Freedom Writers Diary

Books: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Statement: I thought it was interesting that the diaries had no names. I know this was to protect themselves from both others in the class, and afterwards upon publishing. However, it gave two interesting factors to the book. I thought on the positive side, it made it hard to tell whether some were female, male, or what race they were, unless they spoke about it or implied with words from their language. This was good because one main message is that race doesn't matter, so by taking away names, it makes it harder to identify what race they are, and having matter a lot less. We only have their message to pay attention to. On the other hand, I think race is a critical part of their lives, and although it matters less in the end, after this class has formed this family, it matters a lot at the beginning. I also think that the lack of names makes it harder to relate to each other characters, and hard to know whether they have double entries and which ones they are. I wish I could connect a little better with each of the individual characters.

Question: Erin Gruwell's marriage did not work out during the process of her time with the Freedom Writers...is it possible to put as much time and effort into her kids and make a relationship outside of that work at all? Is that an impossible thing, to be that passionate and work that hard for something and build something else outside of it?