Transforming a true story into a movie is one of large difficulty. The effort to keep the story true to what happened, but keep an audience interested is a hard task. However, this was not the case with the Freedom Writers. The movie was directed by Richard LaGravenese with a starring cast; Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, April L. Hernandez, and Hunter Parrish (“Freedom Writers”). Freedom Writers begins with a teacher starting her first year of teaching at a school with students involved in gang violence and living in low-income households. The movie continues from there with a select class that she teaches and how she gets through to them, along with how they begin to open up. Freedom Writers is a powerful story with the intention of showing the importance of giving students an equal chance no matter where they come from, and important life skills can be learned from that knowledge. Mrs. Gruwell, the teacher, struggles in the beginning to relate to the students and show them that coming to school can be worth something to them. She is eventually able to find ways to have the students see she is there to help them. Gruwell even buys them new books, which none of the students in the class were used to. She is able to grow and continue to get her students to open up. The use of a game helped show the students they are more alike than they previously thought. The game led to her giving them diaries to write their stories and if they wanted to share them with her; they could
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.
Gruwell taught her class about the Holocaust, the genocide of Jews. While learning about this major event in class the students were able to see how another person’s hatred affected someone’s life. They saw that many of the victims did not survive and were killed simply because of their race. This drew a parallel for the students to see how their hatred and violence against each other was senseless. In the same way Hitler killed Jews because of their race, they were killing each other. From learning about the Holocaust the students were able to step outside from their own personal norms, and examine a situation from a new or different
Even, when the students seem careless and do not tolerate the professor, Gruwell guided by her ideals and big heart refuses to allow her students to be incompetent and gave her students a chance to overcome the limitations imposed on them by society and themselves. She encouraged them to do something remarkable and memorable and assign them a journal where they could feel free to express their emotions and feeling and essentially tell the stories that define them. Gruwell draws students’ attention by assigning them The Diary of Anne Frank, a book that promptly become a guide for the students and open their minds and eyes against intolerance and misunderstanding. Inspired by this book, the students raised funds to bring Miep Gies, the woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California where she declared that the students are the real heroes.
gruwell's was trying her best to have her class and for her students to pass her class. Mrs gruwell's would have problems at home with her husband because she would take her students to field trips and spend a lot of time with them also. When the students started having fun with mrs gruwell they would spend time with each other and would be at school even at night. Mrs gurwell was trying her best to keep her students out of trouble and keep them on track on school.
In the movie, “The Freedom Writers” the qualities that made the teacher superior were that she never gave up on them she pushed them to do their best and would tell them they would amount to something in life. The students were already labeled as failures because of their past or backgrounds; they were always told that they would not amount to anything. The most important thing a teacher can do is give the child hope that someone actually does believe in them. In the EPY textbook it states that some of the qualities an effective teacher may have is that they are committed to the students and their learning, the teacher knows the subject that he/she teaches and knows how to teach the subject to the students. The teachers are responsible for
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.
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
I have read many interesting diaries while reading “The Freedom Writers Diary”, but the diary that stuck to me the most was diary number 127.I am going to give advice to the teenager that wrote this diary.This diary has made me think twice and not one other diary in the book has made me do that.This diary is about how a young teen recently realizes that she was lesbian after her best friend tells her that she loved her.Once I kept reading I read she wasn’t excited to be lesbian because she thought to herself “How would they treat us?Would we still be welcomed in our little social group?”.I'm not saying that I have been through that situation but what I am saying is that people should never think about how other people treat them or if they
The ghetto, a breeding ground for gang bangers and trouble makers, nothing good comes from the ghetto. A place where parents send their kids out to face the day praying it won't be their last, nothing good comes from the ghetto. Anne Frank, a young teenager famous for her diary recounting her life of hiding. Kendrick Lamar, a rapper who overcame the street life in Compton who now has influence all over the world. Jay-Z, drug dealer turned hip hop royalty with a networth of $810 million, I guess something good does come from the ghetto. In the movie Freedom Writers, kids are told that they come from nothing and will never amount to anything but a teacher, Erin Gruwell, shows them otherwise.
Hilary Swank’s character, Erin Gruwell, from The Freedom Writers said, “I realized if you can change a classroom, you can change a community, and if you change enough communities you can change the world” (“Erin Gruwell Quotes”). According to The New York Times, Freedom Writers was written in 1999 and made into a film in 2007 and it was directed by Richard LaGravenese starring Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, Margaret Campbell, Scott Glenn, and many others (Dargis). Freedom Writers is set in Long Beach, California where Hilary, who plays as Erin Gruwell, gets a new job as a teacher for which she is not prepared for. As the teacher of classroom 203, she deals with racism, violence, drugs, and unmotivated students. The Freedom Writers is a wonderful story with a clear message describing the cruelty of the Holocaust with many lessons that teachers in the same situation today could still be taught today.
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
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
Her husband divorces her and Margaret tells her she cannot teach her kids for their junior year. She fights this decision, eventually convincing the superintendent to allow her to teach her kids' junior and senior year. The film ends with a note that Gruwell successfully brought many of her students to graduation and college.
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.
Just like how Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) turned the lights on, in the dark room of 203. Freedom Writers is a film inspired by students of Woodrow Wilson High School as they experience the aftermath of LA riots. Los Angeles resembles a war zone back in the 1992. During this time in America, it all comes down to what a person look like. Latino, Asian, and Black got blasted by those who think they are superior from the rest. Different cultures fight each other for territory and kill each other over race, pride and respect.