Laura Berger Ms. Tenore 1/13/23 English 8 Warriors don’t Cry Descriptive Response The memoir, Warriors don’t Cry, has many symbols that have deep meanings and symbolize something bigger than what they are. One of these is the bodyguards. The bodyguards were not sent out to stop racism and harassment, but they were instead there to show false support for the idea of integration. The President felt he had to show that he wasn’t willingly supporting segregationists, so he used bodyguards to prove this. These bodyguards are an extremely important symbol in this memoir as they represent the impact that the segregationists had. Segregation and racial harassment were so bad at the time, that even the President felt he had to do something regarding …show more content…
A prominent theme throughout this entire memoir is justice. Justice can only be reached if everyone does their part. Melba and the rest of the Little Rock Nine fought to get justice for themselves and every other black person who came after them. This is significant to Melba as it is something that always reached for, and she continued to struggle at Central High so that she could eventually receive justice. The people at Central High did not fight for justice but instead fought against it. This deeply affected what Melba and the rest of the Little Rock Nine were striving for because it made it a lot harder for them to get everyone on their side and to stop the harassment that they faced every single day. Another important theme is sacrifice. Achieving justice requires many sacrifices. Sacrifices are shown throughout the whole memoir, like Melba risking her life every day for a better education and her mom sacrificing her job so that her daughter could attend Central High. Sacrifice is what eventually lets Melba receive the education that she always wanted at Central High. Although Melba and her family had to sacrifice so much, it was worth it in the end because she finally received the education she had always dreamed of. In addition to this, perseverance is an important theme as well. Life comes with challenges, but persevering helps you become stronger in the end. After being attacked countless times, Melba continued to persevere and she never gave up on what she wanted, a better education. Furthermore, racism is one of the most prominent themes throughout the memoir. Racism isn’t feeling superior, it is instead feeling threatened. Melba and the rest of the Little Rock Nine experienced racism in their daily lives. The segregationists felt threatened by the black students because they were integrating into a school that felt like “their own.” The white students at Central High feared
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.
Melba did not feel safe with the troops and was constantly harassed and attacked by students during school. She was spat on, beaten, called repulsive insults. Teachers and the school administration, did nothing except enabled this behavior to persist, leaving Melba on her own to defend herself. Melba desperately wants to return back to her life before the integration started. She is unable to leave the house because her family is afraid she may be attacked.
Based on prior knowledge of this time era, it is safe to say that many things Melba presents are true. All these events presented in this paper and the rest of the events in the novel themselves are historically significant. They are first-hand accounts of an atrocity taking place in our own nation. These were children who had to be stripped of their innocence upon signing up to attend Central High. And the town wanted to lynch them.
“The Little Rock Nine” by Sam Roberts explains to us the empowering story of the Little Rock Nine that helped to trigger the Civil Rights movement. The “Civil Rights Movement” article on History.com also explains the dedication of black people during the civil rights movement. “Little Rock Nine” by Sam Roberts includes the little rock nine being harassed and tormented after they were chosen to attend the all white high school. They were being pushed around and yelled at by angry whites that have since then been known as racists. “Civil Rights Movement” on history.com tells us about the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and how Rosa Parks confidently stood up to the white man on the bus.
Mrs.Bates tried to do everything she could to make the Little Rock Nine look good and persevere through Central. Mrs.LaNier says “Thanksgiving was one of those times. The national media want to check on how the integration process was going, so Mrs.Bates staged a thanksgiving dinner”(LaNier 109).Little Rock could not risk losing any more factories or people because of integration and the bombing. Mrs.LaNier says “On the other side Mrs.Bates and the NAACP were just as determined to spin the story the other way-that integration was going fine”(LaNier 108).
She knows that she deserves better than that. Melba fights to be seen as equal and will tell people when they are doing something wrong. Melba’s resourcefulness is key in the many experiences she went
This shows the theme of acceptance because the blacks and whites are showing acceptance by working together and risking their lives to push the rule for everyone to be together and accepted. This shows how the theme of the text, “The Watsons Go To Birmington,” is
In the beginning of the story Melba didnt have alot of hope that attending Central was a good idea, because of all the riots and threats against her family. When Melba told her grandmother that she wanted to go back to Horace Mann she tells melba that nothing will change if she does. When Melba attends the court hearing on the integration case she tells reporters that she has every right to go to Central High School. Melba grows more hopeful in the story because she felt as if nothing good was going to come from going to Central but then she feels like she has the right to be
“God loves you child; No matter what, He sees you as his precious idea”. Melba’s grandma showed her passive resistance. To smile and meet every outrageous abuse with a polite “thank you”. Eventually, Melba did so and the white segregationist children didn't attacked as much. Link also help Melba with protection from Andy, another white segregationist child.
Melba talks about her day in school when she found out that Brown vs. Board of Education was being discussed. She remembers hearing of the integration not knowing the suffering she would soon experience. She did not understand the teachers fear at that time. In the first chapter Melba was sexually assaulted by a father that did not want Melba or any other African American children to go to school with his white children. The white men and women were angry with the idea of integration.
The theme that injustice will not prevail. And though James’ mother was aware that injustice existed, she did not accept it and become resentful, she instead valued her children and all the shades of color they contained, and relived her life through them. She was an old wooden table that
Melba shares her story and what she did to overcome the intense obstacles that tried to prevent her from an equal education. Beals was interviewed about her memoir and is quoted saying "Until I am welcomed everywhere as an equal simply because I am human, I remain a warrior on a battlefield that I must not leave. I continue to be a warrior who does not cry but who instead takes action. If one person is denied equality, we are all denied equality. "
These quotes were chosen to help represent what we have displayed in our body map. As you can see the body map has two sides to it, one side that involves the crying face, the gun as an arm and the letters USMC going down the leg is how marines see themselves. The half crying face represents how they really feel on the inside, but are forced to hide it because “real men don’t cry”. Marines are thought as the manliest of men, not as people who feel pain or sadness. The gun represents what has been drilled into their head time and time again, their riffle was their life, and it should never leave their side.
Melba realized what a big burden she had took on. She was scared, she realized that it wasn’t as easy as she thought. Melba stated in the book “ Sensations of courage, fear, and challenge haunted me.” This gave Melba hope she knew she had to go back. Melba lost friends because of this it stated “Anxious to catch their attention I waved out the window with a loud “Hi”.”
One prime example of learning of out struggle was when the mother gave Jeannette 200 for one summer. She believes that she can make it work, if she works more. But eventually her father asks her for money and she gives in to the temptation “I pulled my head back. Giving him that money pissed me off. I was mad at myself but even madder at Dad.