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Part VI: Diary 80
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 feels deeply moved by the sight of soldiers’ graves at the Arlington Cemetery in Washington. S/he is reminded that s/he, too, has seen countless friends die, like soldiers. S/he decides not to enter the cemetery because s/he feels overwhelmed by emotions. S/he recalls her/his dad dying of AIDS when s/he was twelve, yet never having a headstone to be remembered by. S/he feels sad that the media only focuses on the deaths of famous people, letting the life of her father and friends pass away unnoticed, despite their inspiring potential.
This student denounces the injustice that certain people’s lives are given visibility, while others remain unknown. S/he realizes that history only provides a partial pictures of each era, as certain stories (such as military operations) are given prominence, while violence or illness in everyday life, which can affect just as many people, remains an obscure, unsensational reality.
Themes
