There are many people who have shown extremely strong values of persistence and hope, and learning about where these values come from can help us bring them out in ourselves. In the novel Warriors Don’t Cry, by Melba Pattillo Beals, Melba faces many hardships while attending Central High School. However, her motivation to continue attending despite the hardships come from many different sources. Melba is motivated by strong spiritual values and the belief that God is on her side. She is also motivated by her family and friends, including Grandma India, Mother Lois as well as Melba’s boyfriend Vince. Finally, she is driven because she knows that her actions are helping African-American society as a whole and that she is making a sacrifice for the greater good. It is important to understand Melba’s motivations because if she did not persist so well, integration may not have been possible. One of the ways Melba found a motivation to continue attending was through her religion and spirituality. One time she showed this motivation was when she was attacked by members of the Central High Mothers’ League. Melba prayed to God and said her prayers to help her through the trauma. Melba also asked God for help after a long, hard week at Central. “I don’t think I could have lasted another minute. I hope someone performs a miracle over the weekend. Do you hear me, God?” FIND QUOTE, she said. This helped her because when things were hard and she was provoked by white students
“Gods warriors don't cry.” Melba Pattillo Beals, a former member of the little rock nine, had to become a warrior because she entering a new world. When Melba first had the opportunity to become one of the students that got to attend the all the all white school, Central high, she jumped at the opportunity. However when school started she was in for a different experience that she had signed up for. She quickly had to drop her hopes of going to Central and having a good learning experiance, in exchange for staying alive and making integration happen. Melba was a powerful and purposeful warrior because her role in integration was getting an equal learning opportunity for black students and she defiantly helped make that happen by staying at
1) Melba Patillo- “Nobody presents you with a handbook when your teething and says ‘Here’s how you must behave as a second class citizen.’ Instead, the humiliating expectations and traditions of segregation creep over you slowly stealing a teaspoonful of your self esteem each day.” (Page 3)
In the research novel, “Keepin’ It Real” written by Prudence Carter, a large group of African American and Latino students are asked questions and are shadowed to better understand the culture and the struggles they face every day. The students are asked questions about their family and their opinions on life. Carter shadows them from time to time to experience what they do to get a better understanding of their life and struggles. Based on the research of Carter, African American and Latino youth struggle to achieve the “American dream”.
In the book, Melba states that “the segregationists had stolen yet another piece of my life.” Explain what things Melba was robbed of throughout her experience. Though she lost a great deal, she still saw her experience as “a positive force that has shaped the course of my life.” What did Melba gain as a result of her experience? Do you feel that Melba was right to attend Central High? What difficult or painful experiences have you gone through that have helped shape your identity? Use examples from the book to support your answer.
Life Changing Experiences Life changing experiences are very necessary when it comes to turning points. The memoir Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, the autobiography Guts by Gary Paulsen, and the excerpt Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. Gary Paulsen, Karana, and Melba Pattillo Beals all had important turning points in their lives that had motivated them positively. Gary Paulsen faced a life changing experience that had motivated him to write books. In the quote, “...Above all things real, and I wanted the book to be real” (Paulsen).
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.
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.
For the black residents of rural Mississippi, systemic racism was all too common in the 1940s and 1950s. Blacks were persecuted in all areas of life, including attacks to their economic and social security. Furthermore; direct attacks on southern African Americans fueled fear that would lead to the total division between blacks and whites in every aspect of life. The fear of deadly attacks and lynchings was used to directly intimidate southern blacks, who increasingly became domicile and subservient with the lack of opportunity and hope. It is in this climate that Anne Moody learned to break the status-quo that existed in poor rural Mississippi through sure willpower and hard work. The memoir demonstrates that Anne is consistently driven by
Despite the importance of the movement vocabulary, Ailey expresses that “Cry is about the dance and the dancer”. Therefore, the expression and emotion that Deborah Manning projects are equally important to facilitate the audience’s reception of the full significance of the work; The difficult time of emotional and and physical struggles for the African Americans.
The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers best conveys the character traits of courage, ambitiousness, and supporting family even when times appear to be distressful. This book takes you through African American history with the excitement and thrill of fiction. It allows you to witness the glory of African American evolution, from a period of slavery to modern day. The reader witnesses courage as African Americans try and fight for freedom and equality in an unforgiving society. African Americans try and defy the society’s perspective of them in an attempt to reach an optimal level of success. They work to divert from their typical expectations, and strive for success even when the possibilities are minimal. They strive to build a better living besides being maids and factory workers, and they attempt to remove every obstacle in their way of success. They desire to go above what is expected of them, so they can achieve at a prodigious level in a segregated society. Even as technology advances, the reader witnesses the character’s sense of community. They always believe that family is crucial to success even in times of distress. If they abandon their community, then they abandon the only people that support them. In this time period, their community was composed of the only people that cared about them. The African American society emulates these traits throughout this book, as the author inserts you into their fight for equity and freedom. The Glory Field takes
This powerful memoir is a testament to the potential love and determination that can be exhibited despite being on the cusp of a nation's racial conflicts and confusions, one that lifts a young person above
On the first day that Melba Patillo Beals went to school, she thought it was a nightmare. There was a huge mob outside Central High School, along with the Arkansas National Guard soldiers keeping them out. The image of Elizabeth Eckford really shows how it was. White people were surrounding them, cursing at them, of course saying the word “nigger”, and occasionally striking them (1994). It was so bad that Melba had to take the keys to their car from her mother and run away to escape. Imagine the sight of Melbas mother screaming at her “Melba, take the keys. Get to the car.
Little rock, Arkansas 1957 in Warriors don’t cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, her and eight other African American, high school students integrates Central High School. Only eight of the nine that begin at Central High lasted for the full year. Melba and her eight friends face new wars every day. These are some of the traits she uses to survive her year and overcome her enemies at Central High School. Melba relies on her courage, faith, and not only her physical strength, but her mental strength as well.
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.
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