C&C Erin Brockovich and Soul of a Citizen


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“Stepping out on nothing, hoping to land on something.”  The book and film touched on many situations in which people took a leap of faith with no guarantee that everything would be okay.  In the film Ed talked about the pressure he faced pursuing the case stating that it was going to take $100,000 a month to finance and he would have to take out a second mortgage for his house to help cover the costs.  Ed didn’t have money to invest but depending on what road they took, PB&E could prolong the dispute so that Ed’s business could no longer afford to pursue the claims, because PB&E are a 28 billion dollar company.  Ed took a leap of faith by trusting Erin to find documentation that PB&E corporate knew about the chromium six plums that the factory was producing so that they could pressure the company.  Trusting that Erin would find that proof Ed took a financial risk that could have burdened him with the losses.  Without him taking that risk and Erin following her convictions, thus inspiring Ed to trust her, the case would not have the far reaching affects it had. 

Contrast

In Soul of a Citizen they can’t go into detail about the intricacies that the people who help change their community go through.  In the movie, Erin Brockovich, faced many uncovered problems when trying to do the right thing and bring justice to the people of Hinkley, CA that Soul of a Citizen couldn’t go in depth about. Some of her struggles were caring for her children, making ends meet, being respected, having to educate herself to find the resources/documents to further the case, balancing a relationship,  and most evident not being there for her youngest daughter’s, Beth’s, first words.  Although the fight for justice was tough she was very passionate about justice being served like those stories in the book, but the movie showed a descriptive summary of justice, not just the conclusion, which shows that changing the community/society in which one lives in or is a part of is hard work, but well worth it at the end.  It’s not worth it because of the monetary gains, but because it gave life to the community that was unaware of the wrongs being done to it, Erin became respected by people that looked down on her, her children may not understand now, but what she did will help them down the road because she made herself a better person because she was given an opportunity by Ed who knew she wasn’t qualified but knew she had a lot of heart.  As a result, everyone learned from one another and environmental concerns are taken more seriously as a result, altering the path of the world and future generations.