Theme Analysis-Freedom Writers’ Diary

Segregation has been a problem for quite some time, and it has trickled down from generation to generation, influencing younger and younger children every day. The problems the teenagers were facing in this book, The Freedom Writers Diary, were simply because of the segregation they were either taught or learned from the people around them. With the help of Ms.

Gruwell, these teenagers became more open-minded about their peers and realized they needed an education. You can’t go against your own people, your own blood. ” (pg. 64). Like most people, these students are drawn to where they feel the most comfortable.

Because they are always around their race and their race only, it is normal for them to cling only to people that look like them. During their lunch hours, it was very apparent of how segregated the students of Wilson High School were. Each race had its own section and no one dared to mix. The school was the site of an enormous melting pot, but the different ethnicities refused to blend together.The rich white kids, the Asians, the Hispanics, the Blacks, and the “druggies” all had their own separate sections.

It was obvious that the divisions that took place during their lunch, and in their lives, would carry into the classrooms. The segregation had taken a toll on the students of Wilson High School, turning them into violent teenagers. “The war has been declared, now it’s a fight for power, money, and territory; we were killing each other over race, pride, and respect. ” (pg. 10). “Knowledge comes in strange ways.

I never thought that a person who lived over 10,000 miles away could impact me, but tonight, that changed. ” (pg. 92). The students started learning from the books they were reading and began to get inspired. Ms. Gruwell had the gift that helped her to relate the books back to the students, which helped them understand what they were reading.

They were often amazed at how she could find people to enhance what they had just learned with things like Diversity Panels held at five-star hotels, luxuries that had never been open to them. By meeting different eople, it made the books they were reading more meaningful. It gave them a better mindset and helped them realize that anything was possible. At the end of the day, most of them have one thing going through their heads—”if they can do it, I can too! ” “The more I participated in class, the more I realized that I was no longer interested in the lesson plan because of the possible reward, but because I genuinely found the lesson captivating. ” (pg. 59).

“So I guess I was offered an opportunity that not many people have. I got a second chance to change my life for the better.I thank God that he sent an angel to give me that chance to change. ” (pg. 62). Throughout the years of their high school career, the students started bettering themselves through their education.

The most important lesson most of them have learned is the people do change because they did. The students began to give people in their lives second chances because they were given another chance. They began to realize that being cold-hearted was not the way to go. Seeing the students come to the realization that violence was not the answer was amazing.The fact that they understood not every teenager or student at WHS will get the message was a huge step.

As they improved themselves, they understand that fighting each other was pointless. The once cliqued up students of Ms. Gruwell’s English class became unified as one big family. The love she had for her students made them start to care and love themselves. “I keep thinking that I’ll get laughed at the minute I step off the bus.

Instead, I’m greeted by a couple of my friends who were in my English class last year. I walk in the room and feel as though all the problems in my life are not important anymore.I am home. ” (pg. 53-54). Looking back on how the students were their freshman year, hating each other, everything had changed.

All of the students hated each other because of the race war, and it was stupid. The only thing that saved the students from themselves was Ms. Gruwell’s English class—the class they all started out hating. Although their peers were still fighting over nothing, they actually got the opportunity to change. Their race separated them, but the process of getting an education brought them back together.