Reflection on "Streetwise"

"Streetwise" did a fabulous job at portraying the lives of teens who are living on the streets of Seattle and their struggle to survive. Many of the teens discussed in the film had either no families around or were runaways, and the film showed how these people tried to survive on their own without any resources. The film dealt with issues such as begging for food and/or money, prostitution, theft, drugs and suicide. The teens discussed in the movie wanted the same kind of things out of life that we all do: a nice house, a T.V, a car, etc; however, they had to deal with the very little that they had. Out of all the characters in the movie, Dewayne's situation had the largest effect on me. Dewayne's father was in prison and his mother abandoned him, which left him a victim of the streets which was beyond his control considering he was only sixteen years old. He slept in abandoned homes if it was possible, otherwise he had to resort to sleeping on the streets. The film showed Dewayne visiting his father in prison. He seemed to be soft spoken with his father and the father did most of the talking. His dad told him to stay out of trouble otherwise he was going to live a life like himself. He was telling him he was going to be out soon and was trying to talk sense into him to be good so he won't have to experience jail and follow in his footsteps. Overall, Dewayne dealt with false promises, trust issues (because his mother abandoned him), family issues (because his mom was gone and his dad was in prison), and insecurity (he didn't know each day how and/or if he was going to eat nor where he was going to sleep). Dewayne ended up committing suicide in a juvenile detention center by hanging himself the day before his 17th birthday and just before he was going to be released. He couldn't take being back on the streets. It was really sad to see that only a handful of people attended his funeral with two people being his dad's guards from prison. The father was distraught because of his failure to properly raise his son. His father sat by his coffin and apologized to him for not being able to take a part in his life.

Although this film was sad and difficult to watch at certain moments, it did a great job at showing the viewer the harsh realities that occur while living on the streets. These people were not even adults, they were teens who were out there trying to cope and survive taking one day at a time. For people who have no idea what it's really like to be a homeless youth, "Streetwise" would be the perfect film to watch as it was so real. My heart goes out to each and every one of the characters in the film, as what they go through on a daily basis are things that the vast majority of us can not even conceive of happening to us. The truth, however, is that this is a reality that occurs on many of the streets of big cities throughout our country and we all need to be more aware of this.