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American History X: A Rope of Sand by: Evan Scott Was American History X truly an epic? An epic is a long narrative poem in an elevated style celebrating heroic achievement and treating themes of historical, national, religious, or legendary significance. Many of these qualities are displayed in the piece of art titled American History X. Derek Vineyard is a hero who lives a troubled life with his father being murdered and having to deal with many monsters everyday. These monsters are the many skinheads, Crips, and prisoners that he deals with. The monsters, however, are not the symbol of evil. Cameron Alexander, a neo-Nazi fascist, is the epiphany of what is evil. He does not accept blame for his actions, he does not love mankind, he wishes death upon others, and he is a liar, which is the worst for of evil there is. The many other parallels of this epic and others are too many, but this essay will detail the most important points. It can be interpreted that Derek Vineyard is in his mid to early twenties. As a boy, he grew up idolizing his father. His father was a renown fire-fighter in the area. Tragically, his father was murdered by members of the black gang, the Crips, while fighting a fire in a "nigger" neighborhood, as Derek explains. This seems to be where his racism, and most of the "history" of the story begins. Really though, the history begins before this. It is seen in a flashback that at a family dinner, Derek's father is prejudice, though not racist. His father explains how he does not appreciate black culture and history necessarily. This could show one that prejudice leads to racism. Regardless, all of this history is what forms Derek and the life he leads. Many epics form a character's personality and ideals through his or her history. Gilgamesh in the uniquely titled, The Epic of Gilgamesh, is a perfect example of one who's egotistical personality is formed through his history as a king. In the epic, American History X, monsters are clear to even the child's eye. It cannot be assumed that the monsters are directly working against Derek. As it is seen, they do work against his overall life. An example of this would be the various skinheads and other simple minded folks that Derek deals with. These people, or monsters, do nothing other than fuel Derek's fire of bigotry against anyone who is not white Protestant. They whine about supposed injustices that they face day-to-day. This makes Derek's hatred stronger and eventually, everything that one person who happens to be black or Jewish or whatever an absolute sin and representative of his or her entire race. Derek does though face more evident monsters that anybody would notice. These monsters are most obvious in the black gang, the Crips. The Crips are responsible for his father's death, many of the supposed problems and crimes going around in the Venice Beach area. Much of the rising action details his various "battles" with the Crips including a black versus white basketball game and even a shoot-out with three Crips who were attempting to steal his car. The worst of evil is shown in the character Cameron Alexander. Cameron uses Derek in the art to form his new white supremacist gangs. Cameron Alexander fathers the fatherless Derek. He shows Derek what he believes to be love, when in reality Cameron hates virtually all of humanity and does not care for anyone other than himself. Cameron lies to many, which is the truest form of if evil, if true and evil can even be associated with one another. Cameron is the one character who may be more evil than Longshanks from Braveheart, Agent Smith from The Matrix, or even Humbaba from the Epic of Gilgamesh as he is the one man who can make another person believe in hatred. After Derek systematically murders two of the three Crips who stole his car, he is sentenced to three long years in prison for his acts.This easily parallels Gilgamesh's descent into the underworld as Derek comes to a new nirvana through many lessons he learns while doing his time. These lessons were peaceful with his new found negro friend Lamont. He learns Lamont is wrongfully imprisoned on assault when all he did was drop a tv onto a police officer's foot by accident. Lamont, though living in a completely different setting, is much like Derek. Both of them have women waiting for them at home and both of them become very open to the subject of race. Lamont teaches Derek, directly and indirectly, that black men and minorities as a whole are not bad people. It is those select few that make the whole race look bad. This is much like Enkidu teaching Gilgamesh about being humble and how he is not so much more domineering than others. Along with all of this peaceful learning in this "underworld," there is a very violent lesson that Derek learns. Derek learns that whites are just as likely to do evil acts as any other when they rape him in the showers. They rape him so badly that he needs stitches. It was at this time when Dr. Sweeney came to see Derek and Derek comes to the conclusion that whites are not the superior race, necessarily. With this whole journey and adventure with evil and monsters, the art climaxes when Derek convinces his impressionable younger brother, Danny, that whites are also not the superior race and that fear of the unknown and hatred come as one. Even a hero, though, is not immune to being hurt. In an ironic ending, Derek's brother Danny is shot to death in school by a young Crip named Little Henry.This clearly shows a moral that hatred does not and will never have a good ending. Knowledge, as Derek shows, is the only way to combat hatred. Though this epic shows many parallels to other epics, however there are few others that detail this specific form of hatred, named racism. It is clear that this epic fits the description as it is a story that details a historical era in America. After watching this movie many things about racism, human life, and hatred have been learned. These are the same themes that epics have dealt with for thousands of years. Some that is learned from this movie is that racism is not hating people for what they do. Racism is not hating people for the actions of an ethnic group. Racism is NOT being cautious. Racism is simplifying the human race into one thought with one's ignorance. Racism is simplifying the human race into one thought. Racism is simplifying the human race into one thought. It is as intelligent as a rope of sand. American History X: A Rope of Sand by: Evan Scott Was American History X truly an epic? An epic is a long narrative poem in an elevated style celebrating heroic achievement and treating themes of historical, national, religious, or legendary significance. Many of these qualities are displayed in the piece of art titled American History X. Derek Vineyard is a hero who lives a troubled life with his father being murdered and having to deal with many monsters everyday. These monsters are the many skinheads, Crips, and prisoners that he deals with. The monsters, however, are not the symbol of evil. Cameron Alexander, a neo-Nazi fascist, is the epiphany of what is evil. He does not accept blame for his actions, he does not love mankind, he wishes death upon others, and he is a liar, which is the worst for of evil there is. The many other parallels of this epic and others are too many, but this essay will detail the most important points. It can be interpreted that Derek Vineyard is in his mid to early twenties. As a boy, he grew up idolizing his father. His father was a renown fire-fighter in the area. Tragically, his father was murdered by members of the black gang, the Crips, while fighting a fire in a "nigger" neighborhood, as Derek explains. This seems to be where his racism, and most of the "history" of the story begins. Really though, the history begins before this. It is seen in a flashback that at a family dinner, Derek's father is prejudice, though not racist. His father explains how he does not appreciate black culture and history necessarily. This could show one that prejudice leads to racism. Regardless, all of this history is what forms Derek and the life he leads. Many epics form a character's personality and ideals through his or her history. Gilgamesh in the uniquely titled, The Epic of Gilgamesh, is a perfect example of one who's egotistical personality is formed through his history as a king. In the epic, American History X, monsters are clear to even the child's eye. It cannot be assumed that the monsters are directly working against Derek. As it is seen, they do work against his overall life. An example of this would be the various skinheads and other simple minded folks that Derek deals with. These people, or monsters, do nothing other than fuel Derek's fire of bigotry against anyone who is not white Protestant. They whine about supposed injustices that they face day-to-day. This makes Derek's hatred stronger and eventually, everything that one person who happens to be black or Jewish or whatever an absolute sin and representative of his or her entire race. Derek does though face more evident monsters that anybody would notice. These monsters are most obvious in the black gang, the Crips. The Crips are responsible for his father's death, many of the supposed problems and crimes going around in the Venice Beach area. Much of the rising action details his various "battles" with the Crips including a black versus white basketball game and even a shoot-out with three Crips who were attempting to steal his car. The worst of evil is shown in the character Cameron Alexander. Cameron uses Derek in the art to form his new white supremacist gangs. Cameron Alexander fathers the fatherless Derek. He shows Derek what he believes to be love, when in reality Cameron hates virtually all of humanity and does not care for anyone other than himself. Cameron lies to many, which is the truest form of if evil, if true and evil can even be associated with one another. Cameron is the one character who may be more evil than Longshanks from Braveheart, Agent Smith from The Matrix, or even Humbaba from the Epic of Gilgamesh as he is the one man who can make another person believe in hatred. After Derek systematically murders two of the three Crips who stole his car, he is sentenced to three long years in prison for his acts.This easily parallels Gilgamesh's descent into the underworld as Derek comes to a new nirvana through many lessons he learns while doing his time. These lessons were peaceful with his new found negro friend Lamont. He learns Lamont is wrongfully imprisoned on assault when all he did was drop a tv onto a police officer's foot by accident. Lamont, though living in a completely different setting, is much like Derek. Both of them have women waiting for them at home and both of them become very open to the subject of race. Lamont teaches Derek, directly and indirectly, that black men and minorities as a whole are not bad people. It is those select few that make the whole race look bad. This is much like Enkidu teaching Gilgamesh about being humble and how he is not so much more domineering than others. Along with all of this peaceful learning in this "underworld," there is a very violent lesson that Derek learns. Derek learns that whites are just as likely to do evil acts as any other when they rape him in the showers. They rape him so badly that he needs stitches. It was at this time when Dr. Sweeney came to see Derek and Derek comes to the conclusion that whites are not the superior race, necessarily. With this whole journey and adventure with evil and monsters, the art climaxes when Derek convinces his impressionable younger brother, Danny, that whites are also not the superior race and that fear of the unknown and hatred come as one. Even a hero, though, is not immune to being hurt. In an ironic ending, Derek's brother Danny is shot to death in school by a young Crip named Little Henry.This clearly shows a moral that hatred does not and will never have a good ending. Knowledge, as Derek shows, is the only way to combat hatred. Though this epic shows many parallels to other epics, however there are few others that detail this specific form of hatred, named racism. It is clear that this epic fits the description as it is a story that details a historical era in America. A great epic character, named Derek Vineyard once said, "It's always good to end a paper with a quote. After watching this movie many things about racism, human life, and hatred have been learned. These are the same themes that epics have dealt with for thousands of years. Some that is learned from this movie is that racism is not hating people for what they do. Racism is not hating people for the actions of an ethnic group. Racism is NOT being cautious. Racism is simplifying the human race into one thought with one's ignorance. Racism is simplifying the human race into one thought. Racism is simplifying the human race into one thought. It is as intelligent as a rope of sand.
