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Part VIII: Diary 138
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 is proud and excited to be the first person in her/his family to graduate. While s/he can count with the love of her/his parents, the rest of her/his family is not supportive of her/his academic achievements and seem to actually want her/him to fail. Thanks to her/his parents and the Freedom Writers, though, s/he has always felt that s/he had a family who believe that s/he could make it. When the student realizes that s/he has been chosen to be Graduation Class Speaker, s/he feels that her/his dream is coming true, and that success depends on learning from any kind of event or circumstance—positive or negative—and moving on.
This student has learned to recognize and cherish the people who truly support her/him in life, recognizing that their presence has played an important role in giving her/him self-confidence and leading her/him to success. While the lack of support from her/his extended family was an obstacle, it did not define who s/he is. Instead, this student trusts that success comes from within, since it is only by relying on one’s inner strength that one can ever overcome the unpredictability of life.
Themes
