The Lions Of Little Rock Essay

1. Discuss one or more themes in the novel. Is the theme directly stated or implied? Explain. There are a couple themes in my novel, The Lions of Little Rock. Both of these themes are universal and implied. One of the themes of my story, is: Don’t draw conclusions without reason. This is basically the “Don’t judge a book by its cover” theme, stated in a less corny way. In The Lions of Little Rock, the other characters are quick to judge Liz when she was caught passing for white. Marlee though, got to know Liz first, and was appalled by some of the other characters’ reactions. Sally, JT, Red, and many others quickly judged Liz without getting to know her first, Marlee was the only one who knew they were dead wrong. Another theme of my story is: Face your fears. This one is pretty corny too, but is seen throughout the whole novel. When Marlee took a ride on an airplane, she was terrified, but did it anyways. She ended up loving it! JT …show more content…
In the beginning of the story, Marlee’s mother didn’t have much character development and was rather flat. All we knew about her was that she and Marlee didn’t get along too well, and she was rather anti-integration. This immediately caught my attention, in a relatively pleasant story, meant to teach kids about the civil rights movement, there was an important figure who was anti-integration (Not to mention has daughter issues!) This definitely hinted towards some dramatic character development in the future. I was right, near the middle/end of the story, Mother’s character was changing. She went from anti-integration to joining a women's committee, whose goal was to reopen the school, integration or not. That committee even brought her much closer to her daughter. Seeing this character grow like that gave me satisfaction, like a proud parent. Marlee’s mother went from a flat character; to a round, dynamic