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 always believed that she would either get pregnant or drop out of school, but since she has been exposed to Ms. Gruwell’s relentless trust in her students, insisting that they can do anything in life, she has begun to trust that she, too, can become someone important. When she hears all the Freedom Writers share their dreams for the future, she surprises herself by saying that she wants to be the first Latina Secretary of Education, instead of her original thought that she would become a teacher. She writes a poem about the gap between what society expects of her and what she feels she can achieve, and looks forward to sharing it with the rest of the class.
This student realizes that the Freedom Writers’ enthusiasm and ambition are contagious, and that they are capable of motivating her to expand her horizons, forcing her to step out of her comfort zone and aim for elevated goals. This demonstrates the power of peer pressure, which can have positive or negative consequences. In this case, the inclusive, idealistic, passion-driven Freedom Writers exert a positive influence.
Themes
