Summary Of Fire From The Rock By Sharon Draper

The book, “Fire from the Rock” by Sharon M. Draper is a historical fiction highlighting the life of an African American family during the year 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Sylvia Patterson, a fifteen-year-old, is invited to be in the first group of African-Americans to integrate into the all-white school. The story follows her life leading up to, and prior that invitation. She goes through many struggles through this rough period of her life. The theme of the horrors of racism is displayed throughout the book through the character Sylvia. First, in the beginning of the novel, Sylvia is rushing into the house with her little sister Donna Jean in tow. Donna Jean, who was a young girl, had been bitten by a dog while playing jump-rope with

In the story, Sylvia is going to an interview designed to choose which of the African American students are going to be the first invited to integrate the all-white high school. The five white men plus Mrs. Crandall have been interviewing students all day to decide who would be acceptable to join their school with their children. Part of the interview from one of the men was as follows, ‘“Do you think you are better than white children?’ he asked suddenly. Sylvia was stunned at the harshness of the question. ‘No, sir. But I think I’m as smart as anyone else.’ ‘Are you trying to be smart now?’ ‘No, sir. I just tried to answer your question.’ ‘Don’t try to get sassy with me, now’” (Draper 124-125). The adults were being incredibly rude to Sylvia while she was attempting to be as polite as possible. The man asking her the questions assumed that just because she had a darker skin tone, she would be a rude and sassy girl. His harsh words demonstrated his racism towards African Americans, as he wouldn’t have been so unkind to someone with lighter

Sylvia at this point has received an invitation to be among the first to integrate, but she declines at the last minute. She and her family are watching the news the day before the first day of school, worried out of their minds. The story says, “Sylvia and her family watched in silence as the governor came on television and announced that he had called out the National Guard ‘to prohibit the nine black students from entering Central High School.’ He said that he had received warnings about ‘caravans of white supremacists,’ which were headed toward Little Rock” (Draper 204). Not only were the adults and children of Little Rock upset with the integration, the governor of Arkansas gets involved and later goes to the point of directly threatening the “Little Rock Nine”. The governor is so racist, that he would murder innocent teenagers just to make sure they don’t enter a white school. Furthermore, Brown vs. the Board of Education Supreme Court case that decided that all schools need to allow children of any color into schools, was resolved in 1954. The setting of the story is 1957, so three years later, people of authority are still resistant to the law and will not allow it. Thus showing the utter horror of racism from