The movie Freedom Writers, stars Hilary Swank, Imelda Staunton, and Patrick Dempsey, and is directed by Richard LaGravenese, is based on a true story about a school in Long Beach, California (IMDB). Ms. Gruelle and at-risk students to learn how to apply themselves in the classroom, and shows them that their is more to their lives outsides of all the gangs, drugs, and the gang wars. Through unconventional ways of teaching and continuous devotion to her students. Ms. Gruelle teaches her students to appreciate the opportunity each student has and to have the motivation to get a proper education. The Freedom Writers is a great adaptation from book to movie that has a crucial look into true inner city schools and teaches kids to realize how privileged some people truly are.
The movie begins with a first year teacher learning the ropes of teaching, while also learning how to connect to these students, who in the beginning have no hope. As time goes on Ms. Gruelle starts to reach out to these kids. She buys the kids journals so they can write down their problems and she gave them the option for them to put them in a cabinet if they wanted her to read the journal. Almost every student of class 203 put their journal in that cabinet. This was the first sign that she was starting to connect with these students, and it showed trust between the student and teacher. As the story goes on a student by the name of Tito draws a picture of another student Jamal. This action sparked the
The movie “Freedom Writers” is based on a true story. Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell plays an inspirational teacher at Wilson High School. She is ready to take on the teaching world as she steps inside Wilson High School for her first day. Her class, varied with teenagers of different ethnic backgrounds, wants nothing more than to just get through the day. African Americans, Latinos, Asians, gang members, and much more are from poor neighborhoods, that all share a similar hatred for each other. On the first day of teaching she is very scared and unsure, but she knows she has to stop the racism in the class as well as their attitude towards life. Despite her students' persistent refusal to participate
“Freedom Writers” is a powerful film that is based on a true story about a teacher named Erin Gruwell, who struggles to connect with her students to make them believe that they can succeed in life, and to show them that their lives, experiences, and knowledge is valuable, all while attempting to unify them and to overcome racial segregation and gang violence that is part of their daily lives. Gruwell focuses on introducing the concepts of discipline and obedience in her classroom. She gradually begins to earn their trust and buys them composition books to record their diaries, in which they talk about their experiences of being abused, seeing their friends die, and being evicted; Gruwell refers to the composition books as “The Freedom Writers Diary.”
America is the universal symbol of freedom. But is it really free? Does the history of the United States stay true to the ideas of our forefathers? Or has the definition been altered to fit American policies? Has freedom defined America? Or has America defined freedom? I believe America was at first defined by freedom, then after time, America defined freedom, altering the definition to fit the niche it fits in, but still keeping key components so it still seems to be staying true to the ideas of America’s founding fathers.
Freedom Writers is a movie based on the book The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell. The movie was directed by Richard LaGravenese and it was released in 2007. This movie discusses significant themes such as stereotyping and racial discrimination but most important the power of tolerance and understanding. The purpose of this movie is to promote the message that knowledge is power and in a world filled with disparities where hundreds of ethnic groups convey and interact humans are obliged to accept and tolerate the differences that define each person. This film is a perfect example of how these rhetorical components are used to create an effective argument. The director of the movie as well as the characters build their
In the 1920s, when movies were a brand new concept, people went to see the pictures in order to escape from their lives. In these movies, everything worked out in the end and they depicted happy, perfect lives. As the Depression raged on, movies were a distraction from the wear and tear of normal life. With the movie Freedom Writers, however, that is not the case. Freedom Writers tells the impossibly true story of a first-year teacher, Erin Gruwell, and the difficulties she faced in her classroom of supposed hopeless cases. In Long Beach, California, her students dealt with gang violence, drugs, and racism in their everyday lives. They lived in constant fear. The movie emphasizes how Gruwell wrestles with the public school system, motivates her students to learn, and changes their lives in the process. Directed by Richard LaGravenese, it came out in 2007 with stars such as Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, and April Hernandez gracing the screen (IMDb). In contrast to the early movies, Freedom Writers deals with issues that are still a problem today, such as a focus on the majority instead of helping students who need extra assistance or encouragement.
Eva’s soliloquy- “you can’t go against you own people, your own blood.” - Symbolism of conformity.
In the Freedom Writers there were challenges that they had to overcome including the inequalities of students at Wilson High School. These inequalities ranged from skin color, background, grades, and age. We try to keep this from happening at OHS, but it can come out in some ways even here. This isn’t what we want to happen since it divides us as students and as a school, but it is almost impossible to keep from happening especially at a school as large as OHS.
The film “Freedom Writers” by Richard LaGravenese has been successful in terms of expressing the emotions of students through their diaries but also engaging the audience emotions through the characters’ gang experiences. The character of Mrs Gruwell(Mrs G) is a teacher of low performing students trying to achieve their goals against all odds. Techniques the director used to show this include flashbacks, non-diegetic sound, spot light and pan shots which are all important in sending the message to the audience that family problems and violence have a big impact on the students lives.
She thought that it was the right thing to do. yes, because it was the honest thing to do. her friends are mad at her because she could have lied and their buddy wouldn’t have gone to prison. And her dad doesn’t even want to talk to her.
In the movie, The Freedom Writers Mrs. Erin Gruwell (Hillary Swank) plays a role of a dedicated teacher who did all she could, to help her students learn to respect themselves and each other. She has little idea of what she's getting into when she volunteers to be an English teacher at a newly integrated high school in Long Beach, California. Her students were divided along racial lines and had few aspirations beyond basic survival. Mrs. Gruwell was faced with a big challenge when a group of freshmen students showed her nothing but disrespect which made it hard for her to communicate, teach and understand them. However, Erin Gruwell was determined that no matter the cost she would teach her students not only
A perfect example of a movie that demonstrates how poverty and feelings of oppression affect school violence is “Freedom Writers.” In this movie a 23 year old teacher named Erin Gruwell (Hilary swank) takes on the challenge of teaching at a school full of students brought up in gangs. These students had been written off by their school as hopeless cases but she tried to change that and get through to them by buying them new books such as Anne Frank and believing in them.
Erin Gruwell is just starting her first teaching job, as an English teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School. She does not prepare at all for the students in her classroom. These students all believe in the same thing “Protecting their own people” whatever the cost. Most of these students are in gangs, because they want to protect themselves. Each group does not accept each other because of skin colour and their ethnic backgrounds. They all have different types of characteristics. If one is seen in another’s territory it causes a battle and tension. In the beginning no one gives out any emotions to Erin due to the fact that she is white and she lives a perfect life. Halfway into the film, the students started to like Erin because she mentioned about the Holocaust which touched them. The students realised that what they were doing was not something new to the world, it had already occurred before. Towards the end of the film, Erin introduces an activity which she calls “The Line Game”. During the game Erin asks questions so she could get to know
The film Freedom Writers directed by Richard La Gravenese is an American film based on the story of a dedicated and idealistic teacher named Erin Gruwell, who inspires and teaches her class of belligerent students that there is hope for a life outside gang violence and death. Through unconventional teaching methods and devotion, Erin eventually teaches her pupils to appreciate and desire a proper education. The film itself inquiries into several concepts regarding significant and polemical matters, such as: acceptance, racial conflict, bravery, trust and respect. Perhaps one of the more concentrated concepts of the film, which is not listed above, is the importance and worth of education. This notion is
Freedom Writers kicks off with its opening scene depicting the depths of ethnic stereotypes. It films a young Hispanic female, Eva, looking at a white barbie who has “grace and beauty” and then sees a doll of an Hispanic (Aztec) girl who “is not equal in beauty and blessings.”(Freedom Writers) But the blatant demonstration of prejudice doesn’t stop there…when Gruwell is talking with the department chair, Margaret Campbell, she compliments her pearl necklace and says “I wouldn’t wear that to class.”(Campbell) This comment is an example of prejudice against the minorities and reinforces the stereotype of people of color as “thieves.” Another example where stereotypes and discrimination are addressed is when Mrs. Gruwell wants to introduce Romeo and Juliet to her class but Mrs. Campbell declines her request to rent books for her students because she believes they don’t have the necessary skills to read and comprehend it—believing that these students are incapable of learning is
In the film, the Freedom Writers were made following the Rodney King trial in 1992 and the OJ Simpson murder case in 1994. These trials brought out the sensitive issues about injustices