respond especially in certain neighborhoods.