Analysis Of City Of God

1511 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Strategies of reducing crime

The film City of God (2003) co-directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund explores the impact of urban planning and urban environment on the social and cultural behaviors of urban residents. The movie portrays urban planning as a factor in the allocation of resources to different urban neighborhoods, and how this allocation promotes the development of two social classes the poor and the rich. Secondly, the film attributes urban planning to social decadence as the marginalization of poor neighborhoods through government policies that limit resource allocation creates the perfect social environment for crime, moral decadence, and socialization of a whole generation into criminal activities.
City of God is set in the sprawling slums of Rio …show more content…

The film’s portrayal of government insensitivity to the plight of the slum dwellers and the telling of the story from the point of view of the characters shows that the youth who become criminals, such as the Tender Trio and the Runts are victims of circumstances. These kids were not born criminals or social deviants, but are, right from birth, exposed to a social environment that nurtures them into criminals. They are born into a world were survival requires one to engage in crime, a decadent society in which hardcore criminals like the Tender Trio are idols. The film, therefore, views the social problems associated with urban slums from the victims’ point of view by trying to show why they act and behave the way they do. It is not an attempt to excuse or justify their crimes, but an objective depiction of the interacting factors that make young boys like Li 'l Zé and the Runts to be transformed from innocent children to gun-toting robbers and drug sellers. They are victims of government negligence of the slum’s poor, exemplified by an urban planning policy that limits resource allocation to poor neighborhoods. The ending scene drives this point home powerfully when the Runts ask each other if anyone of them can write so they can make the hit list. Without education, how does the government expect such youths to earn a living, and how much can they be justifiably blamed for turning out the way they did? In the City of God, crime is the beast. If you run away, it will catch up with you, if you stay, it will eat

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Punished By Victor Rios

    1127 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his observation of the boys, he finds that these boys are criminalized by many social forces besides the police. “I found that schools pushed out boys who had been victimized.” (pg. 6). Many boys feel that their school system blames them for crimes that have occurred in their area, or as a danger to other students in the classroom. These boys think that these experiences of victimization are part of their street life. Rios says that if the institutions of social control believe that all young people follow the code of the street, then programs and interactions with margined youth’s will be based on this false information. This dishonest perception of youth is what leads to their

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Stereotypes In Punished By Victor Rios

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stereotypes within our society have shaped the way we perceive each other. Throughout the book Punished by Victor Rios, a lot of stereotypes were not only reinforced but also used against a lot of the boys. A lot of the boys presented throughout the book had never actually committed a crime but they were treated as if they had. These boys were constantly labeled and categorized, like folders into a filling cabinet or a bin. Sure Oakland, California had a lot of gang-infested areas but that does not mean everyone in that area is part of a gang or is committing a crime. Thus, this book really demonstrates how one can be perceived or labeled as a criminal due to his or her surroundings and how these stereotypes can destroy one’s chance of freedom.

    Read More

  • Review of Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City

    1523 Words  | 4 Pages

    For this assignment I decided to read the book Code of the Street: decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city by Elijah Anderson. This book is about how inner city people live and try and survive by living with the code of the streets. The code of the streets is basically morals and values that these people have. Most of the time it is the way they need to act to survive. Continuing on within this book review I am going to discuss the main points and arguments that Anderson portrays within the book. The main points that the book has, goes along with the chapters. These points consist of Street and decent families, respect, drugs violence, street crime, decent daddy, the mating game, black inner city grandmother. Now within these points there are a few main arguments that I would like to point out. The first argument is the belief that you will need to accept the street code to get through life. The other one is the belief that people on the street need “juice”. For the rest of this paper we will be looking at each one of main points and arguments by going through each chapter and discussing it.

    Read More

  • A Reason to Hope in There Are No Children Here

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    All through their lives Pharoah and LaFayette are surrounded by violence and poverty. Their neighborhood had no banks, no public libraries no movie theatres, no skating rinks or bowling allies. Drug abuse was so rampant that the drug lords literally kept shop in an abondoned building in the progjects, and shooting was everywhere. Also, there were no drug rehabilitation programs or centers to help combat the problem. Police feared going into the ghetto out of a fear for their own safety. The book follows Pharoah and LaFayette over a two year period in which they struggle with school, attempt to resist the lure of gangs, mourn the death of close friends, and still find the courage to search for a quiet inner peace, that most people take for granted.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Gentrification: A Positive Good For Communities

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    In contrast to the negatives of gentrification, some people view gentrification as a the only effective way to “revitalize” low-income urban communities. In the article, “Gentrification: A Positive Good For Communities” Turman situates the piece around the opinion that gentrification is not as awful as the negative connotation surrounding it. Furthermore, he attempts to dispel the negative aspects of gentrification by pointing out how some of them are nonexistent. To accomplish this, Turman exemplifies how gentrification could positively impact neighborhoods like Third Ward (a ‘dangerous’ neighborhood in Houston, Texas).Throughout the article, Turman provides copious examples of how gentrification can positively change urban communities, expressing that “gentrification can produce desirable effects upon a community such as a reduced crime rate, investment in the infrastructure of an area and increased economic activity in neighborhoods which gentrify”. Furthermore, he opportunistically uses the Third Ward as an example, which he describes as “the 15th most dangerous neighborhood in the country” and “synonymous with crime”, as an example of an area that could “need the change that gentrification provides”. Consequently, he argues with

    Read More

  • Saboteur by Han Jin

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through the description of the characters the reader understands better the conflict between the protagonist Mr. Chiu and the political system represented by the policemen. Mr. Chiu, with a “thin jaw” (4) and worried by a bad liver and acute hepatitis appears to be weak. His wife whose cheeks are pale wears “glasses”(4), which could be perceived as a sign of fragility. They live a comfortable life as indicated by the fact that they own a color TV, something that only a certain elite could own at the time of the story. However, even she looks sick: she suffers from a headache. The couple obviously belongs to the intellectual elite and it helps justifying the policemen’s behavior towards them: during and after the cultural revolution, the relationship between the government and the intellectuals was not among the most pleasant. It is easy to understand that an uneducated people is easier to rule than a well-informed one. Even Chiu asse...

    Read More

  • 38th Street Gang Research Paper

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    1-The story tells, Real facts occurred in the 1940s, where it was a racist society. Gangs were scattered throughout the cities, and regions, and the streets. To live, you have full get away, or belonging to one of them. You should help the gang members that they were right or on falsehood. Also, it is a kind of bigotry, not much different from intolerance, national, ethnic, and sectarian That were prevalent in American society. in fact, it is the inevitable result of this society. When the corruption becomes prevails, injustice and lawless prevails too, and justice will disappear.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Capitalism In Street Angel

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    To achieve this goal, he crafts a stylized capitalistic society that inflicts grave injustices upon his protagonists. The avarice inherent to this society governs everyday life within Street Angel. Xiao Hong, for example, lives with adoptive parents so corrupted by greed that they prostitute their older daughter, Xiao Yun. In a transaction that reflects the inhumanity of higher-level capitalism, these parents sell Xiao Hong to a local gangster. By juxtaposing the implications of this sale with Xiao Hong’s exaggerated innocence, Yuan appeals to his audience’s emotions, stoking anger toward social values that could enable such barbaric exploitation of the poor. Yuan employs a similar juxtaposition later in Street Angel, when Wang visits a lawyer’s office in a skyscraper – an environment so divorced from his day-to-day realities that he remarks, “This is truly heaven.” Wang soon learns otherwise, when the lawyer rebuffs his naïve plea for assistance by coldly reciting his exorbitant fees. The lawyer’s emotionless greed – a callousness that represents capitalism at its worst – contrasts strikingly with Wang’s naïve purity, a quality betrayed by his awestruck expression while inside the skyscraper. Again, this juxtaposition encourages the film’s audience to sympathize with a proletarian victim and condemn the social values that enable his

    Read More

  • Violence And Violence In Albert Camus's City Of God

    1904 Words  | 4 Pages

    People create a civilized society individuals make it the norm however there are those ignorant people that just destruct everything and make it a disaster. It is part of a human balance to have good and evil. According to Urban Cinefile Critics, "A powerful and haunting film that explores the myriad of stories that lie deep within the slums of Rio, City Of God shocks, enlightens and above all affects us by taking us into a world where drugs and organized crime are a way of life." But in this film it shows that everyone choses their own paths to walk by for instances if it wasn’t for the harsh and brutality in that city Rocket, who is intelligent, cannot survive to do the work that his intelligence entitles him to do. Take pictures be in the photography industry and have his work published. Intelligence can be made in everyone that chooses to succeed in life the right way however a charter named Lil Z in this movie shows us otherwise. Stupidity, lack of knowledge (thinking he is famous being in the newspaper) not being able to read at his age is just sad. Thinking he is God of...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The City Of The End Of Things

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the poem “The City of the End of Things” by Archibald Lampman he paints an image of a dystopian and mechanical future. The theme of this poem is a prediction of the natural world 's destruction and of the current industrialized future. Humans cannot live without nature, thus with the destruction of the natural world comes the downfall of humanity. Lampman wrote “Its roofs and iron towers have grown / None knoweth how high within the night”(9-10), which provokes a picture of a city that is ever growing, seemingly overnight. In the poem there is an ABAB rhyme scheme along with use of alliteration, onomatopoeia, and imagery. By using all of these techniques it helps the reader to better understand the message which is being relayed in the poem. Some of the subjects of this poem include, urbanization, dystopia, nature dying and the fall of

    Read More

  • Essay On Gentrification

    1267 Words  | 3 Pages

    Of the many problems affecting urban communities, both locally and abroad, there is one issue in particular, that has been victimizing the impoverished within urban communities for nearly a century; that would be the problem of gentrification. Gentrification is a word used to describe the process by which urban communities are coerced into adopting improvements respective to housing, businesses, and general presentation. Usually hidden behind less abrasive, or less stigmatized terms such as; “urban renewal” or “community revitalization” what the process of gentrification attempts to do, is remove all undesirable elements from a particular community or neighborhood, in favor of commercial and residential enhancements designed to improve both the function and aesthetic appeal of that particular community. The purpose of this paper is to make the reader aware about the significance of process of gentrification and its underlying impact over the community and the community participation.

    Read More

  • Summary Of If I Grow Up By Alex Kotlowitz

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    If you walk into a classroom full of kindergarteners and ask them what they want to be, you won’t hear words like “gangbanger” or “drug dealer.” You will hear big aspirations like “doctor.” “Astronaut.” “Artist.” The dreams of children are powerful, but in places like the project where Lafeyette and Pharoah are growing up, those dreams die early on. Their families are caught in the clutches of generational poverty without any clear path out. They lack exposure to many of the strategies that people in other parts of the world have to manage their own lives. Because they are constantly moving from one crisis to the next, these children truly never have the chance to enjoy being small and young. They don’t have the kind of protection in place that they deserve to have, and that distorts their progression toward adulthood. They get used to living in constant fear and stress, and they think that life will always be that way. Unfortunately, too many of these lives end before the children even have the chance to move out of the apartment where they have been crammed along with all of their siblings, a parent (not two in so many cases) and perhaps even a grandparent and other family members. Instead, they die too young from the ongoing epidemic of violence. These are children who never have a real chance to succeed. This is

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Gil Cubiros And Cuadro's City Of God

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    Catholicism glorifies and represents mothers as the main foundation of the family through the example of the passive and unconditional loving Mary, the mother of Jesus Crist. This idea of the mother as unconditional lover beings has been passed on and reproduced in the Chicana/o community. Gil Cuadros and Reyna Grande through their autobiographical work testify against this predominate idea of the mothers being caring and loving persons. Even though most mothers fall into the norm of a normal mother, normality is subjective, therefore Cuadros and Grande’s work represent the complexities of reality. Grande’s The Distance Between Us and Cuadro’s City of God are autobiographical narratives that incorporate reality as a form of testimonial of existence, an act of healing and resilience. Given that these author’s life experiences can be

    Read More

  • city of god

    2313 Words  | 5 Pages

    In my essay I will discuss the differences between national cinema and Hollywood cinema by using Rio de Janeiro¡¯s famous film City of God. There will be three parts in my following main body, the first part is a simple review of the film City of God, I will try to use the review to show the film structure and some different new points from this, show the how did the ¡®Shocking, frightening, thrilling and funny¡¯ (Nev Pierce) work in the film. The second part is my discussion parts; I will refer some typical Hollywood big name films such as Gangs in New York, Shawshank¡¯s Redemption, and Good Fellas to discuss the main differences between City of God and other national films. The third part is my summary, I will use my knowledge to analyse why there have big different between both kind of films and their advantages.

    Read More

  • Urban Imagination Essay

    1696 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Imagining the Urban: Politics of Race, Class and Schooling the urban jungle is described as, “Black, Brown and Yellow bodies, which are poor and dirty, criminals and dangerous, violence and drugs tied with the images of majority of urban people.” Leonardo (2007) This perception of urban fails to look outside of one’s own stereotypes and attributes some character perceptions to describe a group as a whole. The media also plays a big role in our depiction of the urban, men and women who live in urban walls are seen as villains. An example of this is in the 2015 movie Fast and Furious described by IMDb as a “Crime film/Thriller.” Here we see an increasing majority of the character’s to be men of color and the themes of the movie were fast cars, vulgar language, violence and gang affiliations. The media constantly shows in the news that the response to manage the villain living in the urban is jail or death. The end result for most teachers who see urban in this way believe teaching students in these various demographics as a “waste and hopeless.” This perception held by policy makers and teachers has attributed to what Brenzel and Kantor (1945-1990) have described as a “crisis” that needs to be fixed, “urban schools receive insufficient funding, and have out dated facilities leaving them far below the achievement gap and increasing their dropout rates.” That was the case in the 90’s and is still the case today 25 years later. So in conclusion our perception as educators has a true impact on all students, the way we see them early on and relate to their urban can save them from prison and/ or death. It is challenging to be fully invested and truly help children if you do not trust them, as future and existing teachers we owe it to our students to think beyond the media, and our own

    Read More

More about Analysis Of City Of God

Open Document