Vinyard's allegiance to the swastika is an allegiance to an idea that the America of today is perhaps not as equal, peaceful or harmonious as the average American would like to believe. The image is a shattering of the idea that the past was terrible, but the present is better. Rather, Vinyard's right hand pressed against his swastika-inscribed heart both repels and evokes revulsion. Iconic photographs stir a sense

12. Sweeney is Derek's teacher all across the movie and even a substitute for the father Derek lost. The transformation suffered by Derek from a narrow-minded skinhead to a thinker and a freedom fighter is impressive. Part of Derek's new concept of life if partly due to the skinhead faction because of their teachings and of their actions in prison. A main motive for Derek's change is the fact that

235) by organizing them into groups throughout the film, the movie helped dispel stereotypes by showing the multiculturally diverse struggling with the same problems in the same area. Although they lived in the same are and struggled with many of the same social problems, the film certainly allowed viewers to see the communication barriers that developed between members of different races. This is especially important for the counselor who wishes

Derek's racist beliefs are cemented, and became the springboard to his activism and leadership of the skinheads when his father is killed by a black man, fighting a fire in a crack house in an inner-city neighborhood. When two young African-Americans try to steal his car, Derek is determined that he, unlike his beloved father, will emerge the winner. The film makes it clear that Derek has been waiting for

American History The underside of affluence The period is in the early years of the twentieth century. America is now experiencing economic and political expansion as it became the model of an imperial superpower for all nations, both in the Western and Eastern regions. Economic growth spurred as a result of the industrial revolution, while political structures strengthened due to the numerous successful conquests of the Americans to colonize nations in the

Even after the Emancipation Proclamation, the Supreme Court held that separate but equal was a legitimate stance under American law, essentially codifying human beings into different racial categories like a caste system, until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. In short, America was a nation founded upon a paradox. It idealized freedom and personal choice, yet it also was based upon a system that did not allow a