The story begins with two black men arriving at the house of a neo-nazi name Derek Vinyard intending to break into his car and steal it. The man discovers this and kills both of the men as they try to escape. He is then arrested and jailed, then the story moves ahead in time to the day that he is released from jail. The story, though, focuses on his younger brother Danny who begins to follow his brother's neo-nazi group even though Derek is reformed as he leaves the prison. Danny's principal, a black man, sees Danny following in Derek's ways. He takes on Danny as a personal student to make him write a paper analyzing the events concerning his brother's incarceration and the impact of the society that he lives in on his present view and situation in life.

The older brother Derek had become the younger leader of the neo-nazi leader after his father was shot and killed while fighting a fire in a black community.

Another important concept is Cooley's definition of the "Looking-Glass Self", in which people use others as mirrors of themselves in social situations to better understand conceptions of who they appear to be in society. This is symbolically shown in the movie as Derek steps out of the shower and sees himself in the mirror. He takes a closer look and covers the tattoo of a swastika that he has on his chest and realizes that others who see this respond in negative ways because they are very offended at his open racism. Also, this is shown, as the African-Americans appear disturbed when he takes his shirt off to play basketball against them. He notices this and realizes that they form judgments and conceptions of him by how he acts in society. He then begins to see himself through their eyes and that is what eventually makes him change himself.

Seeing this problem from his own perspective, Danny begins to write his paper. The paper focuses on his older brother as it analyzes and interprets the events happening the past three years. Throughout the process, Danny is almost taken in by the nazi, but then he realizes that he has been told lies and all the things he has learned are wrong. He realizes that the hatred towards others does not make anything better because everyone has to work together and accept each other to make things better.

Ultimately, this movie focuses on culture conflicts, but as it progresses, a deeper conflict emerges. That conflict which is resolved is the conflict of the social self. All five discussed concepts however, play important roles in the analysis of American History X: culture, ethnocentrism, nature vs. nurture, the looking glass self, and the concept of "I" and "Me".

Danny uses all that he has learned to fi

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1190
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)