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Part VIII: Diary 121
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 compares the experience of getting published to the teamwork involved in playing basketball. He describes an important basketball game in which he and his teammates were so convinced of their superiority that they ended up losing the game. As the team captain, he felt that he had let his teammates down. Later, however, he realized that it wasn’t all his fault. Rather, the entire team entered the game with the wrong mentality and did not play well enough. This student understands that this time, too, the Freedom Writers have to work as a team and not depend on Ms. Gruwell for it to work out.
This student realizes that group unity is necessary for everyone to succeed, since no one is capable of leading others to success alone. The most effective means to reach success is through cooperation and equal involvement, so that everyone can feel inspired by everyone else’s actions. Publishing a book gives the Freedom Writers the opportunity to demonstrate that they truly have become a unified group, capable of making it on their own.
Themes
