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The movie shows the period of the late twentieth century. Erin's class comprises of students coming from different races and they are all very busy in a racial fight amongst themselves. They all have their own strained backgrounds and consider themselves pushed into these schools. They are only interested in getting over with the school as soon as they turn eighteen. She is stuck in a situation where she neither has the support of the school administration nor of her students. The school administration does not wish to provide for books for these students and nor are the student actually interested.
She takes up part-time work to provide them with books. She starts interacting with them with the example of the Holocaust and encourages them to write about their own lives in diaries. She wins over them and the children accept this new way of living. She teaches them for the remaining years of their school and the movie ends on a good note with many of the students graduating. The movie clearly depicts the picture of racism which is an important issue and is still prevalent in the United States.
Gruwell’s class has students who were Asians, African Americans, Hispanics and children who came from underprivileged neighbourhoods. They all have differences amongst each other based on their colour and they hate each other on the basis of their races. The classroom is a fighting ground for them where they do not spare a chance of displaying aggressiveness towards the other group. The roadside killings are also shown in the movie which explains the extreme sentiments of racism that persist in the United States.
These problems are still existent in the country and the movie serves to explain them openly to the world. The picture drawn by the Latin student for the black is the turning point for Erin and it also signifies the racist sentiments that are held against the blacks.
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