In her memoir Warriors don’t cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her experiences as she became one of the first nine black students educated in an integrated white school called central high school. The author describes how she survives a harrowing year helping to integrate central high school in Little Rock Arkansas in 1957. The three main ideas that I’m going to talk about are integration, racism, and courage. Integration is very important. Integration was hard for black people in the 1900s. Integration was a nightmare in the 1900s. Integration made people hate each other and it made people feel bad about each other. When Melba was born the doctor injured her scalp and she fell ill with a massive infection. When Melba’s mother sought help, …show more content…
Racism was hard for Melba, her family, and every person who was one of the little rock nine. Racism brought hate between black and white people. Racism is a bad thing. Melba’s mother shouted the words “epsom salts and water”, as she raced down the hall, desperately searching for a nurse. The woman was in digant, saying yes, come to think of it, the doctor had said something about epsom salts. “ But we don’t coddle niggers.” She growled.(page3). Why people write “colored” on all the ugly drinking fountains, the dingy restrooms, and the back of the buses.(page3). Melba wanted to ride the merry-go-round but the white man said “there’s no space for you here.”(page4). Courage by definition is the ability to do something that scares you. Courage is very bad. Courage is something some black people didn’t have back in the 1900s. Black people were scared to stand up for themselves. Melba had courage. Melba stood up for herself. Melba wanted to integrate Central High School.(page1). (page1-10). page(1-10). In conclusion, Melba wrote this book about her memories of being one of the Little Rock nine to show people how rough it was. Melba wanted to show people how hard it was to live through that time. Melba had courage. Melba was good person. The three main topics that i talked about was integration, racism, and courage. It was hard for Melba. This is the reason Melba wrote this
In the book Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, the author describes what her reactions and feelings are to the racial hatred and discrimination she and eight other African-American teenagers received in Little Rock, Arkansas during the desegregation period in 1957. She tells the story of the nine students from the time she turned sixteen years old and began keeping a diary until her final days at Central High School in Little Rock. The story begins by Melba talking about the anger, hatred, and sadness that is brought up upon her first return to Central High for a reunion with her eight other classmates. As she walks through the halls and rooms of the old school, she recalls the
In her memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her experiences as she became one of the first nine black students educated in an integrated white school. She and her friends, who became known as the “Little Rock Nine”, elicited both support and criticism from their family members, friends, community members, military troops, in addition to the President of the United States. Melba’s experiences, while heartbreaking and sobering, highlight the strength to overcome that individuals can have over a system intent on keeping them down.
Courage is defined as "the quality of mind or spirit enabling one to meet danger or opposition with fearlessness." According to Atticus Finch, one of the main characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, "Courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." (pg.121). Harper Lee clearly portrays the theme of courage in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. One likes to think of a hero, as strong, brave, and meeting all challenges head on. All the characters in this book have a different view as to what courage
Melba Pattillo Beals, the main character in the memoir “Warriors Don’t Cry”, never gave up and persevered when fighting for racial equality. When Melba was walking into school one day she thought to herself, “‘I squared my shoulders and tried to remember what grandma had said: God loves you child; no matter what he sees you as his precious idea’” (Beals 76). Melba along with her eight schoolmates made history when they decided to integrate Central High School. They wanted to show their friends that you always hold your head high, be determined, and never give up. While enduring, Melba taught her family and friends to also persevere. Fortifying her family in faith helped her to make it through the year. While standing her ground after many challenges Melba thought to herself, “‘I knew for certain something would have to change it I were going to stay in that school. Either the students would have to change the
A sixteen year old girl becomes a warrior when in 1954 the Supreme Court ruled Brown v. Board of Education; there Melba and eight other teenagers are chosen to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School. A warrior is a person who is brave or experienced solider or fighter. Young Melba had to become a warrior when walking into the battlefield of Central High School. Melba had the weapons of God, friends, and family; people who stood up for her and helped her through her hardships. “A girl smiled at me, another gave me directions, still another boy whispered the page I should turn to in our textbook. This is going to work out. It takes more time than I thought. But we’re going to have integration in Little Rock (Beals 117).”While being taunted by her schoolmates and their parents, threatened by mobs, attacked by lit sticks of dynamite, and wounded by acid sprayed in her eyes, however, she never backed down and became an unexpected hero to many. Thesis statement……………
Have you ever faced a crucial turning point that impacted yourself and others? Melba Pattillo Beals from the memoir “Warriors Don’t Cry”, Jackie Robinson from the autobiography “I Never Had It Made”, and Feng Ru from the article “ The Father of Chinese Aviation” by Rebecca Maskel all faced life-changing events. During those turning points, they overcame difficult challenges. Melba Pattillo Beals, Jackie Robinson, and Feng Ru overcame challenges, faced turning points and had an impact on themselves and their countries.
What is courage? I define courage by being tough in a tough situation. Mississippi Trial a book where an African-American boy is murdered because of his race. In this book, there are many people who I think have courage, but no more than Naomi Rydell. Naomi is a beautiful young woman who lives a horrible life from being abused by her father, she acts as two people, and even though it all she stays truthful to her father.
Throughout history, Colored folks and White people do not seem to get along based on appearance.Men and women of color weren't treated fairly, no matter where they're at without being looked down upon. Most Americans have divided themselves into non-mixed neighborhoods. The “Jim Crow” laws on the state level stopped them from entering classrooms, bathrooms, theaters, trains, juries, and legislatures.Also, In the case of “Plessy v. Ferguson” in 1896, the U.S. Supreme court said that racially separate facilities are equal, it does not violate the Constitution. Segregation, the court said, was not a discrimination. Segregation supported the legal system and the police, but beyond the law, violence was going on around the citizens. The Ku Klux Klan, Knights of White Camellia, and other terrorists murdered thousands of African-Americans, to prevent them from voting and participating in public life. In Arkansas, Central High School was one of the firsts to integrate. Nine teenagers got together to go to Central High, they did not go in to protest but to get a better education. The Little Rock Nine didn't see it as a way to bring in violence, but it all started in Arkansas, in 1957, a conflict against two different points of views. However, In Warriors Don't Cry Melba Pattillo Beals presents the idea that emotional strength, Determination, and confidence are necessary to gain freedom and equality for all.
Author: Melba Pattillo Beals Book title: Warriors Don’t Cry. Publisher: Pocket Books City of publication New York Year of publication: 1994. Description: This book is a memoir by one of the Little Rock Nine. It recollects the first year of the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, AK.
Melba Pattillo Beals is a very determined young lady. She presents many strong personal characteristics in her time of integrating Central High School. However, she faces many adversities through this battle for her freedom and equality. During her rough time Beals questions her faith and family. She later learns that her strength and security is in God. In the book Warriors Don’t Cry Melba Pattillo Beals presents the idea that courage, faith, and fear are vital in her search for freedom and equality.
A woman called Melba a nigger. The teacher soon starts with class. The same woman called Melba a nigger again. Soon Melba meets Mrs. Pickwick. Somebody asks what they are going to do about the nigger children. Soon they start speeding to get away from the people calling them niggers. Melba continues listening to the newscast that is currently happening. Soon the phone started ringing off the hook with angry calls from people. The chapter ends with an angry, mad mob in front of Central High.
In Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Patillo Beals uses direct and indirect characterization to generate Melba’s character. Melba’s characterization proposes her ideas about her search for freedom and equality. In the memoir, Beals portrays the idea that both personal strength, faith, and independence are necessary character traits in her fight for freedom and equality.
“A boy’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. A strong hand grabbed my wrist and doubled my arm up behind my back” (Melba Pattillo Beals, Warriors Don’t Cry, Page 141). The novel, Warriors Don’t Cry, written by Melba Pattillo Beals, is a heartfelt memoir written to express her true story about the struggles she faced attempting to integrate to a school called Little Rock’s Central High. Born on December 7, 1941, young Melba would have no idea the life ahead of her. Her first tragedy starts young when she was seven and her parents got divorced. This began to shape Melba as her grandmother and mother raised her and gave her the strong independent roots she would carry on throughout her life. Melba Pattillo Beals wrote this novel for inspiring women all over the world that they are strong and capable enough to stand up for themselves and what they believe in. She wants people to know that no matter how bad your situation seems you can still be a warrior. Throughout out the novel Melba is bullied, assaulted, and harassed because she chose to integrate to a former all white school. She faces many challenges, epically because she is a lower-class citizen. Because of her gender the public likely targeted her as weak or incompetent. However, she is able to push it all away and focus on what she believes in and live up to becoming the strong independent woman she is. In the novel, Warriors Don’t Cry, written by Melba Pattillo Beals, the author uses multiple quotes throughout the novel
Melba Beals was certainly full of grit. When she insisted to go back to school after segregationists were trying to keep her out the school, but she still insisted on going back to school to finish all her classes and take her final exams. Even after all those people told her to get out; and she finished high school with pride. When Melba showed her grit later on people started encouraging her more saying she’s doing a great thing for this town (Beals 224). I thought this anecdote was important because it shows an example of how grit is used in the right context. The journey archetype means a recurrent image, symbol, or even a situation that instinctual expressions man 's nature and experiences that are universal in humanity. While self-identity means the recognition of one 's potential and qualities of as an individual. People 's traits impact who they are as a person because if they have poorly traits they’ll show that in the way they act same thing for the good traits. Melba Beals’ “Warriors Don’t Cry,” “Homer’s “The Odyssey,” and my own life reveal that our characters traits have an impact on our life journeys and self identities.
Uniquely, Melba Pattillo Beals was an African American that helped integrate schools in Arkansas and gave African Americans a chance at a better education. Melba Pattillo Beals