End Derek And Danny example essay topic

American History X is a story about two brothers, Danny Vineyard and the oldest brother Derek Vineyard. The movie starts off with Danny getting in trouble at school. Danny, who just happens to be a young skin head, was sent to the principle's office for turning in a school paper about Hitler titled Mein Kampf. The principle decides that as his punishment, Danny would have to write a paper on his older brother Derek. Danny has to write about the events that took place, that lead to his brother's incarceration, included in this paper he has to include how those events effected who he is today. Derek Vineyard, was a straight A student in high school.

Derek was a perfectly normal child, who developed to be one of the most notorious skinheads in his town. The death of his father was a hard time in Derek's life that seemed to have triggered, his hate for other races that were not white. Derek showed good leadership skills, and was easily able to round up more troubled kids to join the skinheads. One night two black kids came to Derek's home, to try to steal his car. Danny warns Derek, so of course Derek goes out to confront them. Derek ends up killing both of the young black males, thus resulting in his three year incarceration.

In prison Derek becomes friends with a black inmate. Derek is raped and beaten by what seems to be former skinheads, just because he decides to become friends with a black inmate. When Derek is finally released from prison, he is shocked to see that his younger brother is headed right were he was. So Derek quits the skinhead gang, called the D.O.C., and he attempts to reform his brother. Derek was succeeding in reforming his brother, but in the end his brother was shot by a young black male. In the end Derek and Danny able to move all this stuff in the house.

The main characters of this film are Derek and Danny. Derek joins the D.O.C. basically the result of this was prison. Derek states that it was the death of his father that triggered the racism. Derek's racism should be blamed on his father. His father showed signs of racism, and he expected the then once open minded Derek to have those same racist views as well. After his father's death those views stuck with him, and he was also so vulnerable which made joining the D.O.C. seem like a good idea.

Joining D.O.C. didn't help Derek out any, he was always starting trouble and then he killed two you black men. When Derek got out of prison any one could tell that Derek has changed. Derek disregarded all of his past views about other races, all because he became friends with a black inmate. Danny isn't that bad of a guy either, he seemed to be a good son.

The tragic arrest of his brother, left him vulnerable, and alone. So he joined the D.O. C looking for help or just a place for him to belong. Another reason I think he joined the D.O.C. is because he probably felt that it was the black man's fault for Derek being sent to prison, or maybe he was trying to honor his brother by following in his foot steps. When Derek was released, Danny was shocked to find out that Derek's views has changed. At first he didn't want to except it, but after they talked he was willing to let Derek reform him. Danny was on the way to recovery from being a skinhead when he got shot in the boys restroom at school.

One sociological concept that I would say relates to the story line, would be social Darwinism (the belief that those species of animals, including humans, best adapted to their environment survive and prosper, while those poorly adapted die out). This relates to the story line, because I believe this is how Derek felt as far as white people being compared to other races. That might have been a reason why he thinks that the other races were a threat. That the other races would take over everything in the country. Also before he changed he felt that immigrants were coming to America to take over all the available jobs. Since immigrants were hired for lesser pay, some American citizens lost their jobs.

This also can be related to the three years he spent in prison. Derek was placed in a new environment that he was very uncomfortable in, so he had to adapt to that environment to survive. Another sociological concept I would apply to the story line would be, culture shock. When Derek was in prison that had to be hard for him, because he wasn't used to how things worked in the prison system. For instance when he first arrived, he called himself showing a flag (the tattoo of the swastika) to a friend. Yes, it did work for him at first because he did find a friend or two by showing his tattoo.

Derek didn't think about all the other races of people that were incarcerated. Blacks and Hispanics didn't take to well to seeing the swastika on his chest. One of his new found friends was working out prison politics, he was exchanging goods and services with a Hispanic man. Derek didn't like that one bit, but exchanging favors does help you survive in the prison system.

So he decides that he doesn't want to have anything to do with that, and disregards the friends he did make. Those friends was Derek's only source of protection, and now that he didn't have that protection everyone wanted a piece of him. The only reason he got out of prison alive, is because of the black inmate he made friends with. Also I think that Karl Marx views on society, or the social class conflict plays apart in the story line. This can apply to Derek, because he didn't view other races as equals. That is probably why he showed no remorse for killing to black men, he probably viewed them as dogs or some other lesser being.

As a result society put him in prison, this helped Derek out a lot. I feel this way because when he got out, he had a different view of things in general. A minor sociological concept I would apply to one particular scene in the movie is that of the norms. Today in our society interracial dating is more of a norm, people don't react negatively all the time to interracial dating if any. In the movie when this interracial couple was trying to order some food, this cop and his friend gave them a hard time.

So the couple just decided to leave. Another minor sociological concept you could apply to the movie would be ethnocentrism. This can be applied to the movie because, Derek judged other races compared to his race or culture. He felt his culture and race was superior to that of all others. Another concept you can apply to the movie would be values. This is because Derek highly valued the white race, and thought they were superior to every other race.

Overall this movie was a great film to watch. It was very controversial, and it had a message behind it. The message that I got from this movie was, that it showed that people can change. That even though you might have a not so appealing past, you can still turn out to be a good person in the end.