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Part III: Diary 35
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
This student expresses frustration at Ms. Gruwell for having to read books about people who do not look like him/her and with which s/he has nothing in common. Ms. Gruwell tells the student that s/he cannot judge a book s/he hasn’t even read. In the end, after reading Anne Frank’s diary, the student concludes that Ms. Gruwell was right. S/he was indeed capable of identifying with the protagonist, as s/he too has experienced the pain of discrimination and the feeling of being locked up in a cage.
This student realizes that superficial differences such as people’s skin color, nationality, or the historical period they live in have no bearing on one’s capacity to empathize with—and learn from—other people. This student thus comes to terms with the fact that human beings share many similar emotional experiences, which the act of sharing stories can bring to light.
Themes
