Just as the Olympics were held in Brazil, we heard on the news the constant increase of violence in children, and the even higher increment in the organized crime events in this country. But few of us understand the cold, horrific, and the traumatic experience of living surrounded by violent children in organized crime gangs, as well as the characters of City of God. The director of the movie Fernando Meirelles purposely shows us the way in which young children in Brazil learn to become violent at a young age, eventually still young get involved in organized crime gangs and their drug business, as well as in the gangs’ battles over territory and power. The director succeeded in presenting his point of view by using a different variety of movie …show more content…
The story develops in Ciudade de Deus, one of the most dangerous favelas in Rio di Janeiro. Young Rocket narrates the events from his point of view due to the fact that he grew along the increment of violence and as many other kids of his generation became strongly involved in the organized crime gangs. By developing the story from Rocket’s point of view, the director is trying to give the viewers a primary view of someone who grew directly involved with the dangers of living in the favelas. By beginning the film in the scene when the main characters Rocket, Lil Z, and Benny as children witness how the Dynamic Duo begin to commit crimes allows the viewers to first witness the influences of violence that these kids have had since children. The way in which the Dynamic Duo talks with the small children after committing a robbery, truly demonstrates that these children were encouraged to become criminals. For example, after the Dynamic Duo robs the gas truck during the first scene from minute 6 to minute 9 they tell the three kids “This is how you will make money and survive, so watch and learn, and one day you guys will be the ones in charge of this business.”(City of God) The context of this first scene plays an important factor in the violent development of the children. The fact that we are taught all these events by Rocky permits the viewer to experience all kinds of influences these kids received as children. It is important that Rocky narrates the story because we are able to see first-hand the effects that violence had upon these children. It would have been a total difference, if the story would have been told from a foreign person point of view because we would not totally understand how the children get affected by violence. Seeing all the events from Rocky’s eyes allows the director to successfully demonstrate the way in which children
Alfredo Corchado — is the author of the book named " Midnight in Mexico:A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness”. We are, probably, all interested in finding out the facts, news, and gossips about Mexico. This country was always associated with something mysterious. For me personally, the title of the book seemed to be very gripping, I was interested in revealing the secrets of life in Mexico, thus I decided to read this book. I was really curious, what can Alfredo Corchado tell me about the life in this country, the country, where the constant massacre is the picture, people used to see. In his book, the author tells the reader about the real situations, which took place in Mexico, reveals the secrets of the people’s lives and tells the story from the “inside”. He describes the way he lives his life, and does his work. The " Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness” is a memoir. Author tries to transform his own experience into the story line. Corchado shows the reader the darkest episodes of Mexican society, while relying on his own experience.
Miguel Melendez’s book, “We Took the Streets” provides the reader with an insightful account into the activities of the Young Lords movement established in the latter years of the 1960s and remained active up until the early seventies. The book’s, which is essentially Melendez’s memoir, a recollection of the events, activities, and achievements of the Young Lords. The author effectively presents to the reader a fascinating account of the formation of the Young Lords which was a group of college students from Puerto Rico who came together in a bid to fight for some of the basic rights. As Melendez sums it up, “You either claim your history or lose authority over your future” (Melendez 23). The quote is in itself indicative of the book’s overall
“She is wearing a necklace of hickeys, a black mini skirt, a pair of three-inch heels she bought two weeks ago on her 14th birthday” this sentence, for example, illustrates the character, Tequila, who is only 14 but already has experienced many things (227). What made me angry about this article was the reality of what these characters faced. The amount of crime, and the shootings, at a young age. However, what I found interesting about this was how it became different when the new drugs came. “’My people took your ideas and totally bent it and turned it around and took away any of the pride or the respect that was in a gang (235).’” Stager does an effective job in intertwining the scenes with the history of Los Angeles gangs. It allows you to understand the changes of the gangs, whereas newspapers, and other newscast would simply showcase the amount of homicide and gangs violence there has been in LA since the
“Papi pulled me to my feet by my ear. If you throw up— I won 't, I cried, tears in my eyes, more out of reflex than pain” (307). As this scenario presents violence, it displays innocent Yunior’s response towards his abusive father as he pulls Yunior’s ears. In the short story Fiesta 1980, Junot Diaz depicts the life of young Yunior as he struggles with his Dominican family issues. Yunior was picked on the most in the family, especially from his dad. As Poor Yunior was the victim of his dad’s affair with a Puerto Rican woman, it affected him psychologically. Yunior suffers from the fact his beloved mother is being cheated on; therefore, he vomits as he rides his dad’s van, as his first ride in the van is linked to his first meeting with
Throughout an individual’s life-time, he/she has a vision as o what his/her should be. But when things do not go as planned and the unexpected occurs, does that person face it, or run away? In “An Act of Vengeance” by Isabel Allende, running away is not an option at well. Through the usage of plot, character and irony, Allende illustrates the cost of war.
Boyz N the Hood was a film created to convey an anti-gang message as well as to provide societal members an in-depth look at life in “the hood” so he or she can expand their culturally awareness of identifying societal issues (Stevenson, 1991). Upon the debut of “Boyz N the Hood” violence erupted at theaters across the nation, resulting in multiple shows pulling the film from scheduled showings to alleviate future violent behaviors (Stevenson, 1991). The film profoundly illustrates the realty of the events revealed within the storyline that frequently occur on a daily basis within every impoverish community; however, is overlooked by the individuals who are not directly involved and or affected (Leon-Guerrero, 2016) Children of lower socioeconomic status often are raised in ghetto neighborhoods where they often witness, crime, violence, gang activity, abuse, and drugs (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). Ghetto communities envelop tumultuous cycles of violence and substance abuse creating a pervasive occurrence within the residents of the community. This is prevalent in lower developed communities that unfortunately many children and the youth populace indirectly inherit and sadly conform to, as there are no other means to an end for them (Leon-Guerrero,
Philadelphia is the heights rat of crim in the USA over 30-40 homicides crimes per month and drug related crimes. This links in with the other text that we are looking at, the novel “Damage done” and how is shows that sometimes facts get in the way of a good story. This all promotes the current view Australia has one drugs, the way that there is supposably an ice epidemic happing. This document follows Theroux around Philadelphia’s drug action streets while he does interviews with the criminals and follows the police around finding out what is really happing out on the streets of Philadelphia. Some events that where selected to promote this view to the audiences was the interview with the street boys, showing just how carpeted Philadelphia is how they talk of “code of silence – never snitch!”. There was all so the confronting images of the dead body left in the abandoned house, from a suspected over does on ice. The drug issue in Philadelphia is represented in way that it controls the streets nothing ever happens unless its drug related. These parts have been purposely highlighted throughout the documentary to get the most dramatic message across to the views, as dose the novel. Tis representation achieves the goal of getting the message across of how street gangs and drugs are becoming to rules the streets. This message impacts and effects the way the audients sees this type of action and making them believe that it is taking place all around them. This documentary is to inform and promote the understanding of these types of actions, this is all so done with some help of filming
Singleton begins the film by showing Tre, the protagonist, as a child. He is sent to live with his father, Furious, in “the hood” after acting out in school. There, he meets up with a group of friends and one day they journey to see a dead body. Singleton does this to show the children’s exposure to death at such a young age. It is not typical for a young child to see such things, so this symbolic gesture is effective at showing the viewer what kind of culture the children are being brought up in. Immediately after their encounter with the dead body the children are taunted by a group of gang members over a football. By setting this up immediately after the children’s encounter with death, Singleton has coupled gang violence and murder. This is an important to the cultural moment that Singleton is trying to encapsulate b...
Violent Media is Good for Kids, by Gerard Jones, is an article which makes many claims to support the argument in which a controlled amount of violence could be beneficial for a young, developing child. Even though the topic of this article can be controversial, the claims serve to support the argument in many noteworthy ways. It is written in such a way that it tells a story, starting when the author was a child and works its way to his adulthood. In this case the author uses, what I believe to be just the correct amount of each rhetorical strategy, and fulfills his goal for writing the article. This argument is interesting and at the same time, effective. Throughout the analyzing process logos, ethos, and pathos are searched for and scrutinized.
History usually forces itself into the present in Juan Jose Campanella’s film “El Secreto De Sus Ojos” (The Secret in Their Eyes). Although it was filmed in 2009, the story is an attempted memorization of the violent reality in 1970-1980s Argentina, an era in which the country was rapidly sinking into military rule-ship. Campanella offers flashbacks into Argentina’s dark days, a period where violence homicide, rape and injustices ruled. Through memory, the film narrate a era in which it was impossible to be an innocent person as the innocents were falsely accused, tortured and even murdered for crimes they never committed, all these for the whims of those in power. Even though, the film is set in the 1970s, it does not call immediate attention to the animosity, the hopeless feeling and the constant struggle between the desire to forget vs. the attempts to remember the chaos and confusion of these years. However, through the use of memory Campanella allow the views to portray an almost perfect picture of what happened in Argentina.
In the favela of São Paulo, Brazil, 1958, Carolina Maria de Jesus rewrote the words of a famous poet, “In this era it is necessary to say: ‘Cry, child. Life is bitter,’” (de Jesus 27). Her sentiments reflected the cruel truth of the favelas, the location where the city’s impoverished inhabited small shacks. Because of housing developments, poor families were pushed to the outskirts of the city into shanty towns. Within the favelas, the infant mortality rate was high, there was no indoor plumbing or electricity, drug lords were governing forces, drug addiction was rampant, and people were starving to death. Child of the Dark, a diary written by Carolina Maria de Jesus from 1955 to 1960, provides a unique view from inside Brazil’s favelas, discussing the perceptions of good
Chris and Doughboy, two brothers in gangs, live with a single mother. Chris is headed for an athletic scholarship and there is hope he will escape gang life, however, with no mentor this does not happen. Tre is a young gang member whose father is always there in the background, and this is what keeps him alive and gets him out of gang life eventually. The movie makes a clear the point that if a child is watched by some adult who cares from early childhood, they stand a better chance of surviving the urban gang life they cannot escape otherwise. Scenes from the early childhood of the three boys foreshadows this as Chris and Doughboy are in juvenile hall as children, while Tre is spared this as a result of his father looking over him. This theme will continue throughout the film. The landscape of the urban ghetto and the legacy left to black youth, and the death it brings upon them is well portrayed in the film.
This paper will cover issues that young minorities encounter in the movies; Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008), Gran Torino (2008), A Better Life (2011). Movies will be summarize, and compare and contrast youths experienced. Criminological theories shall be utilized to further elaborate issues. Finally steps and theories will be utilized towards solving issues, also possible methods to correct the issues will be addressed in the end.
Using both English and Spanish or Spanglish the author Gloria Anzaldua explores the physical, cultural, spiritual, sexual and psychological meaning of borderlands in her book Borderlands/La Frontera: A New Mestiza. As a Chicana lesbian feminist, Anzaldua grew up in an atmosphere of oppression and confusion. Anzaldua illustrates the meaning of being a “mestiza”. In order to define this, she examines herself, her homeland and language. Anzaldúa discusses the complexity of several themes having to do with borderlands, mestizaje, cultural identity, women in the traditional Mexican family, sexual orientation, la facultad and the Coatlicue state. Through these themes, she is able to give her readers a new way of discovering themselves. Anzaldua alerts us to a new understanding of the self and the world around us by using her personal experiences.
Patriarchal formations of familial angst and romance included, Vice City has been received again and again in the several orifices of the public body. Each time new techniques, purposes, and functions may be discovered in the rubble evidencing the occurrence, but the repeated encounter itself symptomatically mythologizes a special strain of the back, bearing out a stigmata proving again and again the omnipresence of Vice City in the spaces of media outlets, and thus collection and reflection. Back pain in the very dens and living rooms of America! The back is just the end of the issue, where it starts is in the hands, a twitching organism tied by lines of fluid, flesh, force, and faith to the human configuration. If what is violent in the game is the mode of interaction by which the protagonist’s narrative transgressions can be rendered progeny of a sick mind (akin to the Japanese Otaku), the hand is a thing of the psychological measurement of the central nervous system and the behavior of the favorite allopathic object. Gameplay is feedback, hand to computer to display to eye, and, like any such idealized circuitry, crossover is categorically denied. Honestly, hands are not their own and not even ‘yours’ in any romantic sense, but yours-insofar-as-you-are-humanized, and thus schematized into matrices of humanist pluralism of the population. A population of its instances. Aside these detachments in analysis, Vice City offers an anarchic confusion with implications for media theory by a methodological engagement of gameplay.