2nd RESPONSE PAPER: Socratic Voices in American History X
In American History X, we share the last 24 hours of Danny Vinyard’s life.
During this time, in response to an assignment given to him by Sweeney, his
high school principal, Danny is writing a history of his brother Derek’s life and
how that life has contributed to his own sense of self, of justice and of
responsibility. As he walks into the
high school the next day, he is murdered before he can turn the assignment in.
Throughout the film, the issue
of education is at play in almost every relationship we encounter. For instance Derek is not only educated by
Sweeney but also by a series of other figures, including Cammeron,
the prison skinheads, his African-American friend LaMont,
his mother Doris and her Jewish boyfriend Murray Rosenberg. Further, Derek is taking on the task of
educating his brother Danny, who also is being influenced by Seth, Cammeron and others.
Some of the figures in American History X adopt a Socratic attitude
toward education. They seek to inspire
wisdom in their students by asking them to question unexamined presuppositions
in their thinking. In doing so, they use
irony at times and dialectic always, so that their students might become more
wise. Other figures in the film use
rhetoric rather than dialectic. These
rhetoricians do not seek to test all arguments in order to find the truth but to
convince others of what the rhetorician already believes.
Identify two figures in the
film who seek to educate either Danny or Derek—one who uses rhetoric and the
other who employs Socratic dialectic.
Show how each figure respectively looks for the truth and how each attempts to educate another to that truth.
Finally, conclude your paper
with an analysis of how Danny or Derek (depending on which of these two you
have chosen to be the pupil for your paper) might be said to be wiser at the
end of the film than at its beginning. Has
he lived a life worth living?
In writing your paper, you should pay attention to the various ideas Socrates has advanced in his own apology, his own justification for the way he has lived his life. In particular pay attention to his notion that humans are not in contact with their souls until they are engaged in thinking about their thinking. How are people corrupted and corrupting, insofar as they do not think about their thinking? Further, Socrates worries about the effect of commonly held opinions that people simply affirm without bothering to test their truth. He also argues that in their pursuing of the truth, people all too often settle on the notion that merely surviving is the most important truth. Socrates also criticizes the notion of rhetoric, of using a persuasion that does not engage in dialectic, in thinking about thinking, but only in an attempt to win others to one's own view. Socrates also argues that it is better to suffer evil than to inflict it and that punishment must improve the soul of the one being punished. At least some of these points (and there are yet others you could refer to) should find their way into your own analysis of the film’s ending.
Your paper should be at least 2 and a half
pages typewritten, normal-sized type, normal margins, with only a single line
used for your name at the top of the first page.