We talked a little bit in class about the ending of American History X, including how unexpected, and therefore more upsetting, it was. However, even though it was so heartbreaking to see Danny killed after all he and his brother had just been through, I think the choice to end the movie with his death was actually rather brilliant. For me, the ending opened a window into a new perspective. Throughout the whole film, we see only the point of view of the White, working-class racist skinhead (Danny and Derek). But the school shooting was a fascinating ending to me because we got the quickest glimpse into the world of the angry Black student; we are, just for a moment, put into the shoes of another kind of angry youth besides the racist skinhead. The reason I liked the ending wasn't just that it illustrated for the audience the vicious cycle of violence perpetuated by hate and ignorance, but that after spending so much time learning about the skinhead movement and even sympathizing with some of the struggles of the Vinyard family, the ending made me switch gears and start to think about the Black boy's life in the same way. What brought him to this position? Who influenced him? What are his beliefs? How different is he, really, from Danny?
And one final thought about the ending--How ironic it is that Danny reconsiders his views and then immediately is killed by a boy in whose exact place Danny could have been some day soon if Derek hadn't set him straight.
Although it is possible to measure the degree of violence (which would include the number and severity of injures), I don’t think how greatly violence affects a person can be measured. Different people have different thresholds of tolerance towards violence, depending on how often a person is exposed to violence, how they are exposed to the violence (through firsthand experience and accounts or from third party sources such as the media and news), and the severity and what type of violence they are exposed to (or at least aware of). Atypical forms of severe violence, such as a curb stomp, may seem more violent to some people because this type of violence occurs infrequently. Some people may not even been aware that such violence existed before or that any human was capable of inflicting such violence on another human. One may be more affected by a form of violence though, no matter what the severity or type of violence it is, if they can empathize with the victim.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, generally all forms of real-life violence (no matter what the crime or severity) where there is a clear victim and a clear criminal should be considered bad. Trying to compare the severity of one’s bad and painful experience to another’s experience will inevitably invalidate one victim’s pain. The effects of violence and how violent something can be considered, which has to also constitute the degree of severity of the violence, relies too much on qualitative analysis and people’s own personal perceptions to be worthy of real comparison, in my opinion.
Violence was originally not a part of the skinhead subculture (although one could argue a certain hyper-masculine attitude that was in line with traditional working class English culture was glorified). As more angry, disenfranchised youth began to join the subculture though, they tried to shape the subculture to fit their beliefs and desires of what they wanted out of the skinhead community. Since the skinhead culture was one of the few subcultures that actually had a more conservative bent and had ideologies rooted in right-wing traditionalism, it is not totally surprising that people on the far right, which sometimes includes racists, sexists, and other bigots, would want to join a group of people who they believed were capable of holding similar beliefs and could possibly be converted into developing even more extreme beliefs. Sometimes violent or bigoted people may join subcultures, which sometimes boost extreme lifestyles and ideologies, as a way to justify their own bigotry and to get others (who may be more inclined to think in extreme ways since they are in a fringe subculture) to support their bigotry.