Akeelah and the Bee - Essay - 3141 Words

Akeelah and the Bee April 20, 2012 Identifying Information Akeelah is an eleven year old African American girl who lives in South Los Angeles being raised by her mother, Tanya, who father was killed when she was six years old. She is attending Crenshaw Middle School. She has three siblings and a niece and her mother works long hours to have extra money to support her family. Akeelah is a very smart an intelligent girl who loves to study and learn words. Presenting Problem Akeelah is grieving the death of her father even though he died when she was six years old. It appears her mother is not emotionally supportive to Akeelah through this grieving process because her mother works long hours as a nurse. Akeelah is not only having to†¦show more content†¦One psychologist, Urie Bronfenbrenner states the ecological approach to human behavior deals with a growing human being and his or her environment which progress a mutual accommodation throughout the course of Life (Bronfenbrenner 1979). Goodness-of-fit is a reciprocal process that can result in a god fit when there is a good match between an individual and his environment or a poor fit when the match between an individual and environment is poor (Greene 1999). My assumption is that before Akeelah’s the death Akeelah’s father, there was a goodness-of-fit in their family. Her mother could have always been home with her children, her oldest brother Devon was home, her other broth er, Terrence, was not under bad influence, and her sister, Kiana’s, life would not be broken. They supposedly had a happy family, good relationships with each other and mutual respect. After Akeelah’s father died, she relocated from a good fit to a poor fit where the match between her and her environment is different. Akeelah’s mother started to work longer hours as a nurse in a hospital to survive and care for her children as she continues to stress about her life. Akeelah’s life is not going easy because the impact of the loss of a parent for Akeelah and her family is underestimated. When a person has to cope with a parent dying can stir fears of a loss self (Walsh amp; McGoldrick 1995). Children whoShow MoreRelated Akeelah and the Bee Essay2422 Words   |  10 Pages Akeelah Anderson, an eleven year old African American student from the Crenshaw neighborhood of South Los Angeles, struggles to overcome the limitations of her environment in order to succeed in a national spelling bee competition. As our group discussed the film Akeelah and the Bee we first wanted to look at the themes the film presents. We originally thought of the more oblivious ones such as how race and socioeconomic class play apart in the film. We also started to notice that the film presented