Social inequality in films

In this blogpost I’ll illustrate my views on how films can make you more aware of social inequality. I have chosen the two films “The Blind Side” and “Slumdog Millionaire”, and I’m going to compare how they both deal with social inequality.

I think films really can make you more aware of social inequality. By watching you’ll see an apparent class distinction around the world. You also see how many people growing up and living in bad conditions. Often a town can be divided into a rich side and a poor side. There are a lot of people living on the rich side, and they don’t even think about or notice the poor people. Some of them don’t even dare to visit the poor side and is thinking bad thoughts about the people living there. By seeing how people live you should appreciate more what you have and all the opportunities you have. You should also show more consideration to others and be aware of that many people suffer and are living in poverty.

I believe it’s great to see films with social inequality so you get more perspective on how the world is and how people live. This gives you more knowledge about other people and you learn to respect everyone and their lifestyle. There shouldn’t be social inequality in the world, and no one deserves to die because of bad living conditions. 

On school last week we watched “The Blind Side”. The film is mainly about a family that takes care of a homeless boy called Michael Oher. The boy has been living in different foster families since he was little because of his mother’s drug addiction. He starts at school and doesn’t manage so well. His new family hires a tutor to give him extra lessons at home. Soon Michael’s school performance improves. He starts playing football and everyone can see that Michael actually got football talent. He’s strong and good at protecting himself and the other team players.

This film contains social inequality by showing how Michael grew up and the clear separation between rich and poor in Tennessee. We see that he grew up in a poor district with almost no clothes, sleeping on the floor, a lot of drugs and violence. The environment the family lives in is richer, and the people can afford what they need. We can see a clear social inequality between the two class distinctions in the city. In the film when Michael and Leigh Anne went to visit Michaels mother on the poor side, we can see that Leigh Anne is sitting afraid in the car. You can easily see she doesn’t like the place or the environment Michael grew up in.

“Slumdog Millionaire” is about a poor boy called Jamal Malik. He lives in the slum in India and grows up with bad living conditions. Jamal joins the competition “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and is one question away from the prize. Then the police arrest him and suspect him for cheating because of the impossibility of a “slumdog” knowing all the answers. He uses flashbacks from his life to remember the answer to the questions, and the film shows many of these. The film is also about Jamal’s way of finding back to his friend, Latika.

“Slumdog Millionaire” also contains social inequality in the way the police arrest Jamal. As said earlier they only arrest him because he’s a “slumdog”. They think he’s too smart to be able to answer the game-questions. The police are also treating him bad in prison and they’re hanging him from the ceiling and giving him electric shock. I believe this is wrong, and I’m sure many others will agree to this. Jamal is innocent, and they can’t treat him bad and set him to prison only because of his living conditions. There has to be allowed to have a lot of knowledge even though you live in the slum.

As a conclusion I’ll say watching films about social inequality is informative and helpful for later life. You get more perspective on how the world is and how people live. Both of the films includes social inequality but in two different ways. The first one is about two town-sides and the clear distinction, and the second one about being treated bad because of your lifestyle. Something common in the films is that people are being thought bad about if they live in poverty. The poor people in the films are also seen as less worth and dumber without an education.

My reading of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”

Theme	I asked him what happened, what animal had hurt him, but he wasn’t listening. “Go to the island,” he repeated. “You’ll be safe there. Promise me”. “I will. I promise” What else could I say? “I thought I could protect you” he said. “I should’ve told to a long time ago…” I could see the life going out of him. “Told me what?” I said, choking back tears. “There’s no time”, he whispered.	We picked this paragraph from the book because we think it shows the theme quite well. Since we guess the theme is trust and to follow your instincts, we thought this paragraph was suitable because it shows hos Jacob has to decide to trust his grandfather. Jacob has to choose whether he should believe his grandfather and go to the island, or if it’s just fairy tales.
Setting	“A loop,” I repeated, remembering my grandfather’s command: find the bird, in the loop. “Is that what this place is?” “Yes. Though you may better know it as the third of September, 1940.” I leaned toward her over the little desk. “What do you mean? It’s only the one day? It repeats?” “Over and over, though our experience of it is continuous. Otherwise we would have no memory of the last, oh, seventy years that we’ve resided here”. “That’s amazing,” I said.	This paragraph shows some of the setting. The setting is a bit back and forth. In the beginning they are located in Florida, USA, in modern times. Then Jacob travels with his father to Wales, to the island. Here he finds a tunnel which takes him back in time to the date 3 September 1940. This paragraph is taken from the time when Jacob has recently travelled back in time, and is about to discover it.
Plot	I’d always known I was strange. I never dreamed I was peculiar. But if I could see things almost no one else could, it explained why Ricky hadn’t seen anything in the woods the night my grandfather was killed. It explained why everyone thought I was crazy. I wasn't crazy or seeing things or having stress reactions, the panicky twist in my gut whenever they were close – that and the awful sight of them – that was my gift.	It was a bit hard to find a paragraph that shows the whole plot in a good way, but we thought this paragraph shows it quite well. Some of the “mystery” in the book is revealed in this paragraph. We find out why Jacob can see the monsters, and why his friend can´t. The whole plot is not revealed, but some of it is.
Character development	A tree branch landed in the water. I grabbed it and Emma pulled, and when we finally came out of the bog I was shaking too hard to stand. Emma sank down beside me and I fell into her arms. I killed it, I thought. I really killed it. All the time I´d spent being afraid, I never dreamed I could actually kill one!	This paragraph show how Jacobs character has developed through the story. Before he was always afraid, but now he has dared to face his fear. This shows his character development quite well.

This is an analyze of a book I have read in class. In one of my latest blogposts I wrote some about it before I started reading it, and here is what I thought of it after reading it!
I did this together with Katinka in my class.

I thought the book was very interesting and fun to read. The book contained images of different people and things doing weird things. It was a bit creepy, but it made the story much more fun to read when you could see the pictures and got the feeling it was real. Our class made a tweet to Ransom Riggs, the writer of the book, and asked if the images were real. He answered that they were real, and I was quite surprised actually! But the book itself was a new type of book for me, and it was fun reading it. But sometimes I think it was a bit boring and “still-standing”. But the book was interesting and well written, and I can recommend reading it!

 

"Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children" first impression

Homework for this week was to read a bit in the book we had chosen earlier. I read the first two chapters of my chosen book "Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children". 

The book is written in first-person and Jacob is the storyteller. You can notice from the start that Jacob and his grandfather Portman have a close relationship. It seems like Portman is Jacobs role model. Portman has been through a lot, like war, living in orphanage, crossing oceans and so on. In the start of the book Portman is telling Jacob about these things and about some of the “monsters” he meet during the war, he’s also showing Jacob some pictures.

In the next chapter a hysteric grandfather Portman calls Jacob and is saying the monsters are coming to get him. In the time Jacob reaches his house, Portman is gone. Jacob and his friend are looking for him and they find him hurt in the forest. This is the end of the chapter…

My first impressions of the book are that it seams exciting and interesting. It’s normally not the type of genre I read, but I think the book is great. The book is well written and the text is not that small, which I like. The English is also easy to understand and the language is not so complicated. The book has also some pictures so it’s easier to imagine the things that are being described.

I’m looking forward reading more of this book! 

Book Project in class

In class this week we started working on our in-depth project in groups of two. Katinka and I started writing about different ways to collaborate with an easy explanation for those who are not familiar with it. We are not finished yet, but we have started writing about how to use Skype to collaborate and to keep contact with other classes, students and persons. We also started writing on how blogs also can be helpful to collaborate with others when writing texts. Here are some extract from what we wrote:

Skype

How to use Skype to collaborate with individuals or different classes.  The program is smart to use and make it easy to keep in touch with friends, classmates or people all over the world. You can also use Skype in school settings to collaborate with other classes.  On Skype you can call somebody and as well have a video-call so you can see the person or persons you are talking to. Another good thing is that it’s totally free to use and with unlimited edition.

Blogs

Another way to collaborate with other individuals is to write on a blog or read blogs. By writing blogs you can write texts and get comments on perhaps how you could improve your writing. It´s also easy to share thoughts with others, and see if they have something to add or if the agree with you.

We are also going to write more about other different ways to collaborate in the next classes. 

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

I chose to read the book Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I haven’t read so much about the book but I read some reviews. People say that the book is very good and interesting. I also read that the book starts very slow but gets better and better. I hope it’s not true because I think reading books which start very slow could be boring. Thankfully most of the comments were positive so I’m looking forward reading the book! 

Short story from BBC

This week in english class we chose a shory story from bbc to read og write something about. I read a short story about a 7 year old girl telling about her life when the war started. She told they had an air raid shelter in the back garden where they could protect themselves. They also had gas masks they had to bring around wherever they went. I think the story was easy to read and it was as well not that long. Here's a link to the story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/09/a1112509.shtml

The Inuits

The Inuits are a group of culturally people living in Greenland, Canada, The United States and eastern Siberia. They have a total population on 150.000 people and most of them live in Greenland. Earlier the Inuits were hunters and fishermen and they lived by this, particularly reindeer, whales, seals and walrus. They used kayak, dogsleds and made own boats themselves which they called umiaq. Their clothes were made by leather from walrus or reindeer, and they often used layer upon layer to keep themselves warm. 

Here you can see some Inuits and how they dress.