Struggle In A Film 'Freedom Writers'

“When you’re struggling with something, look at all the people around you and realize that every single person you see is struggling with something, and to them, it’s just as hard as what you’re going through.” ― Nicholas Sparks, Dear John. In the movie Freedom Writers, this quote describes how people have struggled just like the characters from the movie. We learned about the struggle that they have dealt with and how they were able to overcome and connect with each other. The reason to why they only trust students that are their own racial group, their own family relationship, and the climax of the movie.

The way that their own struggle affects them is that they only trust students that are their own racial group because the characters are put into a gang that they did not exactly choose. This caused them to think that they are better than the other gang, and wiping the other races would make them gain respect. Ms. Gruwell explained to them that what they wanted happened one time and that the “gang” who killed millions of people didn’t gain respect, people wanted the Nazis to be forgotten. She also said that “to get respect, you have to give it”, everyone in the class started arguing about respect. That’s when we learned that some of their rules that they follow are somewhat the same. They also started working together to try to explain to Ms. Gruwell how she doesn’t know what their lives are. The reason to why this scene connects to why they only trust their racial group is because they think that the other races are just making their lives horrible by being there. They overcome this problem by learning how they are all somewhat connected, such as when they were arguing with Ms. Gruwell, for a moment they started “working” together to explain what gaining respect and surviving is. When they started sharing their stories they learned that some of them are facing the same thing, like their family problems.

Following that, they also showed struggles with their family too. A couple of the characters had experienced abuse and that some grew up protecting their own siblings all by themselves. When Ms. Gruwell started an activity that they have to do, which was to write every day in their journal. One of her students had witnessed her mom almost half beaten to death. Then Marcus was sent to jail because the police found him sitting on a park bench with his dead friend that accidentally shot himself, Marcus was then accused of murder. After he had joined a gang his mom kicked him out of their house. Eva felt like her family always want something from her. Everyone she knew and was in her gang was forcing her to lie at the trial to protect her own. When Eva was called to the stand she testified against her own court, that’s when she confessed that Paco had killed the man, even though she knew that it could risk her life by testifying against her gang. They were able to overcome their family problem because room 203 had become their home. They worked with each other to get what they wanted. All of them graduated high school with the help of Ms. Gruwell and the support of their new friends that they have made in class.

Finally, the climax of the story is when one of the Latinos had drawn a racist picture of Jamal. This was the important scene of the movie because without it the class wouldn’t have learned about the holocaust and Anne Frank. They started to connect with each other when Ms. Gruwell works so hard to get them in one of the holocaust museums in LA, she also invited some of the survivors to share their story with them at the hotel where she had invited them all.