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Part VIII: Diary 122
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
While Ms. Gruwell is in New York to meet with the book publisher, the Freedom Writers are taught by a substitute, and this student suddenly let out her/his anger at another student. S/he compares the situation to Animal Farm by George Orwell, in which, despite an overall atmosphere of equality, not everyone works or cares in the same way about their project. S/he describes her/his anger and noticing that not all Freedom Writers are putting equal effort into the publication of the book, and says that people who do not want to work should leave the group, otherwise it might be destroyed from the inside.
This student realizes that Ms. Gruwell plays an important part in creating a stable classroom atmosphere in which students cooperate with each other. In the absence of such a leader, the Freedom Writers risk becoming more disorganized and allowing tensions to explode. This student explains that the group’s unity is not necessarily based on equal work but, rather, that the group’s very unity allows for certain people to rely on others to get work done.
Themes
