Friday Night Lights: Structure Functional Theory Essay

In Remember the Titans we witness Coach Boone fighting for civil rights, signifying the image of an outsider integrating into a foreign white team as their coach. Director Boaz Yakin, uses techniques to strengthen Coach Boone’s character where the initial hate and disrespect towards him succours the development of a meaningful arc. The disrespect and aggression is employed when a brick is thrown through his house window, threatening him with the derogatory coloured comments calling him “Coach Coon”. The pressure of quitting was not felt and heroically he encompasses the journey with Yakin emphasising Boones evocative discipline and determination forcing integration amongst the segregated football team. This technique is employed when we witness Coach Boone stepping up, pushing equality for the players in a determined strike to stop racial abuse for good. His actions initiate the forced building of friendship and acceptance when he forces both races to get to know and accept each other at the camp. Yakin heightens the themes of overcoming racism when Boone rallies the troops together to support their team mate during a sad time. Instinctively, the implicit segregation is evoked further bringing unity to the team, Coach Boone emerges as a ‘hero’ to both the coloured and white community.

The book begins with the author talking about his motivation to write the book. Also the author discusses the importance of Permian’s game against Midland Lee High School (their arch-rivals). Tensions were rising greatly, and by the end of the game, star tailback Boobie Miles quits the team and Permian lost 22-21, leaving them in a three-way tie, with only two spots open in the 5A playoffs.

The movie “We Are Marshall” is a movie about football. The movie isn’t just a normal football movie. It’s a movie that shows how a town and a college rebuilds after the tragedy that they went through. The town of Huntington, West Virginia and Marshall University went through the tragedy of a plane crash that killed seventy-five people, including football players, coaches, fans, boosters, mothers, fathers, doctors, lawyers and even governors. From this experience people had a choice to rebuild or continue to mourn their loved ones. Nate Ruffin, Donald Dedmon and Coach Jack Lengyel chose to rebuild through ways of leadership, optimism and morals.

This novel develops characters that engage in sex, to teachers cheating so their high school football players can continue to participate on the football field. Many people have a major affect on football and society in this novel. One of the major characters was Boobie Myles. Boobie was supposed to be the star athlete on the Permian football team. In the beginning, Boobie was arrogant to his teammates and wasn’t a good team leader. All Boobie cared about was winning and getting to the next level of football to satisfy his athletic needs. When Boobie is injured, he realizes he took football for granted and would do anything to play again. The team needs Boobie and Boobie needs the team. Coach Gaines realizes Boobie was seriously hurt and gives an inspiring pep talk to the team about how the players need to put their heart in the game and how lucky they are to be playing for Odessa.

In the film, “We are Marshall”, there is a major theme that includes being able to move on and a rebuilding of a community after a tragic event. In the following paragraphs I will be discussing with a chain of events how football helped rebuild a community after a tragic event and how religion and sport are intertwined. This paper is significant because within a short span it highlights different aspects of not only rebuilding a football team but a community. This paper is important because it shows how the concept of structural functionalism played a big part in this film in addition to the socialization of youth and adults in the community. This paper will also talk about major points and scenes from the film that have a connection with the

Functionalism also portrays the link between social institutions such as the family, education and the economy. With proper socialisation from the family the individual enters the education system and subsequently would be positive addition to the workplace and by extension the economy.

The film wasn’t about that 13-0 record and winning a state championship, but the struggle that came with it and all the hardships they had to deal and get past. Racism, prejudice, compassion and love were all key aspects of this film as shown. The racism, prejudice of the team when they first met was severe and had been changed. The love and compassion came as the team grew to become one unit and love each other and be able to become something more powerful than they could be by themselves.

In the film “Remember the Titans”, we see a cultural environment in 1971 refusing to accept the idea of racial equality (the main issue raised in the movie). The film displays the issue of racism and illustrates how one can overcome prejudice by uniting for a common cause or goal. During the course of this movie, there were many social behaviors at work that dealt with racism and discrimination. These obstacles didn’t stop the football team from socially overcoming those difficulties.

H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights occurs in Odessa, Texas where Permian football remains the diversion through which the locals are able to live vicariously through, leading to the local’s attitudes and personal lives relying largely on the success of the team. This is evident when looking at Jim Lewallen, L.V. Miles, and Charlie Billingsley.

The novel begins with preseason football in the heat of a Texas summer. The players and coaches practice over 4 hours a day in 100-degree weather. The media is affecting every player pushing for a state championship and college scouts at every practice. The boys who gave completely of themselves for their sport are unique personalities. From dedicated quarterback Mike Winchell to Harvard-bound Brian Chavez to the inscrutable Ivory Christian, the team was full of young men who were singular human beings, each one bringing something special and indefinable to their group. And that's just scratching the very surface.The book recounts the tragic story of Boobie Miles, team’s star running back who had been highly recruited by all of the major programs. He is expected to attend and earn a scholarship to a large state college. The community

This pursuit of an undefeated season itself is symbolic of a message that success can be achieved through racial integration. Once again the driving factors behind the success of the team is the relationship we see between Julius and Gary. By constantly having this foundation to fall back on in times of difficulty the overall team comradery stays well completely in tact. The audience is able to see how Julius and Gary conduct themselves when they call team meetings where they are the sole ones talking about overcoming their difficulties. This is yet another straight forward attempt by the film to create these two individuals as signs of the racial integration and progressive

Sustaining the ambitions of not only themselves but the alumni and town of Odessa, Texas is a lot to ask from a young adult. That’s exactly what Permian football provides to the people of Odessa, where the post economic boom of the oil business has left the town in a racially tense, economic crisis. The lights on Permian High School’s football field are the only sanctuary for the west Texas town. Socially and racially divided, Odessa’s mass dependence on high school football constructs glorified expectations for the football team to temporarily disguise the disappointments that come with living in a town tagged as the “murder capital” of

Sports are a significant part of society and spectators enjoy particular events regardless of the type. However, there are many players who develop special working and social relationships with whom they are participating regardless of the type of sport. The relationship and how people interact with one another can be the determination of how successful a team can be. The particular film based on a true story that I chose is titled When the Game Stands Tall. This film consists of a high performing football team of De La Salle High School in the state of California. Jim Caviezel portrays the head coach (Bob Ladouceur) as a man with such vision and passion that goes beyond the fundamental principles of coaching the game of football. The football team had won 151 games without being defeated which is the highest winning record a team has had in the game of football. The film shows the internal struggles of the players in their lives as people, and how they perform on the field. It also shows the external tragic difficulties that they face while they attend and play for De Le Salle High School. In the movie, the head coach helps the students/players by not only coaching them but also showing them how to live a flourishing life by committing to endure difficult life situations and the way to overcome them. He helps teach the principles of brotherhood and companionship with the team that they build. In the movie, the head coach and the staff had taught the players

Functionalism looks at society in aspects of how it contributes to the steadiness/cohesion of the whole society (Anderson, Taylor, & Logio, P. 18). There are many institutions that are looked at that include the economic system, government, education, religion, health care, and family. All of which have different roles and perform different functions to ensure that society operates in a well-ordered manner. An example of this would be how family reproduces, takes care of children, exposes children to culture and heritage, supports other family members, and shares life experiences. Shared values and social stability are keys to this perspective. When this system breaks down it is because people’s needs are not being covered and shared values are deteriorating. When this occurs, it affects all parts of functionalism and the society must achieve

Having attended public schools throughout my childhood and adolescence, I never was familiar with the term functionalism and its many elements. After observing and analyzing my field placement classroom I have come to understand the concept of functionalism to some extent. In general, functionalists “see schools as serving to socialize students to adapt to the economic, political, and social institutions of that society” (Feinberg, p.6, 2004). They also theorize that in order for societies to survive, they must carry out vital functions such as, attaining fundamental knowledge and acquiring essential skills and proficiency, acknowledging certain norms and values within their community, and recognizing authority figures. It is also