American History X

Brief response to “American History X”

American History X shows that hatred and racism will not only destroy a person but also those closest to them. The film accomplishes so, by putting Derek Vinyard, who is intelligent, well spoken and a family man, and his brother, Danny, whose role model is Derek, as the main characters and this creates a contradiction to the redneck stereotype, in this case Seth.

If the main character had been Seth, who falls into the redneck stereotype, the movie wouldn’t have been able to show it’s full message, for instance, it wouldn’t have been able to show the message that racism segregates not only races but also families, such as when Derek’s mother told him that she didn’t want him to live in her house anymore.

By placing two brothers living together with their widowed mother and sister, as the main characters, the movie accomplishes to portray true family love, which is then destroyed when Danny is assassinated, and by Danny’s assassination, it shows that even when you regret doing things in your past, your past will always follow you and might sometimes not affect you directly but rather someone close to you.

To conclude, I restate that the film wouldn’t have been able to show the message the message of how racism not only destroys a person but also the ones closes to them by putting the main characters as direct family members and not by putting one of the Nazis who probably didn’t have a family they cared about.