Barbara Johns Imagine This Was Your School Analysis

Imagine getting up everyday before high school and preparing for war. For Melba Pattillo Beals this fear was a scary reality. In the beginning of “Warriors Don 't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock 's Central High” by Melba Pattillo Beals, she begins talking about what it’s like to come back to the haunted racist halls of Little Rock Central High School. This was a time when civil rights was a major issue and the color separation between white and black was about to be broken. Melba and nine other students entered Central High School becoming the first African American students to go to an all white school.

Melba Pattillo Beals wrote Warriors Don’t Cry as a memoir of her battle to integrate Little Rock’s Central High. The nonfictional story focuses on the life of Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the nine teenagers chosen to integrate central high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Being threatened and harassed by her school mates while her own community ignore her during her attempt to bring equality in Arkansas is heartbreaking as her remarkable story is displayed in this book. There are lots of literary elements used to create this memoir as they help the writing spring to life. Some of them are: first point of view, conflict, plot, theme, symbolism etc.

She was enraged at the Nazi oppression and racial intolerance that she had seen. “My children are safe while others are threatened” (Cole, 1). She soon acted on that anger, by joining the underground National Movement Against Racism (MNCR). While there, she walked the streets

This shows that every day she goes to school and is attacked or harassed, she becomes more courageous, strong, and confident. Melba grew into a warrior who can “get hit across the back with a tennis racquet” and say “Thank you very much” to her attacker (170). Melba Beals Patillo’s high school experience describes perfectly how Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote is

This showed she never had courage because she never had the guts to stand up for herself and say something. Another

Civil rights issues stand at the core of Anne Moody’s memoir. However, because my last two journal entries centered on race and the movement, I have decided to shift my focus. In her adolescent years, Anne Moody must live with her mother, her mother’s partner Raymond, and her increasing number of siblings. As she reaches maturity, she grows to be a beautiful girl with a developed body. Her male peers and town members notice, as does her step father Raymond.

Mamie specifically wrote this book to tell her son’s story, representing hope and forgiveness, which revealed the sinister and illegal punishments of the south. She wanted to prevent this horrendous tragedy from happening to others. The purpose of the book was to describe the torment African Americans faced in the era of Jim Crow. It gives imagery through the perspective of a mother who faced hurt, but brought unity to the public, to stand up for the rights of equal treatment. This book tells how one event was part of the elimination of racial segregation.

Many people, everyday get bullied. When this happens, you have to stand up for yourself. You can show courage, by standing up for yourself, and for what’s right. Many African American people, in our history, have stood up for what’s right, by showing courage. This includes Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, MLK, and many more.

The story takes place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in America, when desegregation is finally achieved. Flannery O’Connor’s use of setting augments the mood and deepens the context of the story. However, O’Connor’s method is subtle, often relying on connotation and implication to drive her point across. The story achieves its depressing mood mostly through the use of light and darkness in the setting.

Obama continues her historical account as she describes the travail and bravery that a few people possessed that led them to afford educational opportunities for black people even when “Teachers received death threats.” (289). She evokes these historical events, not only to show the stark difference between the past and present with regards to educational opportunities for African Americans, but also demonstrate how the people who fought tirelessly so that they could gain an education did so because of they were aware of the value of education as it brings freedom and opportunity to those who have it. To bolster this assertion, Obama quotes Fredrick Douglas, “Freedom is Emancipation” (289) Obama details even further as she

Facing the segregationists and the horrors of the South, Melba Pattillo was a strong warrior on the battlefield of racism for all people of color across the world. Beginning with the integration into Central High School, the brave 9 children hit waves upon waves of mobs and white people giving their all to get rid of them. Melba has gone through hell and back facing attacks of anything from sticks of dynamite to acid being thrown in her eyes. Her dignity and courage gave her the strength to refuse to back down and make a remarkable story.

One of the most challenging experiences in life is dealing with an inevitable truth. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird Mrs. Dubose finally reveals her hitherto unknown strength upon her death. Jem and Scout both witness - although to what extent they are affected is not stated- to what Atticus called “the bravest person [he] knows” and as result learn that true courage has nothing to do with guns. After her son’s brutal killing, Mrs. Till went above and beyond by demonstrating to others the audacity to oppose the prejudicial community - accelerating the civil rights by posing as example and statement in Keith Beauchamp’s documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till.

It’s 1921, segregation is at its peak. Could you survive? In my novel “White Lilacs” Rose Lee had to face many challenges. She survived by learning to contain her emotions and remain respectful.

In the informational short story, Susan B. Anthony Dares To Vote, the author shows us that we should always be courageous. In

She chose to take the path that was against these inequalities and fight for justice, not the path that was with it or was just