A prominent thematic throughout the novel, Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Patillo Beals is self-reliance. In many instances throughout the novel, Melba must be brave and is sometimes not able to rely on anyone else but herself. There are many figures in the novel that help her overcome obstacles but in many cases, she is forced to fight the battle on her own. One could imply that the tone of the novel is fearful because she is terrified in multiple occasions and is forced to overcome these challenges.
Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America was written by Mamie Till-Mobley, a supporter of equal opportunities for different ethnicities. Christopher Benson, a writer and lawyer, assisted Mamie Till-Mobley as a co-author in her personal biography. Death of Innocence was published in the year 2003 by Random House in New York. This memoir has 290 pages, including seven pages of Christopher Benson’s personal experiences with Mamie Till-Mobley in the afterword. Death of Innocence is categorized as an adult nonfiction book. 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. A murder brought unity to a public who were always stepped over.
Turning Points are often when something unexpected or something you can’t control happens in your life. The texts that concluded this idea was the Autobiography “ Warriors Don’t Cry’’ by Melba Pattillo Beals, the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, and the Drama excerpt “Dragonwings”by Lawrence Yep. Melba Pattillo Beals, The Main Character of The Road Not Taken, and Moonshadow all faced life changing experiences, that changed a big part of their lives.
Hairspray is a musical which stars a good natured overweight teenage who helps integrate the races in a popular teen dance show, the Corny Collins Show, in segregated Baltimore. It focusses on racism and segregation in the 60’s, but has the underlying theme of equality for everyone in spite of their race, class, sexual orientation, gender or outward appearance. Tracy Turnblad, an overweight teenager, finally gets a spot on the “Corny Collins Show”, a teen dance show she has always dreamt of being on. She is disturbed when she finds out the “Negroes” are allowed to dance on the show occasionally. She fights for integration despite being bullied and mocked. She catches the attention of the town’s resident heartthrob, Link, although she is not seen as “conventionally pretty”. Although Hairspray seems to support racial integration and feminism, there are aspects of the movie that prove racist and anti-feminist. I will prove this by highlighting some post-colonial concepts in the movie and using feminist concepts.
Courage can be found where it is least expected. In her book, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred Taylor uses Cassie as an example courage. Courage is the ability to do something, even though you are frightened of doing it, which Cassie shows a lot throughout the book. Cassie is a little girl, who is very smart, sassy, and courageous. She stands up for what she believes and helps others that need a voice. Cassie showed courage when she stood up to Mr. Barnett, tried to help Little Man by explaining his actions, and helping T.J. when he betrayed their family. She has shown that is very courageous and outspoken girl by standing up for things that she believed, even if she knew what was going to happen to her for her speaking out. Also, she helps others if they do not deserve it or if they are in real trouble.
In the future, based on the text, the whites involved with south schools, will stop at nothing to try to flush the African-American kids out. In the text ,on page 111, "...a flaming stick of dynamite whizzed past and landed on the stair just below me." and on page 112 " ' We 're gonna make your life hell, n____. You 'all are gonna go screaming out of here... ' " When they through the dynamite and Melba and
Melba pattillo beals helped african american children get the education that they needed. In paragraph 18 it states, “Step by step we climbed upward-where none of my people had ever before walked as a student.”also in paragraph 18 it states, “We stepped up the front door of Central High School and crossed the threshold into that place where angry segregationist mobs had forbidden us to go.” This explains the problems she went through to get education and for others to get the same education. In conclusion melba beals faced life changing experiences.
No matter what obstacles you face in life you should always strive to reach your goal. Determination is something everyone should keep in mind of, and without determination one will not succeed. In Warriors Don’t Cry the main character Melba Patillo Beals tends to strive for her goal. With the NAACP the little rock nine includes Melba and eight other black high school students were sent to Central High School to integrate and Melba was determined to go through with integration. Melba reveals many of her characteristics also as many events she had to face every day by herself. As Melba progressed in Central High she shows that she is determined, faithful, and that she has fear while her stay at Central High. She was determined to see her commitment while having faith in God and in her family and despite her fears that she had. Melba went through integration
Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattilo Beals is a memoir about Beals experiences and her journey while integrating Little Rocks Central High School. She wanted to share her story about what it was like to grow up in the middle of the civil rights movement and what it was like to be one of the nine students who were the first African Americans to integrate a public all white school. During and after reading the book a few thoughts went through my head. First, was my reaction at the horrific things that were done to Melba by integrationist in Central High. For example, while in the bathroom stall a group of girls locked her in and began dumping paper that was light on fire onto her. Before reading this book I was not truly aware of the extent
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. Her book describes the hardship and struggle she faced growing up in Little Rock and what it was like to be hurt and abused all throughout high school.
1. From Jason Johansen 's Notes on Chicano Cinema, scholars of Chicana/o cinema used to identify the criteria of Chicana/o cinema as "films BY Chicanos, films FOR Chicanos, and films ABOUT Chicanos" (Johansen 303). The Salt of the Earth film (1954) attempts to expand this definition because it achieves more than being for and about Chicanos, it can also be for other minorities fighting injustices and inequalities similar to Chicanos. The film is still for Chicanos because it illustrates an actual account of Mexican American mining workers in Zinc Town of New Mexico during World War II, where the union workers won due to their unity, inspiring others to stand with each other in the Chicano movement. The movie also challenges the criteria because it is a film directed by a non-Chicano, Herbert Biberman, but that inadequacy was compensated since most of the actors were local Mexican-American union associates who had experience and direct involvement in the historical fight for their rights. I chose this film because it showed how hard the union workers and families worked in fighting racial injustices, and because it inspired myself to move forward with strong ideologies and pride.
Both James Baldwin and Melba Beals are well experienced in living in a society where whites are viewed as superior to people of color, and they both know how it felt to feel ashamed in their own skin. In Baldwins letter "My Dungeon Shook" he writes to his nephew about succeeding in such an unfair world. In Melba's "Warriors Don't Cry" she tells her harrowing experiences as she tries to pursue the integration of Central High School as a member of the Little Rock Nine. Melba's experiences and the unfair world Baldwin describes have many similarities and it shows how society's treatment of others can dramatically affect someone's
“Help!” Yelled Melba as she was kicked and punched to the ground by a white boy. This dreadful even happens in Warriors Don’t Cry. Warriors Don’t Cry is a book by Melba about herself, a girl named Melba Pattillo Beals. Melba is a Negro who lives in Little Rock, Arkansas and is 15 years old. She grew up going to Horace Mann a “Colored” school that only people with black skin could go to. Melba decided that it was not fair, she wanted to go to school with the white kids. Melba wanted to get a better education, so she and 8 other students called the Little Rock Nine from Horace Mann went to Central High. The Little Rock Nine all experienced a very exhausting school year full of challenges, triumphs and allies.
Humans are diverse, and although many share similarities, they all have differences. These differences may be difficult for some people to accept, which leads to prejudice towards those who are different. In the memoir, Warriors Don’t Cry, written by Melba Pattillo Beals, Beals reveals the many obstacles she faced attending Central High, a now integrated school, as an African American in 1957. Everywhere she went, hateful words were thrown at her, but she persevered and did not let ignorant students get to her. Some might say those who suffer from discrimination become weaker and develop anger within them. While this may be true, experiencing the discrimination and hatred allows the victims to gain confidence and more wisdom.
“Courage doesn 't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I’ll try again tomorrow’” - Mary Anne Radmacher. Through this quote one can see the advantages of real courage. One can really understand the true meaning of courage by reading the books To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. The book by Harper Lee is written by a 9 year old’s perspective named Scout. Throughout the book she discovers many mockingbirds in her society and the trouble they have to live through. This helps the reader identify many subtopics in the book like prejudice vs tolerance, compassion vs ignorance and more importantly courage vs cowardice. She deciphers the true meaning of courage vs cowardice when she meets the mystery character, Boo Radley. The book by Sherman Alexie too has similar themes and settings. It’s based on the struggles Indian’s face in America due to their race. The book uses a teenagers perspective to exhibit these struggles. This helps teenagers connect to the book as even they might have perspectives similar to of Junior’s (main character). Both the authors use similar literary devices like external conflict, internal conflict and characterization to keep the reader interested in the text. In both the texts one can see that the thematic idea conveyed is that courageous people don’t roar about their strength, but they use it to benefit the community as a whole.