Warriors Don't Cry Literary Elements

Memoir

1957, Little Rock, Arkansas

Warrior's Don't Cry is a memoir written by Melba Patillo Beals. Fifteen-year-old Melba is the narrator and relates her story in the first-person perspective.

The memoir takes an anxious tone as Melba recalls the fear and trepidation she experienced while a member of the Little Rock Nine. At points, Melba relates lighthearted and hopeful anecdotes throughout the text, which is also punctuated with introspective and philosophical analysis.

The protagonist is Melba Pattillo, and the antagonists are the segregationists in Little Rock

The central conflict is the NAACP's attempt to integrate Little Rock Central High School despite the white community's violent response and Governor Orval Faubus's unlawful use of soldiers to block integration.

The story's climax comes when the Little Rock Nine finish the school year and Ernie Green graduates.

Beals recounts the story of her birth when she almost died after the doctor delivering her injured her with forceps, and the white nurses refused to treat the infection Beals sustained from this wound. She only survives after her mother takes matters into her own hands and demands help. This traumatic event foreshadows how Beals suffered and nearly died at the hands of segregationists but took her education into her own hands and ultimately triumphed.

When Melba expresses that she is impressed with Central High's campus, Grandma India tells her, "one day, God willing, you'll see inside that school." This comment foreshadows Melba's integration into Central High.

Melba remarks that Daisy Bates, the state president of the NAACP Arkansas chapter, was "calm and brave considering the caravans of segregationists" who attacked her house at night with "firebombs and rocks." Melba uses understatement, mentioning horrific violence in a casual manner to emphasize the intense struggles members of the Black community endured daily.

Melba states the violence she endures at school in nonchalant terms, emphasizing how commonplace harassment is. For example, she identifies students not by their names but by the way they bully her when she walks into class and sees the students who "set [her] books afire, throw spitballs, dumped water on [her] head, and called [her] names" crowded around her desk.

The text uses pop culture allusions to contextualize the story in the late 1950s and demonstrate that Melba is a typical teenager thrust into extraordinary circumstances, Melba listens to musicians such as Buddy Holly, Elvis, and Johnny Mathis, and enjoys television and radio shows such as The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show, Our Miss Brooks, and The Aldrich Family.

The text also uses literary allusions to illustrate the Pattillos' education and intellectual curiosity. The family library is stocked with literary classics, including the works of Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Emily Dickinson, and the works of Harlem Renaissance writers such as James Welden Johnson and Langston Hughes.

Because Christianity is such an important part of Melba's identity, the text uses several biblical allusions, particularly Psalm 23, which Grandma India encourages Melba to recite in times of distress. This Psalm's most recognizable lines are "the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want" and "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil."

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As a child, Melba uses the "White Ladies" restroom in a department store, unable to wait until she gets home. The white women call the police and threaten Melba, who is taken in for questioning. This event parallels when Melba uses the girl's room at Central High, only to be attacked by white girls. However, at Central High, Melba fights back and escapes.

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