The movie "Freedom Writers" is based on a true
story about a young teacher who goes above and beyond her call of duty to
motivate her students to learn and excel in a society filled with prejudices. Erin Gruwell is the new
English teacher at a recently integrated high school in Long Beach, California.
Her students are divided along racial lines and have few aspirations beyond
basic survival. Surviving to the age of eighteen is seen as an accomplishment
in a society filled with gangs and racial prejudices. When she discovers how much of her students’ day to
day lives are engulfed by racial prejudices she
introduces them to books like the Diary of Anne Frank. Using the story of Anne
Frank, she opens her students’ eyes. She encourages her students to start a
journal, like Anne, and to write in it their innermost thoughts. After sharing
these stories with each other, the students learn more about their classmates
and the racial barriers begin to reduce.
The “Freedom Writers” also shows strong stereotypes within
the minority community in the USA, which included African American, Latino,
Cambodian, Vietnamese and Caucasian. They belonged to a segregated community. Therefore the issues that affect them the
most include racism, violence, crimes, discrimination and drugs. The negative perceptions that
surrounded the school environment triggered resentments and acts of violence. The
students fate was changed after the arrival of the new teacher who advocated to
change what the students believed.
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