The Tragic Lives of Dewayne Pomeroy and His Incarcerated Father - Movie Review Example

?Ahmad Kalali Sarah Marshall Writing 121 15 March (estimated word count 443) Streetwise - Character Analysis Introduction People always have an interesting story to tell. This applies to the high and mighty as well as the poor and downtrodden. However their story is told and whatever their situations or circumstances, it is always a story worth telling. In other words, one cannot just derisively be dismissive of a person's life story, no matter how insignificant it might seem. This essay is the story of two outstanding characters in a short video documentary (92 minutes) which portrays the darker sides of American urban life. It shows how American youths lead their lives on the underside of America as victims of society. Young people roam the streets of U.S. cities due to their broken families. Homelessness has greatly complicated this problem. It is discomfiting, discomforting and disorienting an experience to be a homeless person. The lives of homeless people exemplify what Emile Durkheim had theorized about a failure to attain aspirations, his theory of anomie, that produces most of the deviant behaviors in desperate people. A streetwise young person learns how to live each day without much resources but in some intelligent ways, manage to get by amid all the surrounding decay, despair and drugs. A documentary like this one follows the lives of several people during the course of their lives as they go about their ways hustling, haggling and struggling. It surprises how they managed to survive with all the negative elements. This documentary is sort of an eye-opener for most people, since the events and people in this short video film are in America. It sort of disabuses the mind of viewers about the hidden sector of American society composed of the homeless. This essay is a peek into the tragic lives of Dewayne Pomeroy and his incarcerated father. Discussion In any story, there are always characters who are interesting enough to stand out and in this documentary video, the two characters I had chosen are Dewayne and his father. There are many other characters within the short film but I found these two people to be interesting above the others. In this connection, the reason I chose them is the close bond between them, as father and son, but their relationship is abnormal. A father in prison and a runaway son is not normal under any imaginable circumstance, but the two people somehow tried to inject a semblance of normalcy within their tragic situations. His father had high hopes for him and in a similar manner, also for himself, once he gets out. But a situation where the father is absent is not conducive to any normal development for any boy, and this was the case with Dewayne. There was no one to guide Dewayne in this crucial and formative years of his very young life, except perhaps for his older friend Jack, upon whom he relied a lot. Dewayne - he is a young teenager and a runaway, the product of a broken home. He was chosen because most of the narrative in this documentary had revolved around him, how he ended up in those streets. He went away without any or predetermined destination, except that he was going to a place that is far away from home and used his own wits to survive all the time, getting a lesson in life. It is symptomatic of the stories of his street friends too, how they left home because of unhappy or dysfunctional situations at home. Their narratives are almost the same, in contrast to what Leo Tolstoy once famously wrote, “all happy families are the same, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” In this documentary, most of the street kids have been unhappy in a way; otherwise, they would not have left home. Dewayne is one young lad who was wise beyond his years. He had, however, retained his very youthful innocence in some ways but had become a hardened person despite the many friendships he had formed. He became distrustful, never able to completely trust the people he loved. His father had lectured him on his prison visit in which he hardly listens at all to any advice and admonitions given to him. His values had in many ways become twisted from his days and months on the streets, surviving on the alms and loose change given by people who pitied him in a cursory manner, but even these are few and far in between. Dewayne listened to his father's talk only in a begrudging manner, perhaps out of filial obligation. In a fashion, he listened to him (his father) but it was obvious his attention was elsewhere. Personally, Dewayne lacked values, directions and an aim that would have motivated him to try to attain higher things in life, such as finally getting an education, of which he had enthusiastically talked about before leaving and planned going back to school. In the real and figurative sense, Dewayne had fallen through the cracks, forgotten by society. His death and burial was a sad affair, in itself and by itself. Only very few mourners came over to attend the wake and cremation. He suffered a tragic ending to a tragic life. American life can be harsh, in ways much harsher if lived in an urban setting where families can disintegrate easily. Dewayne's father – his father was also a tragic figure, a man in his prime imprisoned for a crime which he had by now regretted. He gave advice to his son which for all we know had fallen on deaf ears on Dewayne. How could a father tell his son not to smoke, when he is a chain-smoker himself? He smoked all the time when they were talking through the prison's glass partition, puffing like he is a smokestack. I choose his father because he gave the sharp contrast to his son. His status as a prisoner reinforced the views of his son, to be a reformed person; but the father was obviously lying and he was lying a lot, to raise Dewayne's hopes. Both of them did not significantly contributed anything of substance to their American society but been burdens to the government, the father in prison and a son cared for by social service workers. He warned Dewayne not to smoke “weed” (marijuana) anymore but for all he knew, Dewayne was into something else much worse, and had done far worse things. His father had grandiose plans once he gets out, arranging for a supposed lease on a property from which they can put up their own business. Dewayne's father berated him for his unsanitary habit of biting his nails but this mannerism is indicative of his deep insecurities. It is perhaps asking too much from a son whose absentee father did not give him vital emotional support at a time when it is needed the most. Adolescence is the most crucial period of life as it is the so-called formative years of a person, when peers exert their influence most and when a youth is very impressionable. A strong father figure can counteract peer pressure, but how a father in prison can do that is beyond anybody's guess or conjecture. His father's character is a tragicomic figure of sorts, giving advice when he himself needed it, by saying, “You keep me straight, and I'll keep you straight” as a self-reinforcing mantra for both of them to straighten out their lives, at least for once. In the end, Dewayne succumbed to despair by his suicide at a time when his prospects started to look bright, to finish high school and earn a diploma. Conclusion It is hard to imagine and contemplate what many poor people are going through. The case of Dewayne Pomeroy is one example of utter hopelessness, drifting through life without benefit of a loving family, a good education or looking forward to something, a bright future. His death by suicide is by no means an exception; there will be many others who will follow. Failure to put psychological and emotional roots, by staying in a home permanently, is a very sad experience indeed. Government funds spent on foreign wars could have been better spent on its own youth roaming the streets. Some Good Samaritans may help once in a while, like the Pentecostal street preacher who was very forbearing of sarcastic people (like that young black American who argued with him) but in the end, it is only the government, with its vast resources, that can make any real and positive difference. What Stalin said, “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are just statistics” apply succinctly in this particular case. Work Cited Streetwise. Dir. Martin Bell. Perf. Dewayne Pomeroy, Lemar Pomeroy, et al. Angelika Films, n. d. Video. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2012. . Read More