Comparing Patches Hide No Scars 'And Chinese Whisers'

“Why does he hate me so much? Is it me personally or just what I am?” I have chosen to explore the idea of prejudice (judgments of a person based on race, gender, social class, and religion or group associations.) These themes are evident in the short film ‘Chinese Whispers’ directed by Neil Paddington and Stuart McKenzie, and in three written texts ‘Noughts and Crosses’ by Malorie Blackman, ‘Patches Hide No Scars’ by Haree Williams and ‘On the Sidewalk Bleeding’ by Evan Hunter.

“I used to comfort myself with the belief that it was only certain individuals and their peculiar notions that spoilt things for the rest of us. But how many individuals does it take before it's not the individuals who are prejudiced but society itself?” ‘Noughts
At the exposition of this story, Andy (a member of the ‘Royal’ gang) is stabbed by a rival gang (‘The Guardians’) during a ‘rumble’. The plot then follows Andy’s thought path as he slowly bleeds to death. “The knife had not been plunged in hatred of Andy. The knife hated only the purple jacket. The jacket was as stupid meaningless thing that was robbing him of his life.” Andy wears a purple silk shirt, a symbol of his membership with the ‘Royals’. In his dying moments Andy comes to the realization that people don’t see him as Andy, a human being, but a member of the ‘Royals’. At the climax of the short story Andy uses his last strength to take off the jacket so that he can be Andy again. “I want to Andy.” Sadly, just after his death, Andy's girlfriend Laura, finds Andy’s dead body and races off to find a police officer. The police officer sees the purple ‘Royal’ jacket next to Andy’s body, the officer then proceeds to say “A Royal, huh.” This shows that Andy’s efforts to remove himself from the gang have failed as the police officer judges him by the sight of the jacket. The police officer associates Andy as a part of the gang the ‘Royals’ and doesn’t see him as Andy, a sixteen year old boy. This short story by Evan Hunter has shown me how easily a person’s identity can be lost through association
This New Zealand poem has captured the sad truth about the loss of the Maori culture as the lost youths turn to gang membership in a search to add meaning to their lives. ‘Patches Hide No Scars’ relates to the idea of prejudice by describing the members of Maori gangs as one group, a whole, not a group of individuals. “How do we prosecute those already punished? How do we fine those lost in the street of no direction?” Throughout this short text author Haree Williams continually uses words like ‘we’ and ‘those/them’, by doing this the gangs (‘those’) are separated from the rest of society (‘we’). By doing this Maori gangs distance from the rest of New Zealand is emphasized. This poem has raised questions to me: why do these youths find security in the rules and orders of gangs but not the rules and orders of regular jobs or life in the ‘normal’ society? And what is society doing to make the youngsters of the Maori race feel like they do not belong in