The Freedom Writers Diary - Erin Gruwell [16]
So, to whip them into shape, I’m gonna have to get down and dirty. I’ll have to burst their “Beverly Hills 90210” stereotype of me by getting in the trenches with them. Since I’m tackling Shakespeare soon, I need to convince them that this guy in tights who talks funny “has it going on.” I need to show them Shakespeare’s got a little “something something” for everyone. So what I’m going to do is make the Montagues and Capulets into a modern-day posse. They were the true “OGs,” as the kids say, the original gangsters, and although the language, colors, and turf have changed dramatically over the last four hundred years, the theme is universal.
Diary 15
Dear Diary,
Ms. Gruwell’s always trying to give meaning to everything. Like today, we were supposed to read this play, Romeo and Juliet, by some guy who talks funny—“thou” this, and “thee” that—and out of nowhere, she busts out with, “The Capulets are like the Latino gang, and the Montagues are like the Asian gang.” What? One minute, we’re reading about a guy named Mercutio getting killed, and she sets us up with the question “Do you think this family feud is stupid?” Like a dumb-ass, I took the bait and said, “Hell, yeah!” After all, they were biting their thumbs and waving their wanna-be swords. Then she couldn’t leave it alone. The next thing I know, she’s comparing these two families to rival gangs in this city. At first I was thinking, “What the hell does this bitch know about gangs?” But the real trip was when she actually named them.
I didn’t think she knew about all the shit that happened up in Long Beach. I just thought she left school and drove home to her perfect life. After all, what’s it to her? All of a sudden she questioned things that had never crossed our minds before. Did we think it was stupid that the Latino gang and the Asian gang are killing each other? I immediately said “No!”
“Why?”
“Because it’s different.”
“How?” This woman just wouldn’t give up!
“It just is!” I didn’t want to look stupid in front of everybody. But the more I thought about it, I realized it is stupid.
It’s stupid because I don’t even remember why we’re rivals. That’s just the way it is. Why is she always fucking questioning everything? She always tries to corner you into accepting that there’s another side, when there really isn’t. I don’t even remember how the whole thing got started, but it’s obvious that if you’re from one family, you need to be loyal and try to get some payback. Just like it’s obvious that if you’re from a Latino gang you don’t get along with the Asian gang, and if you’re from the Asian gang, you don’t get along with the Latino gang. All this rivalry is more of a tradition. Who cares about the history behind it? Who cares about any kind of history? It’s just two sides who tripped on each other way back when and to this day make other people suffer because of their problems. Then I realized she was right, it’s exactly like that stupid play. So our reasons might be stupid, but it’s still going on, and who am I to try to change things?
Diary 16
Dear Diary,
We just finished reading Romeo and Juliet; I couldn’t believe that Juliet stabbed herself over a guy that she only knew for a few days. I guess I wasn’t as in love as I thought I was, because I’d never do something that crazy for my boyfriend.
At first when we started reading this story, I compared myself with Juliet. We are both young and in love with a guy that we couldn’t last a day without seeing, only Juliet fell in love at first sight and it took me two months to supposedly be in love. Running away seemed like an easy way for us to rebel against my parents’ disapproval of my boyfriend. Yet it didn’t come out the way we had planned.
Juliet’s parents found her dead next to her boyfriend. Unfortunately, my parents