Erin Gruwell Character Analysis Essay

Abstract

The twenty-three year old Erin Gruwell started her career with the aim of helping and inspiring her students to live better and effective lives. In the course of just four years, Gruwell was able, to dramatically convert the gang-banging, taggers and academically behind 150 students, into peace loving high achievers having their own dreams to fulfill. With atypical passion, Erin engaged her students significantly ahead of the limitations of her classroom, and successfully applied several of the “best practices” used in the process of learning and teaching.

Introduction

Erin Gruwell's first teaching job was like entering a war zone. She was white and twenty-three years old woman teaching in one of the worst secondary schools in Long Beach. On her first day of work, she was assigned classroom 203, a class with students who did not expect any success, destined to fail, and the alleged intention of retaining them until the carelessness and neglect were taking their toll. A class was racially divided and infested with gangs, fights and murders which were part of the students' experiences. Some of them were homeless, and many came from broken homes with domestic violence. Management expected poor results from the rookie teacher, moreover, many of Gruwell's colleagues predicted, that she would soon renounce teaching. Contrary to many people's expectations, Gruwell took this job as an impressive, professional challenge, and sought a way to penetrate the lives of young people. Gruwell knew the contemporary way of teaching the course she was going to teach i.e. Language and Literature, were not going to help achieve this. Therefore, she transformed their classrooms to teach about peace and tolerance, and make all those boys and girls before her discover the most important lesson and truth of their lives: they were people with a projection of the future which, they should not squander.

Inspired by the readings that the professor offered, Gruwell's students started writing their own papers where they narrated their personal experiences. For many, this class was the only place where anyone wanted to hear their stories and could share them. Gradually this class was becoming like a family, which agreed to give a new chance to start life again. They called themselves "Freedom Writers," inspired by the stories of the original "Freedom Riders" who fought segregation and prejudice (Freedom Writers & Gruwell, pp.110). The young teacher was able to convey to students that if they worked together, they could achieve important things. Over time, the stories told by this group of Freedom Writers started to travel around the country, received awards and arranged interviews in the media. It seemed incredible to get to where they got it. The book Freedom Writers, and especially Gruwell's character, provoked a real admiration for the protagonist of this story. Without a doubt, it is a great example of how even those who seem lost can be led back, to fruition when someone bet for them. It is true that everyone is the product of history; above all, everyone ...