American History X Film Analysis

American History X is a 1998 American film directed by Tony Kaye, written by David McKenna. In the movie, Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) returns from prison to find his younger brother, Danny, caught in the same web of racism and hatred that landed him in prison. After Derek's father is killed in the line of duty by an African American, Derek's view of mankind is changed, but while he was in prison, he discovered that there is good and bad in every race. It became Derek’s duty to convince Danny of his new found enlightenment. American History X did a great job creating a plot, developing the characters, and showing the theme.

The plot of a story is the series of events that makes up the story. The plot of the story is broke down into for parts. In the expository the author introduced the issue through flash backs of how Derek gained his mindset. He showed how Derek was arrested, and how Derek reaction was to his father being killed. The

director would introduce these flashbacks periodically with a grey background. Many critics thought the flashbacks were grey because it was to symbol how Derek was confused. The greyness portrayed the cloudiness. The author also introduced the issue, which was Derek had to remove his brother from the racist mindset.

The next level of the plot is the rising actions. The rising actions are the series of events that occur following the expository leading to the climax. In the rising action Derek was trying to get closer to Danny. The rising action also introduced dialogue between Danny and a local African gang member. The rising action is also responsible for developing a character. In this part of the movie the director developed Danny as this rebellious confused teen who just wanted to be his brother. Danny shaved his head because that was the uniform of Derek’s brotherhood. Derek character was developed as an older of Danny, who saw the error of his ways. But, as Derek grew further from the brotherhood, Danny grew closer. This would lead us to the highest point of the plot.

The highest part of the plot is the climax.

The climax is the part where the problem introduced is either resolved or reaches its cross roads. In the movie the climax came really late towards the end when Derek fought the leader of the gang and told Danny about his struggles in prison. This is considered the climax because it resolved the task Derek set out to in the expository. The task was that Derek had to get Danny away from the Brotherhood. While they were fighting Danny proved his allegiance when he took up for his brother.

The events after the Climax are the resolution. The resolution is the aftermath of the climax. The resolution of American History X, was when Derek and Danny began taking down everything that reminded them of their brotherhood. In the end Danny ended up being killed by the same African American gang member that he previously had a problem. In Conclusion, Derek learned that “the capacity of oneself is to change.” Derek learned that the way her chose to live affected the future of those around

him.