When a physical, demanding sport collides with a brutal, poverty-stricken town, true character is revealed, and the devastating realities of high school kids are shown to those who live in a sugar-coated world. The Manassas High School football team is full of new talents that are apparently worthless when a different players is shot, imprisoned, or drops out of school on an almost weekly basis. That is just a glimpse inside the misfortune that the kids of this film are enduring day in and day out. Some parentless and some virtually homeless, it seems as if the only way out of a constant state of need is a miracle, or death. Released in 2011, Undefeated has much more to offer than the typical football documentary.
Theme 1.1: Envy. In Knowles’s coming of age book, “A Separate Peace”, there are lots of mishaps that happen and the beginning of these mishaps is when one of his main characters, Gene, starts thinking malicious things about Phineas, his friend. It started out as a small inkling of envy, suddenly later on in the book, it turned into something that resembled a fractious disaster. As the chapters progress, Gene shows the readers his way of thinking towards Phineas, by describing his “unexpected excitement” (27) when Phineas was about to receive a scolding from Mr. Patch-Wither, the substitute headmaster of Devon during the summer session. Surprisingly, when Phineas (aka Finny) further explained why he wore the school tie as a belt,
Dr. Bennet said, “My son is almost 8 years old and he'll be the first to tell you that football is not good for your brain.” It is strategic for Pawlowski to include this quote because it makes the fact that Dr. Bennet is a father more real to readers. One downfall of this article is that, although Dr. Bennet is a great source, he is the only source. There is no argument against Dr. Bennet explaining why it is safe for children under 18 to play contact sports. This is a negative because it makes the author appear biased.
The little boy was to be hanged for helping the Oberkapo with stocking a secret area with guns that would be used for a rebellion. No prisoners took part in this execution; the Lagerkapo won’t take part in the killing of a little boy. When the nooses were placed around their necks, the prisoners watching were weeping. When the chairs were kicked out from underneath the prisoners, the two adults necks snapped quickly, but the child didn’t weigh enough to kill himself immediately.
In 1940, 18 players died as a result of spinal injuries, fractured skulls and broken ribs. (pg. 9 and 10) I find it clever that Almond begins the section with a quote by a very well known American president. “I believe in..rough, manly sports. I do not feel any particular sympathy for the person who gets battered about a good deal as long as it is not fatal.”
In this article, the author explains why sports are very dangerous but also very beneficial. He starts off with his own personal stories and gets into describing how American football is seen as remarkably dangerous, and he includes evidence such as the violence the sport brings. He especially talks about the risks of brain damage that comes with the sport, including when “group of past players...sued the NFL for not properly informing players about the risks of brain damage during their careers”.
The book’s evolving opinion about hockey might be interpreted as a tool for the public to read and perhaps comprehend the negative reality that occurs in and outside of the story. Cody’s outlooks on hockey develop from positive, to negative, and then, again, to positive. At first, Cody loves hockey; it makes him happy, dedicated, hardworking and is a positive outlet leading him to a bright future. When Cody begins playing for Coach Connors’ team, the abuse begins and his love for hockey is replaced with alcohol abuse, suicidal thoughts, and misery. His positive view of hockey come to be negative because of the effects of Connors’ abuse that he, in the words of Theo Fleury, young hockey player abused by Graham James, “did not have the emotional skills, the knowledge, or the ability to stop [it].”
In writing in one of the oldest political magazines, Robert claims extraordinary ideas on Jock Culture. With his audience being surround by readers of politics, his argument is more in favor of those types of people you may classify as the pukes. By playing with there emotions, Robert tries to pursue that Jocks are the bad guys and they have a bad influence. Robert uses these emotions to show that kids are being influenced while they’re young, pressured by parents and coaches into “bullying, violence, and the commitment to a win-at-all attitude the can kill a soul” (307). By choosing to attack on kids he really pokes under some people's skin, like he does most of the article.
Comparing these two elements, Pitts makes his readers consider handicaps in school by a new aspect and also appeals to people who know and play basketball. For example, many people who watch basketball will agree that it is dumb for whites to receive a handicap despite the fact that more black basketball players have been playing recently. Pitts comparison of comparing drunk driving and torture is an effective method in his torture article. In this, Pitts says that if the government were to make drunk driving a capital crime it would end drunk driving and no one would do it. (“Torture May Work”)
A pharmaceutical millionaire, Gigi Jordan, had a son who was diagnosed with autism, Jude. Her husband, ended up abusing Jude, and she explained that “...Tzekov had shoved feces in his mouth, stuck needles under his fingernails, and stabbed him in the hand repeatedly in addition to sexual abuse” (Rosenberg, “Millionaire admits to ‘mercy killing,’” NY Post). Jordan also had Jude go into a number of painful procedures to try and rid him of his autism. She consequently realized it was wrong, because it was a form of torture for Jude. Sequentially, Jordan made the choice to give Jude a drug that would kill him, to put an end to his abuse.
The writer further explains that the idea of winning sometimes causes severe injuries that may prevail for a lifetime. In these games, a child may crash into one another accidently that creates a fear of getting hurt. Just to protect themselves some children back out of many games and are left behind when it comes to the development of their bodies. The rest of the children who are part of these games are in a constant pressure from their parents and coaches that cause the stress and anxiety. Furthermore, the writer states that this “sport becomes job like”.
By explaining at the end of the article to “come Saturday, I will once again be watching, wearing my sons jersey number”, telling people to come and watch the game does not affect UTA students at all, this article will be mainly to be published in the newspaper of a town or city. The article is significant to the parents to get information about their young children playing youth football, and by explaining the audience to come out and support the game. Parents will be persuaded to come and get much more information about how young children playing youth football can likely get concussions. In addition some UTA students will find this article interesting to them because many are parents already.
Today’s teenagers – aged 8 to 18 – spend more than 7 ½ hours daily consuming media according to a 2010 study controlled by the Kaiser Family Foundation (Ahuja). According to the video “Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized,” by The Onion News Network, extended exposure of screen time could possibly lead to a decrease in brain functions, as one family knows too well. The Onion, a satirical news organization, sits down with Teagart family to discuss their decision to euthanize their daughter Caitlin, who is no longer capable of anything more taxing than sighing and rolling her eyes. This video uses “ironic iconicity” to illustrate the way today’s youth has become so obsessed with technology to the point where
“In the U.S., about 30 million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports, and more than 3.5 million injuries each year” claims Stanford Children’s Health. It’s definitely true that competitive sports can cause all sorts of injuries from big to small. The media teaches people simply that sports leads to horrific injuries and can cause stress, but what the mainstream media hardly discusses are the great benefits of competitive sports. While there may be some negatives to competitive sports, that’s just life, and to add on to that; there are plenty of benefits which are sure to override to media’s facts. Kids should play competitive sports because competitive sports teach children powerful life lessons, contributes to their social and mental stability, and because of the physical gain competitive sports provides.
“The Sunday Age” newspaper published an article on bullying in schools. It’s about how the system prevent bullying by taking marks form the students who bully, and how the new program carry out in a dozen schools is showing encouraging signs of success. (theage , 2014). “What if the kid you bullied at school, grew up, and turned out to be the only surgeon who could save your
