Warriors Don't Cry

Setting

• Little Rock, Arkansas.
• Nine black students are trying to integrate an all white school

Setting, mood

• "'Two, four, six, eight, we ain't gonna integrate!'" (35)
• "'Pay attention where you're walking. Walk in groups, don't walk alone,'" (13)

Melba Pattillo

• Melba is a teenage girl who wants to integrate.
• She attends Central High hoping for a normal high school life.

Evidence

• "That's when he started talking about us wanting to go to school... He wasn't going to stand for that" (13)
• "...I was letting those people determine how I felt." (47)

Grandma India

• Grandma is always encouraging Melba to persevere.
• She tells Melba to never let anyone control her emotions.

Link

• Link always looked after Melba and helped her stay safe.
• Even though link was white he still cared about the safety of the blacks.

Mother

• Mother told Melba to stay strong no matter what happened.
• Mother encouraged her to always look to God for help and no one else.

Summary

• This book is about a teenage girl during the integration in1957.
• She learned to trust God and persevere in every situation.

Conflict

• When Melba tries to enter the classroom, a white boy holds the door closed.
• Melba politely thanks him and enters the classroom calmly.

Conflict

• As Melba tries to enter the school the angry mob screams hateful words.
• Instead of getting upset, she keeps walking and doesn't respond.

Moral

• The moral of the story is that no matter what happens you should always persevere.
• There will always be someone to turn to and you will get out of the situation.

Theme

• "I told myself I could handle whatever the segregationists had in store for me," (118)
• "... I wanted to turn and run away, but I thought about what Danny says: Warriors survive" (118)

Opinion

• We think this book was very good.
• It had a good lesson, and gave more personal details of what really happened.

Text-to-world

• Melba was constantly being beat up and abused.
• In the same way, when Jesus came to earth he was tortured and beat.

Text-to-Self

• People talked down to Melba for the way she looked.
• People these days still talk down to people if they don't look "just right."