OPTIMISTIC VIEWS OF THE ERIN GRUWELL FIGURES IN THE FREEDOM

WRITERS MOVIE BY ERIN GRUWELL (2007): SOSIOLOGICAL APPROACH

Shafira Mega Amanda Putri Susilo

A320160249

Shafira.9898@gmail.com

Department of English Education School of Teacher Training and Education University

Muhammadiyah Surakarta

ABSTRACT
Freedom Writers is one of the movie analysed by reseachers in this paper. Based on this
novel that tells the story of a teacher named Erin Gruwell from New Port Beach at United
States of America who teaches at Woodrow Wilson High School. The film was published in
2007. The aim of the researcher to analyze this novel is to find out the optimistic views of the
character of Erin Gruwell in this movie. So we will get a lot of life learning that we have to
always have a positive thinking with each other, and became an optimis person. This study
uses qualitative research methods. This is because in this study data or statistical data were
not needed to analyse the movie. The data used in this study are textual data in the form of
words, sentences or phrase. The result is Erin Gruwell showed an optimistic attitude every
day in any situation. The conclusion is that Erin Gruwell's character in the film is able to
provide a depiction that is like for the lives of students today, which is if we always think
optimistically that we can then whatever good things we plan to achieve will be achieved.
Keywords: freedom writers; Erin Gruwell; optimistic

I. INTRODUCTION
The freedom writers movie is based on a novel that tells the story of a teacher
named Erin Gruwell from New Port Beach at United States of America who
teaches at Woodrow Wilson High School. The film was published in 2007. In this
novel it is told that Erin Gruwell or the writer herself teaches at one high school
where students are very problematic, many of whom are often involved in fights,
gangs, drugs, and other dark problems. As a new teacher at the school Erin could
not overcome the commotion that occurred in her class, she was often bullied by
her students. Students are like students without education they are all brutal even
they are also not willing to sit side by side with non-race, racism is very thick in
the class that the teacher teaches Erin. But Erin had an optimistic attitude she
always tried to change their nature and attitude. He tried many ways to change
this, starting from making a game, writing a diary of each student, to holding a
study tour. Until finally his dream came true because he had asked his students to
write their dairy or their daily lives and Erin was allowed to read because Erin
became aware of the events that their students were experiencing that made them
brutal students. Erin gave an inspirational book that he bought using his hard-
earned personal money for all students in his class whose results they realized that
there were still people who were more unlucky than all of them, who had a darker
and more devastated past. If they realize that they are starting to be more able to
respect one another, they can make good friends with different races. Erin felt he
had managed to change the mind set of his students and make them have good
personalities and attitudes. With that Erin decided to make a diary of each of the
children's stories which is now known as The Freedom Writers Diary. There are
some studies and some review that are reviewed using the novel of The Freedom
Writers Diary. The first review was taken from Marsudhino, Yohanes (2010)
which himself examines the meaning in the existence approach in The Freedom
Writers Movie. Which this film is very unique and touches the hearts of
researchers, where Erin Gruwell has a very important role both as a teacher and as
a wife, her life is full of pressure and she is also highly dedicated in teaching even
though her students have many problems. The second review was taken from Sari,
Ulfa (2015) from the results of this study the researchers identified social
identities in the Eva in The Freedom Writers Movie character. which can be seen
that the social identity that exists in Eva is influenced by many things, namely by
family, environment, and personal experience so that what makes Eva's character
very filled with a sense of hatred and always wants to fight against the white race.
The third review was taken from Nugroho, Abdillah (2016) examined the creative
teacher in dealing with the problems of his students with a psychological
approach. And as a result the teacher managed to overcome the problems of the
dark past of his students, he managed to teach, to educate, and to guide them to a
much better life. The fourth review was taken from Tanase, Madalina (2013)
examines what students need to support their knowledge, and to explore teachers'
understanding of these needs, from The Freedom Writers Movie what things they
do when facing bad situations in the classroom, and how creative the teacher is to
be able to make the class conducive. When students are invited to write journals it
is the same as the teacher applying the method of practice to students so that they
are more able to vent anything they want to convey and make them more
accustomed to honing their writing skills. The last review was taken from Mukti,
Nurlita (2018) this review discussed about the great obsession of an Erin Gruwell,
the main character in The Freedom Writers Movie based on a psychological
approach. Which from the results of this research is Erin building a unity between
striving for excellence, social interests, lifestyle, and creative self all in Erin so
that these factors can make Erin's life always obsessed with changing the attitude
of her students. From previous existing research, which distinguishes between
research and existing research, my research focuses on the sociology of literature
theory. Who talked about optimism for the character of Erin Gruwell in The
Freedom Writers Movie.
Optimism is a very good attitude if it is possessed in someone, because with
him having an optimistic attitude he always has great strength that is in him. The
 power to move forward and towards extraordinary achievements. Lots of great
people who can change the world because of their optimistic attitude, from being
optimistic someone will think of a thousand good possibilities that he will get and
there is not even the slightest chance that will happen, so people who are autistic
tend to be more successful. Even according to Napoleon Hill, people who think
optimistically are people who have succeeded before they began their work. So if
we are optimistic it will cause positive things that even the possibility is not
possible in us. Hellen Keller (1880-1968), optimism is a belief that does not know
the word pessimist, and always leads to good achievement. Optimism, is
associated with specific coping styles, goal framing and positive affect. Optimists
exhibit attention to positive information and show active engagement, positive
reframing and problem solving type behaviours (Carr, 2004). Pessimists give
more attention to negative information, and show passivity, denial and avoidance.
An optimistic attitude, according to Myers (2008) is an attitude that is a person's
attitude when he experiences a failure both in social failure and failure in his life.
Optimistic attitude is an attitude that has a good impact on our body and soul.
Because when our minds are dictated to always be optimistic in any case, then it
will lead us to be strong so that immunity can also increase and we can become
people who are full of happiness in all situations that want to be achieved. The
higher optimism of a person eating, the smaller the possibility that he will dissolve
in a pessimistic attitude because he has not thought of a pessimism in life.
Characteristics of people who are optimistic about: their lives often seek solutions
to their own problems, bring positive thoughts, not be afraid of the difficulties of
life that they face, and are always happy.
From The Freedom Writers Movie, there are a lot of optimistics attitudes
displayed by Erin Gruwell, she always tries many things to make her students
become human beings who have good attitude and character. She worked hard to
find a part-time job just to buy an inspirational book for his students, so that they
realized that there were more pathetic problems than they did. Erin also often
consulted with her husband and father even though it was only a support so that
Erin remained enthusiastic in teaching and educating his naughty students. Until
finally Erin made several games and study tours that made her students happy and
friendly with each other. Erin succeeded in turning racist views into an intimacy,
being loved by her students. And Erin's optimistic attitude in achieving or doing
something, we must sleep in our lives because when we become an optimistic
person, whatever we focus on will always be achieved.

II. RESEARCH METHOD

In analyzing The Freedom Writers Movie (2007) researchers used qualitative
methods. This is because in this study data or statistical data were not needed to
analyse the movie. The data used in this study are textual data in the form of
words, sentences or phrase. In this research there are consist of two types of data
source such as primarily data, and secondary data. The primarily data is the Movie
of The Freedom Writers, while the secondary data is all materials related to this
research. The data collection techniques in this study were literature studies is
 watching movie, taking notes related the research, and looking for other data
sources on the internet.

III. FINDING AND DISCUSSION

1. Finding
Analysis The Freedom Writers Movie (2007) by the main purposes of human
life, there are:
a. Optimistic realistic
By Sneider (2001) reference to Degranpre (2000) optimistic realistic
which is a view which always raises positive thoughts that are located in
the physical and social world. Realism refers to the relationship between
available knowledge and understanding at any given moment, possible
choices and chosen actions.
From The Freedom Writers Movie we can be seen:

They know they get these

because no one thinks

they're smart enough for real books.

Well, I don't have the budget

to buy new books every semester

when these kids don't return them.

So, what do I do?

Buy their books myself?

Well, that's up to you,

but you'd be wasting your money.
I really think that the stories like
The Diary of Anne Frank and...

That they'd be so great for them,

and she doesn't seem to understand

that they could relate to these stories

considering all that they face.

When they know

we're wasting our time teaching them?

We tell them, "Go to school.

Get an education. "

And then we say, "Well, they can't learn,

so let's not waste resources. "

I'm thinking trips.

Most of them have never

been outside of Long Beach.

They haven't been given the opportunity

To expand their thinking

about what's out there for them.

And they're hungry for it. I know it

And it's purely a reward system.

They won't get anything

they haven't earned
 By doing their work
and upping their grades.

But if Ms. Campbell

won't give you books

Because of budget restrictions,

She's not gonna approve school trips.

I'll raise the money.

I just need to know

I won't meet resistance.

b. Situational Optimism
By Triger (1979) situational optimism is a form of positive thinking
that is always thought of when someone in a situation is pressed or in a
particular situation.
From The Freedom Writers Movie we can be seen:

We're gonna play a game, all right?

It's a lot of fun. I promise.

Look, you can either sit in your seats

reading those workbooks,

or you can play a game.

Either way,
you're in here till the bell rings.

Okay. This is called the Line Game.

I'm gonna ask you a question.

If that question applies to you,

you step onto the line,

and then step back away

for the next question.
Now, I have something for each of you.

Everyone has their own story,

and it's important for you

to tell your own story, even to yourself.

So, what we're going to do is

we're gonna write every day

in these journals.

You can write about whatever you want,

the past, the present, the future.

You can write it like a diary,

or you can write

songs, poems, any good thing,

bad thing, anything.

But you have to write every day.

Keep a pen nearby.

Whenever you feel the inspiration.

And the bonus is I get employee rates

On Marriott hotel rooms

all over the world.

I've heard a lot of hyphenates,

But a bra-selling-English-teacher-
hotel-concierge has gotta be a new one.
You told me your part-time job
was temporary.

It is. I just don't know for how long.

- What if I said no?

- No, what?

- But I can make it work, Scott.

- No, that's not the point.

You can do anything!

We know that already.

It's just that I... You...

You didn't even ask me.

- I'm just trying to do my job, Scott.

- By getting two more jobs?

I don't understand, Erin.

I'm thinking trips.

Most of them have never

been outside of Long Beach.

They haven't been given the opportunity

She invited real Holocaust survivors

from the museum to meet us.

There was Elisabeth Mann.

I want you to take one of these glasses

of sparkling cider,

And I want each of you to make a toast.

We're each gonna make

a toast for change.

And what that means is,

from this moment on

Every voice that told you

"You can't" is silenced.

Every reason that tells you things

will never change, disappears.

And the person you were

before this moment,

That person's turn is over.

Now it's your turn.

Which contain the four books

we're gonna read this semester.

All right!

They're very special books,

And they each remind me,

in some way, of each of you.

We weren't just kids

in a class anymore.

We were writers with our own voices,

 our own stories.

And even if nobody else read it,

the book would be something

to leave behind that said we were here,

this is what happened, we mattered.

2. Discussion
This is a true story from a teacher named Erin Gruwell from the New
Port Beach area of the United States, and he teaches at a school called
Woodrow Wilson High School. The school has students who come from a
dark past, so it is not uncommon for them to often fight, drugs, racists, and
other bad things. So many teachers underestimate Mrs. Erin where they
thought Ms. Erin could not solve the children's problems that occurred at the
school. Until finally Erin was placed in a junior class where students there
were always brutal, dismissing Mrs. Erin as their teacher, and did not want to
join the race. Every day in the class there is always a commotion between
students so it makes sad and confused what to do. But Bu Erin is a creative
teacher and is always optimistic to make his students into good, polite, and
polite children. So the next day he made a game to make classroom conditions
conducive, and succeeded. he was proud of himself but not only because he
understood what he had to do then Mrs. Erin bought journal books for her
students on the grounds that they would write what they did in a day or the
events they had experienced. Whereas Mrs. Erin's intention was to understand
that why her murders had a brutal attitude, and from the journalism it could be
said that they had a dark and pathetic past. Mrs. Erin decided to take part-time
work to buy an inspirational book entitled "Diary of Anne Frank" for her
students. That was agreed by her husband, and for several days they did not
read the book until finally Mrs. Erin invited them to take a study tour to The
Museum of Tolerance, from there they realize that tolerance between people is
very important and fun, then they try to read books that have been given
before and realize that there are people whose fate is far more painful than
theirs. So that the more they came to realize that they should respect each
other, and not discriminate among themselves, they finally became close and
Mrs. Erin was very happy and proud. Until finally they made a project to put
their journals together and made their books looking for funds to get
computers so they could type themselves, and it turns out there was a
volunteer who wanted to donate computers to them. So they can make a book
which is left called "The Freedom Writers Diary" which contains a collection
of the dark past of Mrs. Erin's students.
And from the data in finding we can know that data included in optimistic
realistic and situational optimism as follow:
1) Data of Optimistic Realistic
The data above is in accordance with the optimistic realistic theory that
is, the compilation of Erin Gruwell thinking optimistically what she
 planned to succeed and changing the attitude of her students for the
better.
2) Data of Situational Optimism
The data above is in accordance with the optimistic realistic theory that
is, the compilation of Erin Gruwell began to realize what she had
planned and then applied it to her students through journals, games,
trips, buying Anna Frank's books, and writing their own diaries for
book use.

IV. CONCLUSION
An interesting fact from the Freedom Writers Movie by Erin Gruwell is that
the film tells the life story of a teacher whose writer is full of problems in school,
but he remains optimistic and always thinks positively that he is capable and he
will succeed. The conclusion is that Erin Gruwell's character in the film is able to
provide a depiction that is like for the lives of students today, which is if we
always think optimistically that we can then whatever good things we plan to
achieve will be achieved.
Researchers can interpret the optimistic attitude shown to the figure of Erin
Gruwell, who is full of pressure and problems every day, but he remains
enthusiastic. And finally it makes him a strong, tough, patient, and always
optimistic person for the future. Can be imitated by young people to become better
people and have the desire to progress.

V. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Marsudihono, Y (2010). The Search For Meaning Of Existence In Freedom Writers
Movie By Richard Lagravenese (2007); Existentialist Approach. Indonesia:
Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta.
Sari, Ulfa Puspa (2015). Social Identity Formation Of Eva In Freedom Writers Movie.
Indonesia: Islamic University Sunan Kalijaga
Nugroho, A (2016). A Creative Teacher For Problematic Students: An Individual
Psychological Study On Freedom Writers Movie. Indonesia: Universitas
Muhammadiyah Surakarta.
Tanase, M (2013). Meeting Student Needs In The Freedom Writers Movie: An
Activity In A Classroom Management Course. Florida: University Of North Florida
Jacksonville.
Mukti, Nurlita Trisna (2018). Unstoppable Obsession Of Erin Gruwel Reflected In
Freedom Writers Movie (2007): An Individual Psychological Approach. Indonesia:
Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta.