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Part I: Diary 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Freedom Writers Diary, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race, Ethnicity, and Tolerance
Education and Healing
Family and Home
Violence, War, and Death
Summary
Analysis
On the second week of school, this student sees a fight break out, walks closer to the action, and is suddenly hit. S/he decides to hit back but is suddenly hit by a football helmet and loses consciousness. When s/he regains consciousness, everyone is running away from the school staff, which has come to stop the fight. Not wanting to be blamed for what has happened, s/he, too, runs away. S/he finds it unfair that, as a Mexican, s/he often gets blamed for things she hasn’t done. Because of what s/he considers a senseless race war, any Mexican is automatically considered guilty, responsible for the actions of the entire group. After today’s incident, s/he notes, the violence in Long Beach is bound to escalate.
The student’s comment about being Mexican suggests that the fight was between students of different racial groups, as this student trusts that her/his identity will make her/him a potential culprit. Her/his understanding of the consequences of this fight demonstrates once again that violence at school cannot be separated from gang-violence outside of school, as school dynamics reflect pre-existing rivalries. There appears to be no solution in sight, as fighting simply leads to more fighting.
Themes
