So far, I have been pleased with the level of creativity and writing response to the essay topic: Racism and Bigotry as seen through the characters in the film: Crash. I am pleased that students watched the film, read reviews and other discussion about the film, watched interviews with actors and identified characters by name (and actors) in the essay. This shows a high level of competence and scholarship!
In my English 1A class last night, I had students both print copies of their essays and e-mail me a copy. I wanted to share an essay with you that worked structurally and also stylistically for those students who are still unclear about the assignment or how well you did. Models are often helpful. This is a first draft, so it's not perfect.I did tweak the thesis.
I graded the essays right away and each student has the opportunity to revise it for next week in this class. The essay I showed you has a "C-", because of the surface and grammatical errors. It could easily get a "B" once revised.
Thanks for sending me the "Love" essays. I'd like to do another anthology on these essays too, as well as a final compilation on the social entrepreneurs.
Please feel free to comment on the assignment and/or the essay.
John Doe
Eng 1A Midterm
Wed., March 15, 5-9 pm
Professor Wanda Sabir
Character: "Anthony"; actor: Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges
Film: “Crash” The Lion Gates’ Film
Untitled Essay
Two Police detectives, a Persian store owner, a Mexican locksmith, a Television director and his wife, two black car jackers, and two white cops. They all live in Los Angeles, and during the next 36 hours, “moving at the speed of life, they are bound to collide with each other. The Lion Gate Films’ “Crash” takes a provocative, unflinching look at the complexities of racial tolerance in contemporary American” (www.crashfilm.com). We find that race is an indicator of privilege or power in the film, yet people avoid to acting like racists, at least in public.
Anthony, a black car jacker, a memorable character in “Crash”, who claim that certain stereotype prejudiced blacks. First, blacks are high criminal rate, thus all blacks are dangerous and threaten. Second, blacks are always define in the low income level, thus they can’t get attention or service they deserved to receive. In “Crash”, Anthony play a significant role to argue that black people are stereotyped and treated unfairly in the area of class and race, crime and punishment.
How black people are treated unfairly? A memorable quote from “Crash” said Anthony, “That woman poured cup after cup to every white person around us. Did she even ask you if you wanted any? That waitress sized us up in two seconds. We are black and black people don’t tip”. As Anthony cannot receive service as the white people do, Anthony claim that he was treated unfairly because of black people don’t tip or black people are poor.
In contrast, Anthony also has taken advantage of the stereotype. As a car jacker, he didn’t feel guilty even when he knocked down an old man. Anthony has no moral idea as he think that he was treated unfairly. Anthony also feels very proud that he doesn’t jacked black people. Because of the stereotype of black people are always criminal, Anthony feel that he has no guilty to be a criminal.
An event that changes Anthony’s life is when he jacked the television director-Cameron’s car. Anthony did not jacked Cameron’s car because he does not jack black people but Cameron told him, “You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself”. After that, Anthony started to think about his life. Anthony began to face problems and not to use stereotype as excuses to be a criminal. At the last scene of the film, Anthony set several illegal immigrants free because he doesn’t want them being slave.
In “Crash”, multi –ethnic cast of characters’ struggle to overcome their weakness as Anthony does. In the gray between black and white, victim and aggressor, there are no easy answers. Just like Anthony, he may or may not be punish for his crime and he may or may not be success for his quitting of crime. Life is full of risk and probability, we are only human and we cannot figure out the answer over a hundred years. To conclude, stereotype of race can give disadvantages but stereotype of race can be an indicator of privilege or power.
Posted by englishcoa
at 11:02 AM PST
