American History X

Film Analysis: AMERICAN HISTORY X

Socialization or Deviance Teory

Edwin Sutherland: Differential Association Theory

!remise" ar#$ment o% selecte& teory

Person's tendency towards deviance depends on the contact with others who encourage –or reject – conventional behavior 

Conce't(s) in socialization &eviance

a!ily" !ass !ass !edia" and the state served as agents of  sociali#ation in the fil!

Discussi Discussion: on: $ow did the fil! illu!inate illu!inate and reinforce reinforce the sociologic sociological al theories theories %i&e& sociali#atio sociali#ation" n" deviance discussed in class( The fil!" )A!erican $istory *") is !ainly about how Dere+ ,inyard's father influenced his strong disli+e for dar+ colored people" and hi! further influencing his little brother" Danny" into having the sa!e fra!e of !ind& !ind& Thus" Thus" the the !ain !ain theory theory of social sociali#a i#atio tion n and and devian deviance ce presen presented ted in this this !ovie !ovie is Edwin Edwin Sutherland's Differential Association Theory" which states that a person's deviance is dependent on his interaction with people who encourage or reject conventional behavior& Dere+ loo+ed up to his father" and accepted his argu!ents about white people not getting what they deserve since blac+ people have been getting special treat!ent just because they-re blac+& This also changed his ad!iration for his blac+  teacher" .r& Sweeney& After Dere+ loses his father and beco!es i!prisoned" Danny idoli#es his older   brother and chooses to interact with with the group of white people that the latter has founded founded and slowly turns into a younger version of Dere+  Another theory that is evident in )A!erican $istory *) is /eorge $erbert .ead's Theory of the Self& 0n the preparatory stage" .ead tells us that )1hildren !erely i!itate the people around the! especially fa!ily !e!bers with who! they continually interact&) The lac+ of a father figure led Dere+ into playing the patriarchal role in the fa!ily" and served as Danny's role !odel" which he chooses to i!itate& 1harles 1ooley's 2oo+ing3/lass Self" which states that our view of ourselves !ay also co!e fro! what we thin+  other people thin+ about us" is proven in the fil! in a scene wherein Dere+'s father got disappointed with his ad!iration for his blac+ teacher" and his interest on the boo+ that this teacher assigned hi! to read& This then led Dere+ into conte!plating about his own personal beliefs& 0n this particular scene" we can see how a father can influence his son's view of hi!self& Dur+hei! also presents the theory that states that it is not in the act that cri!e appears to be deviant4 but it is because the act is so!ething that society unani!ously opposes opposes to and is !anifested in the !ovie by the father-s great influence over his son Dere+ which co!pletely alters the perspective of the latter towards the blac+ people" passing the hatred that the father has into the offspring& $is anger turns to rage and eventu eventually ally leads leads to violen violence& ce& 5ased 5ased on Erving Erving /off! /off!anan-ss Presen Presentat tation ion of Self" Self" it was already already  preconditioned in the the !inds of the people that white !en are good and blac+ !en are bad& 0t is because of  this theory why cri!e co!!itted by white !en is viewed in a lesser degree than blac+ !en& 6o one is  born being a racist& 1learly" racis! is an interstice for Dere+-s anger& 7ith no one to bla!e" Dere+ uses the blac+ !en to e8press his feelings about his father-s death& ,iolence towards blac+ !en is his atte!pt to replace his feeling of fear and pain& 9ut of his desperation to get rid of these feeling he created faulty decisions that was never his intention in the first place&