Characterisation
Erin Gruwell- Erin Gruwell was a young English teacher in a school in Long Beach, California she is a passionate teacher who gives up at nothing to help and teach her students Eva and Sindy – They both hate each other as they come from different gangs, but when it comes down to it they are extremely similar and have been through the same sort of situations as shown in the scene where they are both are getting ready to go out. Setting
Wilson High school
California
Museum of Tolerance
Holocaust Museum
Bosnian War
1994
Narrative Structure
Erin Gruwell begins to teach at Wilson High school in the lowest level of English which has a vast verity of different cultures and gangs throughout it. Gang rivalry learn about fighting for your own and protection your own and about how everything’s about respect Mrs Gruwell is very accepting of her students and starts to build a bond with them and trust in one another Mrs Gruwell learns about their everyday lives and the things they go through and finds a way for them to learn and relate things that significant others such as Anne Frank have gone though. Theme
stereotypes: one of the main themes in this film is stereotypes. It is shown thought out the whole movie for example how Eva feels about white people after then took her father away for doing nothing she reflects these actions against all white people saying things like “ White people wanting respect like they deserve it for free. “ “ It’s all about colour, it’s about people deciding what you deserve, about people wanting what they don’t deserve. About whites thinking they own this world no matter what, you see, I hate white people.”
Narrative Perspective
In the film you see the students perspective and the adults view on things The students show us their point of view by writing in the journals that Mrs Gruwell gave them to write in about anything they wanted. We see Mrs Gruwell’s point of view throughout the whole movie as it is based on her life.
Symbol
What symbols ae shown in the movie the freedom writers and why?
Society: one side of the hall with upgraded facilities and on the opposite side of the hall in class 203 have run down, old, destroyed facilities given by the school as they have no respect for the ‘ blacks’ in their school. Guns – the students carry guns around to protect themselves, this shows their fear to life Diaries – the diaries symbolise feelings, emotions and experiences the students have experienced. It also symbolises how the students start to gain trust in Mrs Gruwell as they let her read their deepest, darkest and most personal experiences and life problems. Language Choice each character has a different vocabulary for example Mrs Gruwell talks formal English and talks in a a respectful, bright, sincere way where as her students tend to use ‘ street talk’ and informal English as they know no better as they were brought up around gang life and were taught no better. Elements
What are some elements shown in the freedom writers film?
A significant element in the movie that I found interesting was ‘ bullying’. This film shows bullying in many different ways, the students fight in class, put each other down and lower each other’s self-esteem which is a major bullying factor whether it is intentional or not. The police bully not only the students but also the black family members. Eva proves this when she states her story of the cops bullying her family for no reason. The school also bully the students of class 203 as they refuse to give them any respect and give them run down facilities which lowers the students’ self-esteem and makes them feel worthless. This is also a form of bullying. Heroism
A) Miep Geis
Denies that she is a hero and says that all the kids are heroes because she admires how they live day to day and how strong they are. She recognises what they have to deal with and wants them to know that they are respected by some people in the world. B) I believe the quality’s a so called hero have is not been able to fly or have super powers but the ability to step out of your comfort zone to help others. Someone who shows love, compassion, respect without expecting any in return. Someone who stands up for what and whom they believe in. C) I think in the end the students are the hero’s while understanding that the students wouldn’t have achieved what they had if it weren’t for Mrs Gruwell. It also took a lot of work from the students behalf to acchive what they did to go against everything they believed in to work together to associate with other gangs to do what no one else thought they could and not only that but imagine living in one of there houses, getting abused, been around gang violence living he life as another day another struggle.
D) I expect a film hero to have the same qualities as a hero in the real world. Having the hero being in a film does not change the qualities that one should have. A hero doesn’t need super powers, a hero needs the qualities listed above whether it is in the real world or not. E) My heroes are not only my parents who work themselves hard to look after their family, but also my yiayia (grandmother). My yiayias travelled all the way from Cyprus at the ages of 14 and fell in love with someone whose family was not accepting of her. She raised a family with 4 boys and lost her husband at a young age. She looked after 4 boys by herself while they were going through the toughest times in their life while also putting everyone else first. I she is my hero because no matter how tough times got, she kept on going and didn’t give up. Language
The scene chosen is the scene in the classroom when the students and teacher are talking about respect. A) In this scene, the language used by the students is disrespectful towards the teacher, sarcastic comments are made, and inappropriate language is used to emphasise the emotion the students feel. B) The scene was easy to follow as an audience member as the speech is direct, there isn’t any riddles to solve. The students say what they are feeling and they do not hold back with their emotions which makes the scene very easy to follow. C) This tells me that the characters have no sympathy for others. It shows that they don’t care how they say what they say no matter how rude disrespectful it is. It also tells me that the students have not been brought up well and that they need to learn manners as a result of this.
