English – Life Writing Essay In the two life writing pieces, Mabo and Laramie both share similar and different themes as well as codes and conventions. The film Mabo, directed by Rachael Perkins, revolves around the true story of Eddie Mabo and his decision to continue to fight for his land and peoples rights. The audience is persuaded to side with Eddie throughout the use of point of view and bias. The Laramie project, by Moises Kaufman and the members of the tectonic theatre project, follows the actions and communications of the Laramie people after the horrific manslaughter of Matthew Shepard. The two life writing pieces, Mabo and Laramie both share the same key theme Power. In Mabo, this is shown throughout the biopic and demonstrated …show more content…
In Mabo where Eddie was refused a drink but stayed there until he was thrown in the lockup was seen as an injustice as he didn’t get justice for the racism he experienced but instead got thrown in jail. In Laramie, Matthew Shepard experienced injustice right before he died, the hatred that grew from the hearts of Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney in which lead to the death of Matthew Shepard, had no justice until the court case. Matthew was vulnerable and didn’t get the justice he deserved. In Mabo, when Eddie had won the Supreme Court case, his family felt as sense of relief and justice for Eddie. Eddie had passed away prior to the court cases hearing, but the family felt as though his life had meaning and were proud that his life was spent doing well. In Laramie an example of justice is when the court case hearing was held and Matthews’s father had openly expressed how he felt about the matter at hand. Dennis Shepard stated “Every time you celebrate Christmas, a birthday, the fourth of July remember that Matt isn’t.” – p.g. 94 In Dennis Shepard’s statement he expressed the hate he feels towards Aaron McKinney and how he would love to see him die. The court case attracted the media and gathered everyone’s attention towards the justice that people wanted to see. The family of Matthew Shepard felt as though at least some good is coming from the bad of Matthews’s
This infuriates Darrell, who jumps up full of anger to retort, "It is called a home, you- dickhead." The Judge, framed in the centre of the two parties, symbolically defuses tensions by reminding the opposition not to "make any value judgements in this court. " This reminds us that value judgments based on background are unacceptable to the Australian language, culture, and identity. Ultimately, the two sides continue to battle it out - the upper and more powerful classes versus the lower and more defenceless classes. However, to reaffirm the film's central theme, the court symbolically restores Australian cultural justice by favouring Darrell and his family.
The Laramie Project, written and directed by Moisés Kaufman, is a docudrama that was written and filmed after a homosexual student was brutally beaten and killed in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. Although he was left in a gruesome and unimaginable state by the two boys that killed him, Matthew Shepard did not die until five days later in a Colorado hospital. The crime brought national attention to hate crimes and caused legislation to be passed punishing those who commit crimes for this reason. The Tectonic Theater Project, a group based in New York City, moved into the small town of Laramie, documenting the town’s reactions to the crime and the attention that it had received. The information gathered from these interviews
King begins his response by stating “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here”. Taking a stand for the horrid crimes being committed against Black people, King repudiates the notion of an untimely act, that ultimately stands for justice (500-03, 3-13). Policeman maliciously killing, barbarous mobs, and mass poverty is the every day reality of the Negro American. Martin Luther King Jr. portrays African American suffering, while simultaneously acknowledging the solutions to that suffering. He argues that we are morally responsible to disobey unjust laws and that by taking a stance against them, we are progressing towards equality (504, 15-16).
Life is an amazing, wonderful, beautiful adventure that we are blessed with every day. But, we are greeted many times throughout those days with choices we have to make. Most of those choices we make are built by the structure and beliefs that our parents and loved ones have passed onto us. Looking into how we were brought up can we really say what’s right or wrong? Can we positively determine that everyone thinks the same? While watching “The Laramie Project” you see and hear two-hundred different opinions towards the Matthew Shepard’s case. Two-hundred … that’s two-hundred people from Laramie, friends of the victim and attackers, and loved ones fighting for what they believe is right. This case not only caught the whole town’s attention but was recognized on a national level. Labeled as a hate crime you learn so much more about the people’s identity like Matthew Shepard as a homosexual, the tragedy of a man/son/friend that struck a town, and how people see Laramie, Wyoming as their home built by a community.
The Laramie Project is a play written by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project by interviewing the residents of Laramie Wyoming about the murder of a gay student, Matthew Shepard. The play raises controversy revolving around homosexuality, hate crimes and acceptance. In addition to the various themes suggested by the play, the author wanted to present the varying perspectives toward homosexuality in the Laramie Community at the time of Shepard death. The three main perspectives towards homosexuality were hatred, tolerance and acceptance. The author also wanted to explore how these perspectives may have changed as the result of Shepard’s death.
Emmett Till, a 14 year old African American boy from Chicago, was brutally murdered. Emmett was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi and went into a small store, but no one really knows what happened inside the store. Till had a slight stutter because he’d had polio as a young child. He was taught to whistle before he said a hard word. Carolyn told her husband, Roy Bryant, that Emmett said ‘Bye, baby’ and whistled at her and she felt insulted. Emmett was kidnapped, tortured, and killed by J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant. Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam beat, gouged out his eye, tied him to a cotton gin fan, and threw Emmett into a river. Till’s body couldn’t be identified and a jury of all white men said both Roy and J.W. were not guilty. Emmett Till was a black teenager who was killed in Money, Mississippi by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam.
The group of people who tolerated homosexuality was neutral about the matter. These people neither accepted nor rejected homosexual individuals. They simply acknowledged homosexuals for who they are without personal judgment. Marge Murray who lived in Laramie all her life was clearly neutral and tolerant of gays. Murray believed, “Laramie is live and let live” (28). Her mindset was to not interfere with the homosexuals in any way and just mind her own business. In Murray’s opinion, Laramie is the kind of town where everyone keeps to themselves and does not stick their noses where it does not belong. The basic idea live and let live in essence means you live your life and let everybody else live theirs. It can be conclude that if gays left
On April 11th, 1999, a trial was conducted against the murderer of Matthew Shepard. The main speaker was his father, Dennis Shepard, a 70 year old male who is the father of two in the upper middle class of Wyoming. He went to the University of Wyoming and is currently working as an Industry Safety Engineer. However, he is also in a lot of grief and anger due to the murder of his 21 year old son Matthew. This was a trial against Mr. McKinney and Mr. Henderson for beating his son to death; where he wanted to “prove that this was a hate crime and not just a robbery gone bad” (Shepard). Mr. Shepard is giving a testimony describing Matthew’s character and why no one deserves such unjust discrimination that Matthew had received. He speaks to the
So it is that the main themes in both of these works are those of
Within the play, there are a variety of ways that the people of Laramie and those outside of Laramie frame Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, the murderers of Matthew Shepard. I find the fact that the play is able to present how the American people were able to frame them as outliers from society, yet still, acknowledge that the two were manifestations of society surprising. In most texts aimed at the public, the perpetrators of the Matthew Shepard murder are framed as being outliers, not connected with the majority of society. The Laramie Project is able to demonstrate that the pair are a reflection of societal prejudices through the use of contradictions of characters. The playwrights would present a character that used language suggesting that the behavior and attitudes of McKinney and Henderson were abnormal, then contradict those statements using members of Laramie who were either scrutinized by these prejudices or experienced similar ones. In creating these opposing narratives, the play is able to share all the perceptions of Laramie, while still holding the town of Laramie and the audience accountable for the murder.
Behind the unfair legal system, the people of the community still sees minorities as a threat to the community. The main character of the story jefferson case is a prime example of social injustice because if Jefferson was the only white man on the scene alive the ruling would be
The racial bias against McMillian is shown in his interactions with the law enforcement, who would often yell racial slurs at McMillian (Stevenson, 2014, p. 48, 55). Another example of racial bias against McMillian is the exclusion of African-American jurors from his trial, although there were few black jurors to begin with because the case was moved to a county with a negligible African-American population (Stevenson, 2014, p. 60, 62). These two examples show the mistreatment of African-Americans in the American justice system and the manipulation courts perform to convict accused African-Americans – even when they are innocent.
In order to forgive, Mary removed the negativity engulfing her emotions because when conscience is clouded by emotion making the ‘right’ decision may seem easy; however important decisions are never easy to make. Some people have the remarkable talent to remove all emotions and opinions from a situation and provide an educated solution to the problem. Martin Luther King Jr. was, and still is, a phenomenal example of someone with this talent. He was a trailblazer and role model to many because he believed there were ways to create change without involving violence. Inspired by Dr. King’s point of view, Cesar Chavez’s article “He Showed Us the Way” employs a demonstration of repetitive diction, an expression of a strong point of view, and an application of pathos to educate the audience in understanding that violence is not the only effective way to
The reason I disagree that “justice was served” is because Stallworth killed a human-being versus Vick killing dogs. Stallworth should have been required to do some type of prison term for killing a human-being due to drunk driving because it still was a death involved. It shouldn’t matter how much money or fame a person may have if a crime is committed then there should be proper punishment for the crime.
The last topic I will further discuss is death. Death is an experience that everyone at some point has to experience that is life; however racism and prejudice are main components in the decrease in the African American community. Those two ideas led up to death and the way people think they have to defend themselves and the only way is to kill an innocent person. Trayvon Martin did not deserve to the way he was taken away from his family; for absolutely nothing it is unfair and justice should have been served in the case. Consequently, In the poem Skittles for Trayvon: A Diminishing Suite in Verse by Lillian Bertram examine fear through the late Trayvon Martin 's experience with prejudice, racism and ultimately death and the effect it has on the African-American community.