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... ... middle of paper ... ...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...
In John Hubner’s 2005 book, Last Chance in Texas, readers are given insight into the fundamental curriculum that is embedded at Giddings State School. The book is divided into two parts, it begins by giving the point of view of the boy’s at Giddings and then shifts to the girl’s perspective. A significant chapter in the girl’s portion is chapter twelve, in which Hubner centers on Candace, a subject of the book. Readers learn her life and crime story and are able to understand the effects Giddings has had on her life and also how she, herself, affected the campus life. Chapter twelve not only further develops Candace as an individual, but also introduces more depth into the Special Services Committee.
In the prologue of Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissinger, football team, Panther, has players who have fears/problems to overcome before a important game with their biggest rival the Midland Lee. The main characters include Boobie Miles who had dealt with a tragic accident on his knee the last game he played causing him to get surgery leading him to not play as well as he did before, Jerrod McDougal who knows he can’t make a collage team because of his height, Mike Winchell who lives in poverty with his mother, Ivory Christian who has a love/hate relationship with football, and Brian Chavez who is a gifted football player and student being on top in every class.
In the book Friday Night Lights by author H.G Bissinger, there are various themes circulating around, However, the theme of racism overwhelms the majority and provides sufficient insight into the social hierarchy and social structure of the town of Odessa, Texas. The book overlooks a group of high school students dedicated to playing football and their struggle with identity, culture, and race. Race not only affects social problems within the book but also psychological, economic and political. Friday Night Lights compares the tensions between the black and white players and the community as a whole, who idolize the game, proving that a single high school football team can shape an entire town. Bissinger uses the racism
Football was not just a sport in Odessa, it was a lifestyle. In Friday Night Lights, Bissinger follows Permian’s high school football team. He is able to gain an understanding of the towns social components, and in the novel he analyzes the incompetence of the adults when making decision for their children, the bitter racism and unhealthy emphasis on the success of the football team. The author often compares Permian to a variety of schools and highlights the disproportionate emphasis on football and touches upon the vanity of the entire events. All in all, Bissinger is able to effectively show the reader the real Odessa.
The main character of this book is Susan Caraway, but everyone knows her as Stargirl. Stargirl is about 16 years old. She is in 10th grade. Her hair is the color of sand and falls to her shoulders. A “sprinkle” of freckles crosses her nose. Mostly, she looked like a hundred other girls in school, except for two things. She didn’t wear makeup and her eyes were bigger than anyone else’s in the school. Also, she wore outrageous clothes. Normal for her was a long floor-brushing pioneer dress or skirt. Stargirl is definitely different. She’s a fun loving, free-spirited girl who no one had ever met before. She was the friendliest person in school. She loves all people, even people who don’t play for her school’s team. She doesn’t care what others think about her clothes or how she acts. The lesson that Stargirl learned was that you can’t change who you are. If you change for someone else, you will only make yourself miserable. She also learned that the people who really care about you will like you for who you are. The people who truly love you won’t ask you to change who you are.
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.
Only a quarter of Texans have earned a bachelor’s degree, or more, in cities with a population of ten thousand people who are twenty five years old and older. For example, San Antonio with a population of eight-hundred twenty-seven thousand, one hundred ninety-three adults over the age of twenty=five had twenty-four percent that had obtained a Bachelor’s degree on more. This shows how the education crisis is poorly paid attention to. People always think of Texan’s education poorly because they don’t think of a way to resolve and put an end to this type of crisis. One main cause of student’s education is on the fact that most of the families in the south are in need for money. A way to improve this plot, is to improve the salaries in Texas for the lower-class. Cheap labor also contributes greatly making it harder for families to support their children on school necessities. School financing, being a huge factor, students’ chance for success in their
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,
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.
Sidewalk is a book written by Mitchell Duneier, an American sociology professor at Princeton University, in 1999; where the book has gained a lot of favorable reviews, leading its winning the Los Angeles Times Book prize and C. Wright Mills Award. Similarly, the book had become a classic in urban studies, especially due to the interesting methodology, which was used by Duneier while he was conducting his research. The book is based on observations, participant observation and interviews, which gave the author the ability to live and interact with the book and magazine vendors on daily bases. Although, this gave him an insight into the life of the sidewalk, many methodological issues have concerned scholars and students of sociology since the day this book was published. Duneier had admitted during the book that he couldn’t be completely subjective while conducting his research and writing his book due to his involvement and personal relationship with people who work and live at the sidewalk, which raise the question, whether the research is still relevant if the researcher is only giving us an objective outcome?
Sam Woods is a very important character in the novel In the Heat of the Night. He is a racist, and throughout the novel you will notice many changes in his attitude towards Negros.
As the book progresses, Boo, Aunt Alexandra, and Scout learn life lessons and develop into mature adults. Boo Radley’s maturity is depicted in the novel when he overcomes his fear and interacts with Scout, Jem and Dill. Boo, who is notorious for being a recluse, is a shy, lonely man who rarely leaves his house and does not understand the world around him. However, when he finally comes to interact with the children, he matures both mentally and socially. One example of when Boo matured physically was when Boo rescued Jem from Mr. Ewell.
It was two hours before our anticipated game against Manitou Springs, the second ranked team in the state. As I walked through the brick arches I heard nothing but honking traffic from blocks away. I got an eerie feeling when I saw all the smoke coming out of industrial factories, and noticed that no one else was there; I felt like I was in a ghost town. Our team started to go on to the field that we would be playing on to observe the differences in it. As I walked through the gate leading to the field, I was awestruck. It seemed as though this field was the only place in this strange neighborhood privileged enough to receive light from the blazing sun; standing on the field made it seem as though the creepy town had disappeared. The feeling overwhelmed me as I saw the flawless grass outfield and th...
The short story, “Unlighted Lamps,” by author Sherwood Anderson is about a relationship between a father and his daughter. Their relationship is a stressful one because neither of them talk to each other, nor show their emotions. Throughout the story, you find out why their relationship is the way that it is, and why it is hard for her father to talk to her. The unlighted lamps in the story represent flashbacks of memories wherever light dances across something.