Imagine you live in the projects, your mother is a crack addict and you have been separated from her and your brother. You have no place to call home, and you stay with people from time to time to keep a roof over your head and food in your mouth. Your grades in school are very poor and you only have one shirt to wear for the entire week. Would you be able overcome these obstacles? Well, Michael Oher of the Baltimore Ravens went through these tragic events and many more and overcame all of them with help from many people, especially the Tuohy family. They not only took him in, but he became a part of their family, basically their son, and gave him the opportunity to have a home, family, and a quality education. These situations also affect other people, like my aunt Denise for example. Although her mother was not a crack addict and she excelled in school, she too lived in the projects up until she was 16. She did not have a lot of opportunities or even a room to call her own. She stayed in a two bedroom apartment with her four brothers and parents. She would eventually move into a house, have her own room, and become valedictorian of her class. The movie The Blind Side and the true life story of Michael Oher both capture his amazing life story but there are different depictions of events that took place in Michael Ohers life.
In the movie and the true life story of Michael Oher there are many similarities. The first similarity is that he grew up in a poor neighborhood in Memphis Tennessee called Hurt Village. It was a housing project filled with drugs, gangs, and violence. His mother was a crack addict and his father was not in his life. In the movie it was depicted this same way however, in the movie you find out what happen to him and his brother as a child. He and his brother were taken away from his mother as young children and separated from each other. They meet up again at a restaurant. His brother works there as the bus boy. Also, in the movie you learn that he stays with the Tuohy's and eventually became a part of their family, however you do not see how before he stayed with them, he mainly lived with a man named Mr. Henderson. In the movie it is portrayed that he lived in the gym. Oher had it really rough growing up. He had no family, no home, but he had dreams of becoming a NFL star. He knew one day he would become something. With the love and care of the care of the Tuohys he is able to achieve this.
There are some differences from the movie and the true life story of Oher. In the movie, it is depicted that Oher did not dream of becoming an NFL star. He did not even know how to play football. However, in the true life story he in fact had dreams of becoming a star. Oher states, “Every day I woke up, I said to myself, you know, I'm going to work hard, you know, this day to get to that next level” (p.1). In his true life story you also learn of how he became to know the Touhys. He would stay with them from time to time, and then leave and stay with someone else, until he was asked to stay. In the movie it is portrayed that he always stayed with the Touhy's. While Oher was in school, you learn that he had a tutor come and help him with his work. However, in his true life story, Collins his little sister was his tutor at first. She worked with him day and night, even having her class schedule changed so she could have some classes with him. After school she would help him study until late at night.
I interviewed my Aunt Denise, who I felt related to Ohers story. She too was born in a project that was filled with drugs, gangs and violence. She had friends whose parents had fallen victim to crack, and the kids were taken by foster care. My aunt says she did not have many clothes the ones she had were hand me downs. She had one pair of shoes, and she shared a bedroom with her four brothers. She did not have anything she could call her own. She always had dreams of leaving the projects. When her parents became able to buy a house, she says it was the best thing. They bought a five bedroom house and she was finally able to have her own space away from her brothers with her own bed. The house was in a very nice working class neighborhood and not as rough as the projects where she had once lived. My aunt always aspired to graduate from school. She loved to read and excelled in all her classes. Like Oher, my aunt was the first girl in my family to graduate from high school, and she graduated valedictorian of her class.
In the end, Oher and my aunt had good outcomes. Oher was able to complete high school and go to college. He then was drafted into the NFL. More importantly he had a family that cared for him dearly and loved him. My aunt was able to move away from the projects and finally have something she could call her own. They overcame obstacles and with hard work and determination one was able to live in a better neighborhood with more opportunities and the other fulfilled his dream of becoming and NFL star.
