Freedom Writers Synthesis Essay

The students from the films Freedom Writers and Precious Knowledge are depicted in a negative light. In Freedom Writers, the students are seen as savages by the faculty at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Eastside, Long Beach, California. One of the antagonistic teachers, Brian Gellard, speaks of the minority children in a sadistic tone, stating that the children in Erin Gruwell’s class are what has brought the once high-achieving school to the ground. He admits that he does not agree with the integration of the schools and does not think that students who truly wish to learn should be negatively affected by those who do not. Urban schools are represented as having predominantly impoverished, violent, gang related, and minority children. This is seen in both films, where the stories of children of color are told. Freedom Writers tells the stories of students of Hispanic, African-American, and Asian ethnic groups. In these minorities groups we can see tension between gangs and racial lines. In the beginning of the film, Erin Gruwell, who has been working as a teacher for less than a week, witnesses a fight in the schools courtyard, where one can clearly see the racial segregation. Hispanics with others of their group, blacks with students of their group and so on. This gives viewers an image of segregation inside of

Eva Benitez, one of Erin Gruwell’s students, visits her father in prison where he tries to manipulate her into lying in order to defending Paco, who killed a man but another person is being tried for the murder. Eva testifies with the truth and declares that Paco killed the man at the convenient store and after this, viewers can see how she is violently attacked by a group of gang members, who only let her live “out of respect for her