Louder Than A Bomb Analysis

Louder than a Bomb is a documentary by Jon Siskel and Greg Jacobs. We are invited into the lives of four different Chicago teenagers as they prepare for the city wide poetry slam. These four students come from various backgrounds and schools.
The first student we meet is Nate Marshal from Whitney Young Magnet High School on the west side of Chicago. The school uses standardized test scores and grades to determine who gets in. The kids that go there are smart, and eager to learn, which is a stark contrast to most of the other schools we see. A good school however does not prevent Nate from seeing the bad side to Chicago. He takes the camera crew to an area around his neighborhood where he points to places he’s gotten jumped, or seen a dead body.
Then we meet the group The Steinmenauts from Steinmetz High School. The school looks rundown, the student population is mostly African Americans who have really seen the rougher side of life, and that is reflected in the school. The teachers seem to struggle to teach the kids.
We then meet Nova who goes to Oak Park High. Oak Park is in the suburbs of Chicago. The students seem to mostly be Hispanic and White. The school itself is pretty up to date, and is the third best school we see in the documentary.

From Northside College Prep we meet Adam.

The school is huge and being a college prep school it is also selective in the students who get enrolled. The focus is on teaching and learning. The school seems predominately white with a few students of color.
Even though these schools are all different, they have some similarities such as the teachers. All of the teachers that we meet are encouraging the students anyway they can, in addition they are always striving to get the kids to believe in themselves and pushing them towards

excellence.
Each student has a different attitude and outlook on life, which could be a reflection of their home life. Since parents or guardians are a child’s first teachers they have a huge impact on their kid’s life and their social interactions. We see this in how the kids act at school and at home. For Nate his parents were drugs addicts when he was growing up, they eventually got sober and encourage him to not follow in their footsteps, and get an education to better himself. Now he is quiet and studious, he is taking his education very seriously. The Steinmenauts, headed by Lamar, are rowdy and silly. They might believe they can’t do any better than what their parents have done, but you hear the teachers telling them different and it’s the teachers who are trying really hard to push these students in a good direction because they clearly believe they can be better. Nova comes from a single parent home. Her father, an addict, left when she was young and she bears resentment towards him, and his decision to leave. She also has a younger brother who has fragile X syndrome and a bunch of other health problems. This has forced nova to grow up fast so her mom could work and provide for the family. Now she’s a really responsible young adult, with possibly some resentment for that. Adam, an only child, has the best family life out of all the kids we see. His parents are still happily married, they have dinner together and talk about their days, and they love, support, and encourage each other. This leads Adam to be cheerful and bubbly, but still sensitive to others.
Each school has a different social standing that affects their students poetry and behavior. At Whitney Young the school is well-known to have high test scores and advanced classes, so it’s no surprise that Nate’s poetry had eloquently written words with a strong vocabulary. Additionally his poems were a bit more positive than others. The Steinmenauts were from a not so well off school, the diction was not oat the same level of style and intellect as Nate's, and it focused more on the dark and gloomy side. Nova’s poetry had light and dark imagery, which reflected on her school being neither extremely poor nor being academically rich. Her poem about her brother was pleasant and brought smiles to the crowd; however the poem about her father was dark and powerful. Adam’s poems were all bright, inspiring, and encouraging; an almost true reflection of his school upbringing.
From this documentary we can see how someone’s social standing could influence their future.