H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights brings to mind the cold, autumn nights of 1988 where a town, just like any other rural town in America, was brought together in such a raw and emotional way. From the rise and fall of Boobie Miles to the push for the playoffs, it is clear that 1988 Odessa was swept up in the glory of football to replace the grandeur of the 1950s, which seemed to deteriorate throughout that hectic decade. While a modern reader may view Bissinger’s masterpiece as a tale from a dated and faraway place, several factors have kept it in the public’s eye. What is it about Friday Night Lights that still resonates today? The answer can still be found in the same rural towns of America. Though it may seem incredible, Texas is still football crazy, and it may be fairly concluded that emotions have only slightly receded from the obsession they once held towards high school football. People’s inability to analyze themselves, the impact a community can have on younger generations, and the way priorities can easily be warped all struck me as subjects that have stayed true in Texas culture over the past 26 years. I will be discussing these topics throughout this dissection of Friday Night Lights.
The ability to analyze one’s self is a trait that seems to be lacking in nearly everyone until, supposedly, they reach full maturity. It can be noted that this ability is extremely lacking in every character introduced in the book, including adults. All of the coaches and parents fail to realize the great amount of pressure they place on the kids. Rather than being supported, Boobie Miles is treated as a “has been” at the age of eighteen by everyone surrounding him. Don Billingsley is dejected at the beginning of the season, even b...
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...at Round Rock because the school was having difficulty supporting it.
It can be understood why the football season of 1988 seems like such a faraway place. 1995, the year I and many of my fellow classmates were born, marked twenty six years since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Though it is not a pleasant thought, it seems that the problems Americans faced in 1969, 1988, and now will be problems we must face for years to come. It is our duty to make Texas a better place to live, encourage younger generations that success and happiness exist after high school, and that one is in charge of his own destiny.
Works Cited
Cantu, Rick. "State's Stadium Spending, Amenities Raise Eyebrows." Austin News, Sports, Weather, Longhorns. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .
Is High School football a sport, or is it more than that to some people? I’ve learned that the book is more sociological, which means that it focused on our human society of racial issues and also emphasizes the economy and the divide between the wealthy residents of one city versus the more working-class denizens of another are all subjects that are given an in-depth examination. This is more of the main or focal point of the whole book and in not so much in the movie. Although Bissinger's story is a true-life recounting of the 1988 football season of the Permian High School team, it reads like fiction and even though I believe his book is superior, the theatrical adaptation still stands apart as one of the great football movies ever to see in theaters. In the movie it was that team unit that was most significant in the development of the tale. Almost 80 – 90% of the book is in the film but there still are some differentiated contrasts found in the book in comparison to the movie. It has the intensity and the realism that kids were and are and also captures the...
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In the early 21st century, in a small town of Mequon, Wisconsin; a great injustice was being imposed upon the nobel students & staff of Homestead High School. The formerly great school was in a state of disrepair, textbooks were old and reeked of goat milk, the ceilings were filthy and foul, and even the heating and air conditioning systems were decayed and inoperable relics of a better time. Then, during an otherwise average and dreary day the whole student body was taken by surprise as the loathsome and terrible consortium, known as the school board had announced via loudspeaker, yet another set of horrid budget cuts. Unsurprisingly, the cuts were meant to free up funds for use of construction of a new astro-turf football field. For years,
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Tuesdays with Morrie is an inspiring tale in which Mitch, a young man struggling with the concept of a meaningful life is given a second chance, and a new outlook on life when he meets his past teacher, Morrie. They quickly renew the relationship they once possessed in college. Morrie becomes Mitch’s mentor, role model and friend once again. This time around, however, the lessons are on subjects such as life, love, and culture.
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In the American society, we constantly hear people make sure they say that a chief executive officer, a racecar driver, or an astronaut is female when they are so because that is not deemed as stereotypically standard. Sheryl Sandberg is the, dare I say it, female chief operating officer of Facebook while Mark Zuckerberg is the chief executive officer. Notice that the word “female” sounds much more natural in front of an executive position, but you would typically not add male in front of an executive position because it is just implied. The fact that most of America and the world makes this distinction shows that there are too few women leaders. In Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In,” she explains why that is and what can be done to change that by discussing women, work, and the will to lead.
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