Warriors+Don't+Cry_Literary+Analysis

Literary Analysis In Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals uses a variety of literary techniques in telling her story. Many of the discussion questions, activities, and journal suggestions explore those techniques in greater detail. Genre: Warriors Don’t Cry is a memoir. Unlike an autobiography, which is the com- plete story of a person’s life, a memoir focuses on a particular time in a person’s life— in this case, one school year. It contains not only a detailed account of the key events of that year but also the author’s thoughts and feelings about those events. To high- light the emotions evoked by that time in her life, Melba Beals has reprinted entries from the diary she kept that year. To underscore the accuracy of her account, she has punctuated her story with newspaper headlines that appeared during that year. Warriors Don’t Cry can also be viewed as an initiation story—a story of discovery, growth, and change. In an initiation story, a youngster goes through difficult trials to discover something new about himself or herself, people in general, or the world. But unlike most initiation stories, there is no closure to the one Melba Beals tells. At the end of the book, racism still exists. In fact, Little Rock is in many ways a more polar- ized community than it was before she and the other black students enrolled at Central High. Beals presents her story as one battle in a larger struggle against racism.

Theme: The theme of the book is highlighted during an exchange between Melba and her grandmother and reiterated in its title. After Melba bursts into tears over the frightening turn her life has taken, her grandmother tells her: “You’ll make this your last cry. You’re a warrior on the battlefield for your Lord. God’s warriors don’t cry, ’cause they trust that he’s always by their side. . . we act with courage, and with God’s help we ship trouble right on out.” Other themes include: • The impact of racism on individual and group identity

• Family

• Friendship

• Loyalty—how it is created and the ways loyalties can conflict • Obedience and conformity • Courage and commitment • Resilience and fortitude

Point of View: Warriors Don’t Cry is written in the first person, and is presented as a flashback—from 1987 to 1957. The story is told in a way that preserves the voice of young Melba Pattillo who struggled to be heard at a time when many people in Little Rock tried to silence and disparage her. The author underscores the importance of that young woman’s voice by including entries from her diary. She uses newspaper headlines in a similar way to validate the story she tells.

Style: The book is written with few literary embellishments to highlight the shock, pain, and uncertainty central to the story.