American History X
American History X was directed by Tony Kaye and released in 1998. This movie contains many sociological concepts, which will be discussed in this essay. Five of these concepts are Culture in general, Ethnocentrism, Nature vs. Nurture, Looking Glass Self, and Mead's concept of "I" and "Me". The story begins with two black men arriving at the house of a neo-nazi name Derek Vinyard intending to break into his car and steal it. The man discovers this and kills both of the men as they try to escape. He is then arrested and jailed, then the story moves ahead in time to the day that he is released from jail. The story, though, focuses on his younger brother Danny who begins to follow his brother's neo-nazi group even though Derek is reformed as he leaves the prison. Danny's principal, a black man, sees Danny following in Derek's ways. He takes on Danny as a personal student to make him write a paper analyzing the events concerning his brother's incarceration and the impact of the society that he lives in on his present view and situation in life. The older brother Derek had become the younger leader of the neo-nazi leader after his father was shot and killed while fighting a fire in a black community.
The first culture shown, is that of the white suburban people, who value family, order, and listen to rock and roll music. That conflict which is resolved is the conflict of the social self. There are two different cultures defined in the movie. All five discussed concepts however, play important roles in the analysis of American History X: culture, ethnocentrism, nature vs. Ultimately, this movie focuses on culture conflicts, but as it progresses, a deeper conflict emerges. This concept is shown in a particular scene where Derek is at dinner with his family and his father begins influencing him towards negative feelings about African-Americans although the society he presently lives in does not influence him until his father is killed by a black man. Also, this is shown, as the African-Americans appear disturbed when he takes his shirt off to play basketball against them. Nurture", or Heredity versus Environment. The African-Americans are the main target of this hatred in the movie, although one particular scene also extends the hatred to Jews. Both Heredity and Environment now play an important role in his decision to join a racist group both because of his father's raising of him and by what the environment has done to him. Throughout the process, Danny is almost taken in by the nazi, but then he realizes that he has been told lies and all the things he has learned are wrong. The conflict between these cultures leads to the next sociological term "Ethnocentrism", or the tendency to judge other customs and cultures according to one's own, mostly in a negative sense. Ironically, after he has seen his fault and decided to change, he is killed because of a fight he started before he realized that he needed to change. As the movie ends, Danny's voice is reading his paper and it tells how he has finally realized how wrong hatred is, and how acceptance is the only path to ultimate peace.
Common topics in this essay:
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Acceptance Essays
