...Warriors Don’t Cry Warriors Don’t Cry is a true first-hand account of what Melba Pattillo Beals experienced in her junior year at Little Rock Central High School. Her story takes place in 1957, being one of the Little Rock nine to be integrated into the public school system. Initially there were seventeen students that were going to integrate but due to violence and threats the number was decreased to nine. Throughout the book, Melba tells us what life is like being one of the nine. She had to bear telephone threats, physical abuse, and huge violent mobs, among many other things. Her high school experience was unlike anything anyone could imagine. Melba Beals overcame many obstacles both mental and physical, but is truly a warrior and a hero. At a time of weakness, Melba is reminded by her Grandmother that she is one of God’s warriors. She was upset that she wasn’t going to be able to go to the Community Center that her crush was going to be at. Her Grandmother India knew the risk of her going to the Community Center and only wanted what was best for her safety. She ran to her room and began to weep because what she was going through wasn’t fair to her. She was missing out on all the things a young high school girl loves doing. Her Grandmother told her, “God’s warriors don’t cry, ‘cause they trust that he’s always by their side” (Beals, 57). Melba being told as a young girl that she wasn’t allowed to cry because it displayed her weakness demonstrations the amount of thick...
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...Warriors Don’t Cry: Notes, Summaries, and Other Information Key Facts full title · Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High author · Melba Patillo Beals type of work · Memoir genre · Nonfiction, memoir, biography language · English time and place written · 1990s, The United States date of first publication · 1994 publisher · Pocket Books narrator · Melba Patillo Beals point of view · The book is the story of Melba’s teenage life, and the adult writer, Melba, is both the narrator and the protagonist. Melba tells the story from the first person point of view. tone · Restrained anger tense · Past setting (time) · Early 1950s setting (place) · Little Rock, Arkansas protagonist · Melba Patillo major conflicts · The attempt made by Melba and eight other African-American students to integrate into Little Rock High School rising action · The Supreme Court rules in Brown v. the Board of Education that separate schools are not equal; Melba volunteers to go to the all-white Central High School; Melba and eight other African-American students enter Central High. climax · Ernie becomes the first black student to graduate from Central High School. falling action · Unable to return for a second year at Central High School, Melba moves to California and lives with a white family; she becomes a journalist and reports on injustices around the world. themes · The shifting of power through...
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...“Tradition does not mean to look after the ash, but to keep the flame alive.” This profound thought by Jean Jaures defines the ingredient that in life many traditions may have the existence of being poked on, laughed at, and disrespected or discriminated, describing the ash of tradition. On the contrary, when you keep the flame alive, you open up a new portal to incoming heights where personality is developed and actions can be effected. In the devastating memoir Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, Melba (the main character) is chosen as one of the nine colored teenagers to integrate Little Rock, Arkansas Central High School. She is taunted, threatened, attacked, and injured but through it all, she was a warrior, stayed strong, and stood by her side. However, traditions such as making new easter clothing, giving during Thanksgiving, and the fact that her kind isn’t born expecting segregation impact her personality and decisions. First, every year, Melba’s family has the tradition of choosing fabric from Grandma India’s trunk to make their unique Easter clothing, as her trunk is filled with treasures. The experience of constructing a dress for Easter, this year even a grown up dress that symbolizes Melba’s difficult passage from a high-school girl to an adult warrior for justice and is a reward for her work, helps her to...
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...Diversity is what keeps society curious, without it, we’d be an empty glass of water slowly sinking in the deepest seas of the Mediterranean. In Melba Pattillo Beal’s memoir, Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba provides a picture of the rough times of the mid 1950s in the of racial prejudice. The life-long battle altered Melba’s mindset to being determined to help all African-Americans in every way she. Segregation used their strong discernment to bring down African-Americans. Melba’s initial objective was to accumulate a better education, which transformed into fighting for equal rights as she responded with resilience toward segregationists. Melba had entered Central High to gain the best education possible. She’d dreamed of attending Central...
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...Have you ever went through a turning point? These three individuals went through a lot. Warriors Don’t Cry By Melba Pattillo Beals, I Never Had it Made by Jackie Robinson, and “The Father of Chinese Aviation” By Rebecca Maskell. Melba Pattillo Beals, Jackie Robinson, and Feng Ru changed their countries by going through different hard challenges while risking their lives doing it. Melba was the first to integrate an all white school, Jackie was the first to integrate Major League Baseball, and Feng was the first Chinese man to fly and build his own air plane. Melba Pattillo Beals was an African American that wanted to improve other African American’s education. Doing so she was one of the first Little Rock Nine to ever integrate an all white school. Melba went through threats to her life by a mob and protesters. In paragraph thirteen it states, “ Some of the white people looked totally horrified, while others raised their fists to us. Others shouted ugly words.” But Beals was glad because...
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...“Being the bigger person doesn’t always mean fighting back” (Unknown). The Little Rock Nine had to be the bigger people in comparison to their oppressors. This took personal growth. In Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, young Melba grows stronger as a person and as a Christian as she integrates Central High School. Melba does not have a choice. Beginning as soon as she decided to integrate, Melba had to strengthen and grow as a person. For instance, Melba thinks, “I wanted to turn and run away, but I thought about what Danny had said: ‘Warriors survive’” (163). If Melba had not strengthened, she would have ended the fight by giving up or dying. Danny, Melba’s ‘bodyguard’ once told her that “it takes a warrior to fight a battle and...
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...This memoir is based off of the book Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Patillo Beals. Melba was one of the first black students to go to an all-white school in 1957. She had to deal with people pushing her and threatening her everyday. She got through it by using inner strength she got from her faith in God, her mother and grandmother, and from people she met in school and outside of school. The students of the school had tried to get her to leave multiple times, but she persevered and overcame her struggle. I also have a lot of challenges in my life. One of my most faced challenges is keeping up in school. I need to keep my grades up to be successful in life. The way I keep strength is by thinking of consequences if I were to give up,...
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...Samuel Johnson once said “great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” In the two writing pieces, one titled “Louis Braille” by Noah Remnick, and the other one titled “It couldn’t be Done” by Edgar Guest, the mood and tones of these text both show “perseverance” In several ways. Remnick provides information to show perseverance by telling about Louis Braille’s life and how he was blind, but was still confident and created a type of writing for the blind. Guest also showed perseverance in his text by having the main character be challenged to sing. No one thought he could do it, but he also was confident and accelerated his challenge like no other. Showing perseverance is not impossible. Work hard, do your best, and you...
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...In the memoir "Warriors Don’t Cry", Melba Pattillo and her other black friends (LR9) are trying to successfully integrate a full school year at Little Rock High . At this time, this school was segregated, but black people are trying to integrate into this school. White people hated blacks in Little Rock, so when they heard that black students were going to try to integrate into Little Rock High they went ballistic. Riots of whites were everywhere, police had to come to hold them all back. The first day for the LR9 to integrate came, they all were nervous. Melba and the LR( were determined to get through this, not only for themselves but for all the other blacks to come through Little Rock also. They went in and it was horrible, whites tried everything they could to get to them, physical, mental, and sychological. It was like this for almost all the way through the year. Sometimes Melba came home crying, bruises, and...
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...For a couple of weeks, we have been reading and working on a book called "Warriors Don’t Cry". It’s about a young black woman who goes through some hard times during her times in high school. Her name is Melba Pattillo, and she was one of the Little Rock Nine. She had some tough times during her time at Little Rock Central High. When she was going to school, she had to face mean white kids, mean white parents, segregation, bullies, and sometimes she had trouble keeping hope for herself. Everyday, she had to face people calling her mean names, people spitting in her face, hitting her, and even trying to kill her. She had to be tough, and stay strong during this time or else she'd either get hurt or probably die. One of the only reasons she probably survived the school year, is because of her Grandma India. Grandma India...
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...“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it” - Charles R Swindoll. This quote explains how going to Central, and dealing with her harassment is only 10% of Melba’s life, and the other 90% is how she acts and reacts towards her harassment. In the book Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, Melba is the bravest character because she puts up with all her bullies and the segregationist at school, she is brave enough to go to Central High School every day even though she knows she is going to get bullied, and she puts up with the disproving statements of her neighbors. Even though Melba knows that she is going to get bullied every single day of school, she still chooses to go to Central High School. Melba goes to Central knowing she is going to get kicked, tripped, pushed down stairs, called mean names and sprayed ink on her clothes. The main goal is to try to get Melba to leave Central High and never think of coming back. What her bullies do is make up different days where they bully and harass the students a different way each day. One day came to be known as stare days. “Large, boisterous groups of hecklers stared intensely and harassed the living daylights out of us” (Beals 234). Melba stated that the only thing worse than getting physically harassed is getting ignored or looked at. Melba is brave enough to...
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...In Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals, an African American teenage resident of Little Rock, Arkansas, is fighting for the integration of Central High School. After being selected for her excellent academic achievements at her previous school, in 1957, she is enrolled into the all-white Central High School. This school year is torturous for Melba. She is constantly attacked with obscene words and language, while physical attacks are also quite common for her. Despite these horrible circumstances, Melba is able to use her traits and abilities to survive. Melba uses her physical strength to combat her enemies, her acute cleverness to outsmart and confuse her attackers, and relies on her faith in God to keep her mentally strong. Melba uses physical strength to retaliate against her enemies and survive their attacks. In Chapter 10, Melba enters a dimly lit bathroom and a group of girls gathers around her stall. They then proceed to drop flaming wads onto her. In retaliation, Melba throws her school books up at the girls. This show of force scares her attackers and allows her to break out of the stall to...
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...Helen Keller once said, “All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.” This quote shows that people everyday have their own adversiteries that they are required to overcome or they will be stationary in life. Melba Pattillo Beals was presented her task at a young age. She was on of the Little Rock nine, who integrated an all white school. She had to grow as individual, but more so as a black individual. Melba wanted equality and that is what she achieved. It was not easy but throughout her life her she develops characteristics that aimed for freedom and equality. In particular, Melba Pattillo Beals displays the concept that with strength and courage, anything can be accomplished. In Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba possess...
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...Overcoming obstacles and barriers is a difficult thing to do. In ‘The Osage Firebird” and “A Life Painting Animals” it talks about two women who overcome tough barriers to gain and achieve success. They both tell how they never got discouraged nom matter how many times they we told “No” or “You will never make it”. Although, I believe the story “The Osage Firebird” tells more information about overcoming barriers and difficulties. “The Osage Firebird” is a story of a girl named Betty Marie Tallcheif who overcame many obstacles to become a great ballerina. It shows the purpose more in this passage because she goes through many things that most people with a fixed mindset would be put-down about, but she never got discouraged so she kept going....
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...In due time, Beals illustrates that independence is an important characteristic to have once you engage in difficult circumstances because it prepares you for the experiences of the world. In the book, Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba comes in contact with various hardships. This does not break Melba down. She knows that there is something that she must do in order to change the environment that she lives in. “Change the rules of the game, girl, and they might not like it so much” (). These words were spoken by Melba’s grandmother after Minnijean had been attacked at the integrated school. Melba’s grandmother advises that she should take all insults and harassment as compliments and kindness. This is just telling Melba to kill them with kindness instead...
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