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 expresses her indignation at a violent mass murder that happened in Oklahoma, in which a man, Timothy McVeigh, bombed a building to protest against the government. Ms. Gruwell makes her class write a report about this event and this student realizes that people are prone to violence, but that violence and fights only make matters worse. S/he concludes that everyone can be a potential Timothy McVeigh, but that instead of giving in to violence we should recognize that we are all human.
This student learns to separate emotions and opinions from actions, arguing that everyone is prone to violence, since everyone can feel anger and want to protest, but that one should examine the best way in which to express that anger carefully, so as to cause as little harm as possible. She believes that violence would stop if people recognized their essential similarity as human beings, worthy of respect and life.
Themes
