Henri Frederic Amiel once said, “Our greatest illusion is to believe that we are what we think ourselves to be.” Many times we see ourselves as lesser than what we actually could be. We may let negative perceptions of ourselves and our abilities lead us to believe we’re inferior but it is possible to become strong enough to break those mental barriers. The film Freedom Writers tells a story about at-risk freshmen students who live in toxic environments and a gang-ridden neighborhood while attending an inner-city school with racial tension on the rise. They meet their new English teacher, Erin Gruwell, who helps turn their mindset around showing them what solace there can be in picking up a pencil and writing about their hardships in a notebook. What makes this movie even more powerful is that it is based on a true story that took place in the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Freedom Writers not only touches upon the ideas of tolerance, reaching one’s full potential, and the meaning of success, but further highlights the importance of perseverance and hope despite one’s circumstances.
Freedom Writers demonstrates the concept of tolerance through the character Mrs. Gruwell and upholds her as an example the viewers can sympathize with. Since Erin Gruwell was a novice in her teaching, her coworkers at Woodrow Wilson High School began to be bitter, full of anger and prejudice when they saw she was making a significant impact on the lives of these students, because they
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.”
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
Freedom Writers begins with 23-year old Erin Gruwell starting her first year as a teacher. She is extremely optimistic, until a fight breaks out in her classroom on the very first day. The principal warns her not to get her hopes up, seeing as those students most likely will drop out after freshman or sophomore year. Most of them
Eva’s soliloquy- “you can’t go against you own people, your own blood.” - Symbolism of conformity.
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.
Nine times out of ten, books that are turned into movies often are not portrayed exactly how they were written. When we read we get images of what the characters look like, how they dress, and what each scene should look like. Our imaginations are incredible, but when books are made into movies, it is not exactly what we picture. Directed by Richard LaGravenese, The Freedom Writers is casted by only a few familiar faces: Patrick Dempsey and Hilary Swank, but the rest of the characters are not recognizable (IMBd). Hilary Swank plays a middle-class woman, recently married, who is given the opportunity that many would turn away. She is put in a classroom made up of mostly black teens and a few other races expecting to teach them at a higher academic
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
Freedom Writers tells a story that mainly happens between a young teacher named Erin and her students of different races. Erin needs to balance the demands of her husband Scott and her students. She takes two extra part-time jobs to support her education career, which is ridiculous for normal people. However, some people think it is worth being a teacher like that. Yet others hold opposite views about what Erin has done for her students. The relationships Erin forms with her students inspire admiration and deep attachment in readers’ hearts. It is obvious that home life and social life affect education.
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.
In the movie, Freedom Writers, Mrs. Gruwell is a new teacher who is very excited about her first year of teaching high school, but she encounters students who do not share that same excitement, because they are looked down upon by other teachers for being “unteachable”. The students attend a very diverse high school, but rather than look at that diversity as a blessing they each felt threatened by it and were taught to defend “their own”. The socialization of the students in the movie was a direct cause of the lifestyle that they were raised in. The teens lived in a community that was filled with violence and as a result they were put in a survival of the fittest situation. The teens did what they knew they had to do, regardless if it was
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
The movie Freedom Writers is about Erin Gruwell who is starting her first year as an English teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School. This school is racially divided with many gangs and violence erupting at any time. Ms. Gruwell was the students main subject of hate too. After having a discussion with her students about what they were feeling about their lives and situations, she took the responsibility of educating the students no matter what the cost was. She would eventually get through to the teens by passing out journals for them to write their personal life stories in. As the year went on, the students started to trust Ms.Gruwell. The next academic year, she had the students getting along with one another and reading The Diary of Ann Frank. She faced many critics within the school, but she ultimately succeeded.
“Everybody thinks you should be happy just because you’re young. They don’t see the wars that we fight every single day”. Brandy Ross, one of the students in the movie Freedom Writers once said. This is the predicament that the students in Woodrow Wilson High School faced every day. There are dead bodies on the street, the students have to protect themselves from other gangs, and most of them didn’t finish high school. It might not be a big issue for us because we didn’t face it by ourselves, but after watching this movie you will know that it is a significant thing to look at. The differences among race caused all of these problems, to deal with this is not easy at all. Freedom Writers show us that we can live our life with distinction because it shows us how to understand and accept dissimilarity that we have and also to