Freedom Writers

Freedom Writers. A movie of discovery and realization. It is a story of the effects learning can have on a group of young people, yet it is also something more. It is, as the title suggests, a story of freedom. In the beginning, the student are separated, each wanting nothing to do with the other ethnic groups represented at the school. The troubles with the students in the classroom seem to escalate when the student stop showing up to class, and then when a shooting involving a few of the students occurs at a mini-mart. It is after this event that the students begin to learn. The teacher starts to involve the class in different activities in order to show how similar the students all are, and the students begin to drop the walls that were separating them from each other. The students begin to learn that they are all similar, and that they all have been affected by the gang violence and discrimination that has become increasingly prevalent in the community. Mrs. Gruwell, their teacher, bring the idea to them that they all are a part of the same society, and that in order to be successful they will have to put aside the belief that the should push others away from them. The kids take this into account, and at the end of the film end up finding success, thanks to help from Mrs. Gruwell.
This film places an enormous amount of emphasis on the CRT tenet revolving around compound and complex identities. Each of the students is a product of the society in which they live, however the students also are unique individuals, and find that this is important for finding their own success. The idea that each group has a unique story to tell also is a focus of the film, as each student grows up in a house and culture that is unique to him or her, and by the end of the film, each student seems to come to realize that their heritage is what makes every one of them unique, which makes it easier to for them to accept one another.