[Book] #23. The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell - Can Writing Change My Pathetic Life?

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이 글은 "프리덤 라이터스 다이어리"를 읽고 영어로 쓴 독후감입니다. 우리말로 된 독후감은 아래에 있습니다. 같은 내용이니 영어 독후감은 또 읽지 않으셔도 됩니다. This is a bookreview written in English. Korean version of this bookreview is below.

[독후감] #27. 프리덤 라이터스 다이어리 by 에린 그루웰 - 변변찮은 내 삶도 일기로 쓰면 인생이 바뀔까?

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Title: The Freedom Writers Diary
Author: Erin Gruwell & Freedom writers
Other: This is a book about how a teacher and 150 teens used writing to change themselves and the world around them.

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Can writing change my pathetic life?

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Good books can change our lives. I bet everyone agrees with that. Reading seems like an easy and simple task, but that can change our points of view, ways of thinking and even our lives. But how about writing? Do you think writing can affect our lives, too?

I think so if you're writing a great book worth getting Nobel Prize or Pulitzer Prize. Well, any book for that matter, because writing a book - any book - is a wonderful thing to do and it'll surely affect your life. But what about a diary? Not novels, or non-fictions. Do you think just keeping a diary or writing your thoughts can change your life? Just pouring out your thoughts onto paper knowing very well that no one cares to read it, just relaying your life on a sheet of paper? Can that change your life, too?

Here's a book that says, "Yes!"

Source: Goodreads
Ms. Gruwell, the first at the front, and a few Freedom Writers.

Under the title "Freedom Writers Diary", there's this line that best describes this book. : How a teacher and 150 teens used writing to change themselves and the world around them. This book is a collection of diaries or essays anonymously written by 150 Wilson High School students in Long Beach from 1994 to 1998.

Here's what happens when you start writing about your lives.

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This was a ghetto area where Black, Latino, and Asians reside. You could hear a gun shot every other day, and all students in this high school knew at least one friend who got shot and killed. Rivalry between races was severe, battle between gangs was outrageous. People hardly expected them to graduate from high school, not to mention going to college. Kids who were thought to be kicked out soon from the school were gathered in 203 classroom, and in front of them a new, young, white teacher, Erin Gruwell appeared, just like a movie.

Since she taught English, she tried to make students "read" books and "write" what they thought about the books, and eventually what they thought about their lives. And that writing changed their lives, forever. As they wrote, they realized the violence and prejudice surrounded them and also realized that they had power to overcome this reality. They started calling themselves "Freedom Writers", modeling "Freedom Riders", the civil rights activists who rode buses to the segregated Southern States.

This book makes you realize how wonderful and awesome writing is. And how important it is to have someone, especially an adult or a teacher, who believes in you.

As Steemians, we're all writing something on a regular basis, and it gets you thinking "how writing on a blockchain can change my life?" Writing on Steemit gives you reward, but there's something more than that. Maybe writing on Steemit can change your life, too. Dramatically, perhaps.

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A Few Good Lines from the Book

1.
This writer saw his friend got shot and killed in front of him.

To society, they’re just another dead person on the street corner; just another statistic. But to the mothers of all those other statistics, they’re more than simple numbers. They represent more lives cut short, more cut flowers. Like the ones once placed on their graves. (p. 16)

2.
This girl wanted to pledge a sorority. What she didn't know was there was a severe hazing. There was sexual harassment, some threw garbage or even urine to them.

Then I started to cry. Not because of the smell or my stained clothes, but because there was no way out. I had gone through so much already that it would have been pointless to quit now. Besides, I didn’t want to end up with no friends... Maybe if I would have had to do something really bad I would have dropped out, but I doubt it. It’s just a matter of how far you’ll go to be accepted. (p. 20)

3.
Students read "Romeo and Juliet" in Ms. Gruwell's English class. She asked the students about the family feud that finally led to the couple's deaths.

“Do you think this family feud is stupid?” Like a dumb-ass, I took the bait and said, “Hell, yeah!”
…
The next thing I know, she’s comparing these two families to rival gangs in this city. At first I was thinking, “What the hell does this bitch know about gangs?”
I didn’t think she knew about all the shit that happened up in Long Beach. I just thought she left school and drove home to her perfect life. After all, what’s it to her? All of a sudden she questioned things that had never crossed our minds before. Did we think it was stupid that the Latino gang and the Asian gang are killing each other? I immediately said “No!”
”Why?”
”Because it’s different.”
”How?” This woman just wouldn’t give up!
”It just is!” I didn’t want to look stupid in front of everybody. But the more I thought about it, I realized it is stupid.
It’s stupid because I don’t even remember why we’re rivals. That’s just the way it is. (p. 33.)

4.
Even other teachers in the school didn't like Ms. Gruwell.

“Let’s see what you can do with these kids, hotshot!”
Hotshot? If she only knew how nervous and overwhelmed I really was as a first-year teacher. She never even took the time to get to know me – and yet she was labeling me. Just like the students I defended, I was being stereotyped. (p. 47.)

5.

My mother always uses little clichés like, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” If living in the projects is supposed to make me a stronger person, then I would rather be weak. I’ve spent most of my life living in poverty, being afraid to walk out of my front door because of the risk of being shot. My neighborhood has a way of demolishing any hope I have for a brighter future. “I was born poor and I will probably die poor. No one from my neighborhood has ever made a difference and I probably won’t make one either.” This was my mind-set. For so long, society has told me that because of my neighborhood and the color of my skin, I would never amount to anything. (p. 195)

6.

Growing up, I always assumed I would either drop out of school or get pregnant. So when Ms. G. started talking about college, it was like a foreign language to me. Didn’t she realize that girls like me don’t go to college? Except for Ms. G., I don’t know a single female who’s graduated from high school, let alone gone to college. … So when Ms. G. kept saying that “I could do anything,” “go anywhere,”and “be anyone” – even the President, I thought she was crazy. I always thought that the only people who went to college were rich white people. How did she expect me to go to college? After all, I live in the ghetto and my skin is brown.
But Ms. G. kept drilling into my head that it didn’t matter where I came from or the color of my skin. … For the first time, I realized that what people say about living in the ghetto and having brown skin doesn’t have to apply to me.(p. 202)

7.

So the time came when it was finally my turn to stand in front of the class and talk about my future. As soon as I got up there, I started talking about my dream to be a filmmaker and make movies. I went on and on about my dream but then I added, “but realistically I would like to be a …” Ms. G automatically butted in when she noticed me disregarding my dream. “What do you mean ‘realistically’? Why don’t you go for what you love? Follow your dream.” Then it sunk in. I can do this. I want to make real films that will impact people in their everyday lives. (P. 204)

8.

They could tell Ms. Gruwell anything and everything, almost like she was one of the kids. She understood them. Most teachers aren’t like that; they give you your homework and then send you on your way, never getting to know you. Some of my former teachers have had four or five favorite students in the class and overlooked the rest entirely. Ms. Gruwell is so much different. She gets to know you… she wants to get to know you. (p. 26)

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