Key Facts
full title ·
Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little
Rock's Central High
author · Melba Patillo Beals
type of work · Memoir
genre · Nonfiction, memoir, biography
language · English
time and place written · 1990s, The United States
date of first publication · 1994
publisher · Pocket Books
narrator · Melba Patillo Beals
point of view · The book is the story of Melba's teenage life, and the adult writer,
Melba, is both the narrator and the protagonist. Melba tells the story from the
first person point of view.
tone · Restrained anger
tense · Past
setting (time) · Early 1950s
setting (place) · Little Rock, Arkansas
protagonist · Melba Patillo
major conflicts · The attempt made by Melba and eight other African-American students to
integrate into Little Rock High School
rising action · The Supreme Court rules in Brown v. the Board of Education that
separate schools are not equal; Melba volunteers to go to the all-white Central
High School; Melba and eight other African-American students enter Central
High.
climax · Ernie becomes the first black student to graduate from Central High
School.
falling action · Unable to return for a second year at Central High School, Melba moves
to California and lives with a white family; she becomes a journalist and
reports on injustices around the world.
themes · The shifting of power through resistance, the prominence of race
relations
motifs · Self-reliance, the loss of innocence
symbols · Central High School, Melba's Easter dress, journalism
foreshadowing · After Melba's grandmother rescues her from the all-white bathroom and
sneaks her past the police, they drive away from Central High School. Melba
wonders what it is like to go to school there. This foreshadows her eventual
enrollment at Central and the subsequent struggles that she will
endure.
