Comparing Power In Freedom Writers And Emperor Jones

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” - John Dalberg-Acton (“Lord Acton Quote Archive”). Throughout history, people who have power have utilized their influence to harm those below them. Without high positions, many acts of oppression would not have been possible, like the government permitting Jim Crow. Power facilitating prejudice is demonstrated in Richard LaGravenese’s film Freedom Writers and Eugene O’Neill’s play Emperor Jones using allusion, irony, and contrast. One of the greatest demonstrations of people in power harming others is the Holocaust. In Freedom Writers, Erin Gruwell alludes to this atrocity in a speech comparing a racial caricature of a black student to the portrayal of jewish people in Nazi

In the former, Brian Gelford, Gruwell’s colleague, exhibits racism through verbal irony, insincerely comparing Rodney King to Anne Frank (LaGravenese). Following with his disdain of the voluntary integration program, he is racist (LaGravenese). An established teacher, Gelford is able to say these things to Gruwell because she has less power than him. Without that power as a teacher with seniority, Gelford would be more likely to receive punishment and Gruwell to report him (LaGravenese). His usage of verbal irony is an exercise of his power over Gruwell and minority students that would have been impossible without his station. Conversely, Emperor Jones, uses situational irony to demonstrate how power assists in bigotry’s perpetration. The emperor, Brutus Jones, is a black man who continually espouses his superiority over his black subjects. For instance, he rhetorically posits if the tribespeople “dat ain’t got brains enuff to know deir own names even can catch Brutus Jones?” (O’Neill 21) and continually refers to them with racial slurs that could also apply to him (26). Despite the possibility of solidarity with his people, he instead uses his position to oppress them and further build up his internalized racism. Without status, he would not have been able to continue perpetrate and enforce these