The Role Of Hatred In Melba Pattillo's Warriors Don T Cry

Warriors Don’t Cry, is the story of Melba Pattillo Beals, a 15 year old girl who was among the first 9 black children to integrate Central Little Rock high school after the Brown Vs. Board of Education court case ruled that Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas would be integrated in 1954. Warriors Don’t Cry was written by Melba Pattillo Beals herself, describes her struggles and experiences of not just her year at Central High but also her entire life. Melba being only 15 was the youngest out of the Little Rock nine, had to spend the majority of her teenage years dealing with the abuse of her white classmates. Melba is the eldest child of her parents Lois and William Pattillo.

Melba Pattilo Beals is an African American woman, who was born on December 7, 1941. Warriors Don’t Cry is was memoir of Beals’ encounter in the Civil Right Era. With memorable encounters with the Little Rock 9, who were a group of 9 African American students who were enrolled to Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. Central High was an all-white school before the integration. Leading up to the integration, Beals’ childhood was extremely painful encounters, which no child should experience in their childhood.

Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattilo Beals is a memoir about Beals experiences and her journey while integrating Little Rocks Central High School. She wanted to share her story about what it was like to grow up in the middle of the civil rights movement and what it was like to be one of the nine students who were the first African Americans to integrate a public all white school. During and after reading the book a few thoughts went through my head. First, was my reaction at the horrific things that were done to Melba by integrationist in Central High. For example, while in the bathroom stall a group of girls locked her in and began dumping paper that was light on fire onto her.

This quote was said by the majority of Central High School white students. It shows one of the many instances when Melba has to endure the mental abuse of her peers. When the white students would say degrading things to her, she would just look the other way and keep to herself. She also was strong because she had to keep to herself most of the time because if she made a big deal out of it, it might happen more often.

She tugged away thinking of the consequences she would leave her loved ones to. Her mentality, however, was stronger than her physical strength. This case is also demonstrated in Warriors Don’t Cry, an autobiographical novel written by Melba Pattillo Beals, in the struggle of defying the norms of a predominantly white school, while facing both mental and physical harassment. Melba and the others resisted this harassment only to become stronger in the end through defying. As defiance

Facing the segregationists and the horrors of the South, Melba Pattillo was a strong warrior on the battlefield of racism for all people of color across the world. Beginning with the integration into Central High School, the brave 9 children hit waves upon waves of mobs and white people giving their all to get rid of them. Melba has gone through hell and back facing attacks of anything from sticks of dynamite to acid being thrown in her eyes. Her dignity and courage gave her the strength to refuse to back down and make a remarkable story.

Mike Kelly once said truth is a battle of perceptions. People only see what they’re prepared to confront. It’s not what you look at that matters, but what you see. And when different perception battle against one another, the truth has a way of getting lost. When Melba the narrator of Warriors Don’t Cry was at the age of 5 she was at the brinks of seeing the darks ways of segregation.

Throughout the story Melba deals with alot of the racism during the course of her life, but attending Central High has made her grow thicker skin. She shows weakness torwards the beginning of the story by crying in front of Grandma India because she is afraid of being a target of an attack, Grandma India says “Gods warriors dont cry” and explained how she is not just attending Central High, but how she was fighting a battle for the future of black people in the U.S. To go to Central she knew she had to be tougher than the average teenager. At the end of the story Melba quotes “Namaste” (the god in me sees and honors the god in you), this means I bow to you in the Indian culture. By her saying this it means that she has put aside everything that white people have done to her and forgave them.

As stated in the text,”We stepped up the front door of Central High School and crossed the threshold to that place where angry segregationist mobs had forbidden us to go. ”(Beals,37) The way Melba adapted to this Turning Point was that she accepted what was happening to her. Melba made a connection with my thesis because of her actions and everything that was happening to to her made a big impact on her

A prominent theme throughout this entire memoir is justice. Justice can only be reached if everyone does their part. Melba and the rest of the Little Rock Nine fought to get justice for themselves and every other black person who came after them. This is significant to Melba as it is something that always reached for, and she continued to struggle at Central High so that she could eventually receive justice. The people at Central High did not fight for justice but instead fought against it.

Ruby was picked to take a test in kindergarten to see if she could go to a white only school. The test was very hard because they didn’t want African Americans at their school. Her dad didn’t want her taking the test because he was afraid of problems occurring. Her mom wanted her to take the

A prominent thematic throughout the novel, Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Patillo Beals is self-reliance. In many instances throughout the novel, Melba must be brave and is sometimes not able to rely on anyone else but herself. There are many figures in the novel that help her overcome obstacles but in many cases, she is forced to fight the battle on her own. One could imply that the tone of the novel is fearful because she is terrified in multiple occasions and is forced to overcome these challenges. The theme of self-reliance for Melba starts when she joins Central High.

She afterwards borrows Links car to get away. This is something she thinks she cannot do because he is white and Melba is black and she believes he is a segregationist. At school “she knew to expect some kind of harassment” (148). This shows that at school, conflict happened every day with other students. After months of harassment, “only the warrior exists inside Melba now” (170).

No matter what obstacles you face in life you should always strive to reach your goal. Determination is something everyone should keep in mind of, and without determination one will not succeed. In Warriors Don’t Cry the main character Melba Patillo Beals tends to strive for her goal. With the NAACP the little rock nine includes Melba and eight other black high school students were sent to Central High School to integrate and Melba was determined to go through with integration. Melba reveals many of her characteristics also as many events she had to face every day by herself.

In the book Warriors Don 't Cry, Melba and her friends integrate into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Melba and her friends experiences troubles as she tries to survive integration. Beals reveals a lot of things that would gives hint to things that we see ahead. The book mainly focuses on the south, light has been shed on events in the north around the same time when the Little Rock Nine (Bars) integrated. This essay will make inferences that show how people in the southern schools will continue to be ruthless and slow acceptance for the nine and for the north schools how whites will except African-Americans more.