Paper About Derek example essay topic

"American History X" is a movie that was made in the year of 1998. This film is starring Edward Norton who plays the lead role of Derek Vineyard. This movie takes place in Venice Beach, and Compton. It portrays the life Derek before during and after his involvement in a gang. The story is told through the narration of his younger brother Danny. The movie begins with the crime that Derek commits that puts him in jail.

A car of black men come to his house and begins to vandalize his car. His little brother Danny runs into Derek's room and tells him and Derek runs outside and kills two of them with a gun, and from there the story begins. Derek is the leader of a white supremist nazi gang called the DOC. One of the top teachers at Danny's school hears that Danny had written a paper on Hitler and calls him into his office to talk, and asked him to write a paper about Derek. He does this in hopes that Danny won't follow in Derek's footsteps. He assigned this paper on the same day his brother Derek is being released from prison.

The two groups of gangs in this movie are the Nazis vs. Crips (white vs. Black). This particular gang (DOC) is started by a man named Cameron Alexander. He recruits kids who are troubled and from this method is how he finds Derek. A black guy killed Derek and Danny's father on the job as a firefighter. This is where his motivation and hatred of black people was derived. His little brother Danny looked dup to him so much he just wanted to follow in his footsteps.

The movie flashes from past to present and when it's in the past it is black and white, when it is in the present it is in color. It is kind of symbolic of the change that takes place with Derek before and after jail. When Derek is released from jail he is a changed person. He realizes that Danny is beginning to follow his footsteps and wants to change it. Before Derek was incarcerated he was a hard-core leader of this nazi gang DOC. He helped in the recruiting of the other members, and he was recruited because of his past (his father) and his intelligence.

The members were recruited and then they were members it showed no special initiation process. Before Derek went to jail, even when he was in jail the members of the DOC looked at him as a god. He organized the crimes, which consisted of vandalism mostly; the one act of crime it did show was their gang running into a grocery market that was owed by Koreans and Mexicans worked there. They damaged the food, store, beat up and harassed the employees.

In this gang of DOC drugs were not apart of it. They said marijuana was for "niggers". The members of the DOC all had shaved heads, and had either nazi sign, or the letters DOC tattooed on them. They hate anyone who is not white protestant. They have girls around and treat them normally. Derek has a girlfriend who is always with him and seems to get off when he acts tough.

The police do not play a huge role in this movie except for when they arrest Derek, and when they are notified of his release. When Derek is released from prison his entire family comes to pick him up. His family consists of him, his mother, and his younger brother Danny and his two younger sisters. He treats them all very well accept the night of the murder.

He snaps at the dinner table and becomes very violent with his sister and mother. Later this evening is when he kills the two black guys. When Derek is released from prison everyone in the gang assumes things will go right back to the way they were. They even praise him more because of what he did. Seth who is a fellow member comes over to the house soon after Derek returns and he treats Derek's sister and mother horribly. He also makes comment about Derek's hair because it is now grown out.

He then invites him to a party that is being thrown at Cameron's place in honor of Derek's return. Before Derek goes to the party his Sits his brother Danny down and explains to him that he should not be involved with the DOC and that he did not want him at the party that night. When Derek arrives at the party he sees his old girlfriend when he tells her he is through with the gang she turns on him. He then realizes his little brother is there and is upstairs with Cameron (the organizer of the DOC).

When he finds his brother with Cameron he asks Danny to leave. He then tells Cameron that he is out, Cameron becomes very angry and then Derek hits him. Derek runs out and as he leaves Seth sees him leaving Cameron's room and runs in to see Cameron. As Derek is leaving his ex-girlfriend screams to everyone that he is a nigger lover, and a trader. The entire party begins to yell and surround him then Seth pulls a gun on him. Luckily Derek had a gun on him and it allows him to escape the party safely.

After this party Danny runs after Derek and does not understand what has happened to him. Derek then explain's to Danny what happened to him in prison. While Derek was in prison he was the minority. He feared for his life everyday until he gained protection from the other white supremist in the prison. Derek soon realized that in the prison things were a lot different then outside. He realized that members of his group were dealing with the Mexican gang and that angered Derek.

During this time Derek was working in the laundry section with another black guy. In working with this kid Derek begins to realize that blacks are not that bad. Derek decides to be own his own and not be a part of the white gang. He plays basketball with the other black men in the prison and for this his own kind turns on him. He is jumped in the shower by the white gang he once was a part of and is raped.

After this his world changes. The teacher who assigned the paper to Danny was once Derek's teacher and he comes to visit Derek he brings him books and makes Derek realize nothing he has done has made his life better. Derek begs for his help, to put in a good word for him when he is up for probation in the next four months. His ex teacher makes a deal that he will if Derek promises to leave the gang and help his brother from following in his footsteps. and Derek agrees. Derek is released at that time and the only reason he made it out alive without protection was because of his black friend from the laundry room. After his tells his story to Danny understands and they both go home and take down all the nazi and gang related things off the wall.

They were going to start over. The next morning Derek walks Danny to school and when Danny gets to school he walks into the bathroom and is shot by a black kid who he had conflict ion with earlier in the movie. The movie ends with Derek running into the bathroom holding Danny while crying, while you hear the narration of Danny reading the end of his paper. He had ended his paper with a quote by Martin Luther King saying that we are all equal.

This movie was very realistic and was very well done. It left you feeling very empty. You can almost feel everything they feel in this movie and are almost reformed with him. It was very real and similar to the things we have been told and learned in class about gangs. This movie will change the way you think, and make you see the racism in all of us.