Epilogue Summary
Epilogue
While they were in Washington, DC, the Freedom Fighters—all 150 of them—held hands and recited lines from Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. They walked where he walked, and the experience moved them. After that, one of Ms. Gruwell’s students suggested that since they walked where the Freedom Riders walked, their next stop should be Anne Frank’s attic, the place where their journey began. While many cheered the idea, Ms. G was still trying to ensure that the DC trip was a smooth one. So much planning was involved and so many things could go wrong that planning another trip, especially at that moment, seemed like a daunting task. Her strategy was to ignore the request and hope it would go away.
But the idea did not go away, and the day after graduation, Ms. G and the Freedom Writers began planning a trip to Europe for the following summer. What started as a simple trip to see an attic became a sweeping tour of Europe. Until then, the students must concentrate on their academic pursuits. As expected, many of them struggled with their academics, managing their social lives, and working their part-time jobs. They no longer had Room 203 to call home.
Some left the comforts of that room and soared quickly; others had more of a struggle. In any case, though, the Freedom Writers made their way, often taking others with them on their journey to achieve and change. Their teacher, too, left the comforts of that room and became a professor at California State University, Long Beach. Her job there was to teach others about the experience of Room 203 so it could be repeated in high schools across the country.
As before, others joined Ms. Gruwell and her Freedom Writers on the journey. Harry Belafonte told them about the preparations the Freedom Riders made before embarking on their journey to the nation’s capital. His words were a motivator for them all to walk the journey as well as they talked it. They continued writing, and when events such as the Columbine shooting in Colorado happened, they were empathetic toward the shooters because they understood what it was like to feel invisible, “alienated and misunderstood,” like the two students who wreaked so much damage.
The lesson of Room 203 is that the ability to express one’s self is the path to freedom, and violence is “never the answer.” After Columbine, the Freedom Writers made a more concentrated effort to preach peace and demonstrate tolerance and understanding to those who feel alienated or marginalized by society.
Shortly before their trip to Europe, one Freedom Writer died when his body rejected his transplanted lung. He was able to accomplish his three goals in life—to get his driver’s license, to graduate from high school, and to attend college. Though he could not go with them on the journey, his friends promised his mother they would light a candle in each city and would bring her back a diary of their trip. They will visit Zlata and see Anne’s attic, and when they return they will write and share and continue to do what they can to create a more “peaceful and tolerant” world.
This book is the third leg of a journey. Anne’s story inspired Zlata, and Zlata inspired them. It is their hope that the readers of this book will become the next catalysts for change.
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