Bullying In The Film 'Freedom Writers'

Let’s do an exercise to recall any incident where you have been involved in bullying. You may be a victim of bullying, you bullied someone or witnessed an act of bullying. I would like you to close your eyes and breath in and breath out slowly 3 times. Now, try to recall an experience of bullying in your life. Were you the victim? Were you the bully? Were you a bystander?
I am sure that you have had the visions and feelings of those experiences during the past couple of seconds and it probably has had an impact on your life. This is why we are going to talk about the effect of bullying.

What is bullying exactly? Bullying is when a person or group repeatedly and intentionally exercises their power upon another person or group to control or cause harm. This can include intimidation, humiliation and victimisation based on sex, race, disability or transgender. We know that Bullying behaviour can be verbal, physical, social and psychological.
In the movie ‘Freedom Writers’, the main protagonist Eva, is severely affected by bullying from her own father and his gang. Throughout her adolescent years, her family and gang pressured her to live life to benefit them not Eva. She strongly believed it was better to obey her superiors rather than be an individual. She felt trapped, not in control and in-confident about her …show more content…
Mrs Gruwell, the English teacher, makes a connection between the small-scale bullying in the classroom to the large-scale invading by the Nazis. Most of these teenagers were often bystanders and participants of the mass gang violence which surround them. During Mrs Grewell’s English class, a crude drawing of African-American teenager with big lips was passed around the classroom. Each student peeked at the cartoon and laughed to themselves. When the drawing reached the victim, the most active and joyful member of the class became the most depressed member of the