freedom writers essays

In Defense of the 'Freedom Writers'

The teacher who inspired the 2007 Hilary Swank film still believes memoir writing is the best way to reach struggling students.

In the early 1990s, a young schoolteacher named Erin Gruwell made a radical change in her curriculum. Frustrated by her efforts to inspire her low-achieving students, she handed out journals and asked the kids to write about their own lives. Their poignant personal essays were later published in The Freedom Writers Diary , a book that inspired the 2007 film Freedom Writers .

Today, Gruwell runs the Freedom Writers Foundation, which aims to help teachers "engage, enlighten, and empower at-risk students to reach their full potential." She spoke with Atlantic senior editor Jennie Rothenberg Gritz about the October magazine story "The Writing Revolution" and her conviction that personal writing still belongs in the classroom.

There's a scene in the movie Freedom Writers where Hillary Swank is standing helplessly in front of a blackboard, trying to teach essay writing while the students revolt. What happened in real life when you tried to teach those kinds of lessons?

When I first walked into that classroom, there were 150 kids who hated writing, hated me, hated everything. I had to learn how to make things relevant to them. Part of the challenge, for me, was to model great writing. In the beginning, when my syllabus kept coming back to me in the form of a paper airplane, the students kept asking, "Why do we have to read books by dead white guys in tights?"

What inspired you to focus on memoirs?

The question was, how do you engage a kid from who, from the get-go, doesn't want to read or write? So I thought, "I'm going to go out and find stories that matter to them -- stories by Alice Walker and Gary Soto and Amy Tan, people writing about things that are so relevant to these kids who can't see a future outside their own community." I love "a rose is a rose is a rose," but when you have your students sit down and deconstruct Tupac's "The Rose That Grew From Concrete," they think, "Wow, this teacher cares enough about us to find subject matters in our world."

Peg Tyre's Atlantic story is about New Dorp High School, a low-performing school that traded in journaling and creative writing for more a rigorous academic curriculum. How do you feel about that decision?

Students have to be able to think critically. But where I saw huge cause for alarm in that piece was the idea that we don't want to focus on memoirs. When I read that quote from David Coleman saying, "As you grow up in this world, you realize people really don't give a shit about what you feel or what you think" -- that's a very cavalier comment. It negates all of those kids who are marginalized.

At Freedom Writers, we do give a shit what those kids think and feel. We're training teachers who work with at-risk kids in some poorest schools in the country, kids who have been written off. So while I'm excited that New Dorp is trying a new direction, to throw the baby out with the bathwater is really unfortunate.

Were you able to teach your students the fundamentals of writing in the process of having them read and write memoirs?

Absolutely. When you're too robotic and scripted, the students tune you out. So I always tried to use different learning modalities -- kinesthetic, auditory, visual, whatever might bring learning to life. At one point, I brought in two sandwiches. One of them was a really simple sandwich: a piece of white bread, a piece of baloney, and another piece of white bread. The other one was a really fancy sandwich that had French bread, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and heaps of turkey.

I used that as a metaphor to help my students deconstruct sentences. You can write a really simple sentence. Or you can use language to communicate all of these other things. I pulled sentences out of whatever we were reading and broke them down. And if one of my students wrote an incredible line, that also got thrown into the mix. The absolute best lines in the movie Freedom Writers directly came straight from my students' journal entries.

Do you see journaling as a means to an end -- a way to get students excited about writing so they'll go on to write academic papers? Or do you think memoir writing has its own value?

Definitely both. I want to give credit to a Holocaust survivor named Renee Firestone. She was at Auschwitz when she was a teenager, so she missed out on high school, graduation, and college. When my students met her and asked, "Why do you continue to tell your story?" she told them, "Evil prevails when good people do nothing." It was a rallying cry to all of my students to do something.

And so we put together this little book -- a book that not only got published but went on to help so many kids around the world think, "Now is the time to write my own story." Our book is one of the most stolen books in every school library. It's the go-to book in juvenile halls. By telling their own stories, my students helped give a voice to the voiceless.

Writing is powerful. Whether it's a little girl hiding from the Nazis in an attic, or Amnesty International writing letters on behalf of political prisoners, the power of telling stories is usually what causes change.

Is that part of your goal, to encourage students to become activists by telling their own stories?

One of the teachers we trained this summer was from Rwanda. He lost his family in the 1994 genocide. Now he's an educator in a school made up entirely of refugees. Every single one of those kids is an orphan from that situation. How can this teacher inspire every single one of those kids to know that they have a story? For instance, there was one young girl writing about sex trafficking and the proliferation of AIDS in Rwanda today. Part of her conclusion is that she has a choice. No one has to continue living this lifestyle.

Phillips Academy Andover recently had us do a presentation there. Most of the kids were headed to Harvard, Yale, all the Ivy Leagues. But they loved The Freedom Writers Diary . It was really important for them to realize that not every kid has a parent who can pay for SAT prep. Some kids have to work 3 or 4 jobs just to pay the rent. Writing really evokes empathy in a way very few things can do.

What would you say to a school like New Dorp that's planning to shift away from memoir writing and take on a more academic approach?

To take an element of the writing process away from these kids does them a disservice. When it comes to teaching writing, I just don't think it can be black and white. The political timing of your article is fantastic. I was glued to the TV during the Chicago strike. I am a teacher born and bred, and I believe in the advocacy of teachers. It's a calling. We want our students to feel impassioned and empowered. For me, was about having that incredible mix of diverse and dynamic literature. But we all want our kids to be literate, to graduate and go to college -- by any means necessary.

Watch a scene from the movie Freedom Writers

The Freedom Writers Diary

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The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them

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Discussion Questions

Students in Ms. Gruwell’s class frequently describe the violence they encounter at home and on the streets. How does this violence affect their classroom work? How has their approach to handling life outside of school changed by the end of the book? 

The diary entries in The Freedom Writers are anonymous rather than attributed to any particular student. Why do you think the book is structured this way? What affect does this structure have? How would the novel be different if the entries were not anonymous? 

How are the Freedom Writers able to use writing to connect with one another and the outside world? 

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Freedom Writers

• A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves and pursue education beyond high school.
• It's 1994 in Long Beach, California. Idealistic Erin Gruwell is just starting her first teaching job, that as freshman and sophomore English teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School, which, two years earlier, implemented a voluntary integration program. For many of the existing teachers, the integration has ruined the school, whose previously stellar academic standing has been replaced with many students who will be lucky to graduate or even be literate. Despite choosing the school on purpose because of its integration program, Erin is unprepared for the nature of her classroom, whose students live by generations of strict moral codes of protecting their own at all cost. Many are in gangs and almost all know somebody that has been killed by gang violence. The Latinos hate the Cambodians who hate the blacks and so on. The only person the students hate more is Ms. Gruwell. It isn't until Erin holds an unsanctioned discussion about a recent drive-by shooting death that she fully begins to understand what she's up against. And it isn't until she provides an assignment of writing a daily journal - which will be not graded, and will remain unread by her unless they so choose - that the students begin to open up to her. As Erin tries harder and harder to have resources provided to teach properly (which often results in her needing to pay for them herself through working second and third jobs), she seems to face greater resistance, especially from her colleagues, such as Margaret Campbell, her section head, who lives by regulations and sees such resources as a waste, and Brian Gelford, who will protect his "priviledged" position of teaching the senior honors classes at all cost. Erin also finds that her teaching job is placing a strain on her marriage to Scott Casey, a man who seems to have lost his own idealistic way in life. — Huggo
• A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves and pursue education beyond high school. Woodrow Wilson High School is located in Long Beach, California. The school is voluntarily integrated, and it isn't working. The Asians, the blacks, the Latinos, and a very few whites not only don't get along but also stay within their cultural cliques and are part of protective and violent gangs. There isn't much teaching or learning going on at the school. It is a warehouse for young teenagers until they can drop out or are kicked out. — yusufpiskin
• The storyline of the movie takes place between 19921995, beginning with scenes from the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Hilary Swank plays the role of Erin Gruwell, a new, excited schoolteacher who leaves the safety of her hometown, Newport Beach, to teach at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, a formerly high achieving school which has recently had an integration program put in place. Her enthusiasm is quickly challenged when she realizes that her class are all "at-risk" students, also known as "unteachables", and not the eager students she was expecting. The students segregate themselves into racial groups in the classroom, fights break out, and eventually most of the students stop turning up to class. Not only does Gruwell meet opposition from her students, but she also has a hard time with her department head, who refuses to let her teach her students with books in case they get damaged and lost, and instead tells her to focus on teaching them discipline and obedience. One night, two students, Eva (April Lee Hernández), a Hispanic girl and narrator for much of the film, and a Cambodian refugee, Sindy (Jaclyn Ngan), find themselves in the same convenience store. Another student, Grant Rice (Armand Jones) is frustrated at losing an arcade game and demands a refund from the owner. When he storms out, Eva's boyfriend attempts a drive-by shooting, wanting to kill Grant but misses, accidentally killing Sindy's boyfriend. As Eva is a witness, she must testify at court; she intends to protect her own kind in her testimony. At school, Gruwell intercepts a racist drawing of one of her students and uses it to teach them about the Holocaust. She gradually begins to earn their trust and buys them composition books to record their diaries, in which they talk about their experiences of being abused, seeing their friends die, and being evicted. Determined to reform her students, she takes two part-time jobs to pay for more books and spends more time at school, to the disappointment of her husband (Patrick Dempsey). Her students start to behave with respect and learn more. A transformation is especially visible in one of her students, Marcus (Jason Finn). She invites several Holocaust survivors to talk with her class about their experiences and takes them on a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance. Meanwhile, her unorthodox teaching methods are scorned by her colleagues and department chair Margaret Campbell (Imelda Staunton). The next year comes, and Gruwell teaches her class again for sophomore (second) year. In class, when reading The Diary of Anne Frank, they invite Miep Gies (Pat Carroll), the woman who sheltered Anne Frank from the German soldiers to talk to them. After they raise the money to bring her over, she tells them her experiences hiding Anne Frank. When Marcus tells her that she is his hero, she denies it, claiming she was merely doing the right thing. Her denial causes Eva to rethink lying during her testimony. When she testifies, she finally breaks down and tells the truth, much to some of her family members' dismay. Meanwhile, Gruwell asks her students to write their diaries in book form. She compiles the entries and names it The Freedom Writers Diary. Her husband divorces her and Margaret tells her she cannot teach her kids for their junior year. She fights this decision, eventually convincing the superintendent to allow her to teach her kids' junior and senior year. The film ends with a note that Gruwell successfully brought many of her students to graduation and college.

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Freedom Writers: Promoting Good Moral Values Essay

Introduction, brief synopsis of the plot, synopsis of the moral issue, works cited.

“Freedom writers” is a Christian movie that presents strong moral teachings to young people. The movie portrays a strong and civilized view of the world; it encourages development and use of positive moral values by people in making the world a better place. The main values encouraged in the movie include doing right, being kind, polite, respecting other people, seeking the truth and applying it in life. Precisely, its main theme is centered on promoting good moral values.

The movie focuses on a young teacher (Hillary Swank) who teaches in a high school made up of students from different racial backgrounds (IMDb 2012). She promotes cohesion and peaceful existence among students by teaching them about the genocide against the Jews that took place during World War II (IMDb 2012).

She successfully transforms the rogue students into good people by instilling good moral values in them. In addition, she encourages them to do the right thing all the time, be kind to others and use the moral values learnt in class to improve their lives.

Doing right all the time is the main moral issue highlighted in the movie. Doing the right thing presupposes being polite, kind, respectful, seeking the truth and using it to transform lives. The students, who come from different racial backgrounds, form ethnic gangs that they use to perpetuate violence, racism and hatred among themselves.

The students carry their street gang activities and racism sentiments into class, giving the teacher a rough time in dealing with them. However, she teaches them of the importance of doing the right thing always. Gradually, the students change and become better people with positive and strong moral values.

According to the natural law theory, good moral behavior is part of human nature which is realized by observing the nature of humanity (Finnis 53).

The students were able to critically evaluate the evils of racism and violence in the society, and thus change. Learning about the Jews holocaust, they realize the dangers of racism and violence motivating them to change their morals. According to Kantianism, an act is more important than the outcome, thus everyone should be more concerned with the moral value of actions (Ward 47).

Doing right is more important than the outcome of doing right. It is expected that practicing good moral values generates positive outcomes. Therefore, it is more important to be kind, polite and respectful because by exercising these moral values, good outcomes are guaranteed. Utilitarianism teaches that the outcome of an action determines its moral value as evident from the students changed behavior.

The social contract theory holds that individuals willingly give up a portion of their freedom in exchange for protection of their rights (Rousseau and Cole 72). The students in the movie give up a portion of their freedom that allows them to perpetuate violence, racism and other evil deeds.

The best theory to operate under the given moral issue in the movie would be the natural law theory. The students would learn best by observing the actions and the consequences of humanity in the society they live. For example, by learning the consequences of racism and gang violence, the students would be highly motivated to change their behavior for their good and the good of the society.

If presented with the same moral issue, most students would fight back and thus perpetuate violence and racism. According to utilitarianism, the moral value of an action is determined by its outcome. Most students would argue that by fighting back, they protect themselves and discourage other students from bullying them into silence and submission.

The movie ‘freedom writers’ encourages people to develop and use positive values to make the world a better place. The main values encouraged in the movie include doing right, being kind, polite, respecting other people, seeking truth and applying it in life. Precisely, its theme is centered on promoting good moral values. It can be viewed from different philosophical perspectives based on the moral issue presented in the movie.

Finnis, John. Natural Law and Natural Rights . London: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.

IMDb: Freedom Writers . n.d. Web.

Rousseau, Jean and Cole, G. The Social Contract. New York: Cosimo Inc, 2008. Print.

Ward, Ian. Kantianism, Postmodernism, and Critical Legal Thought . New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997. Print.

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1. IvyPanda . "Freedom Writers: Promoting Good Moral Values." October 30, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/freedom-writers-movie-review/.

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IvyPanda . "Freedom Writers: Promoting Good Moral Values." October 30, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/freedom-writers-movie-review/.

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The Freedom Writers Diary

Erin gruwell, everything you need for every book you read..

The students at Wilson High School are used to navigating racial and ethnic divisions. The rivalry between black, Asian, and Latino gangs affect their everyday lives, constantly making them potential victims in a war where only external appearances and group loyalty matter. As a consequence, at school and in their neighborhood, students learn to remain within the confines of their own identity group. However, when Ms. Gruwell begins to teach her class about the historical consequences of ethnic violence around the world, focusing on the stories of Anne Frank in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands and Zlata Filipović in contemporary war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina, her students are forced to confront the horrific consequences of ethnic hatred. Inspired by Anne and Zlata’s experiences, Ms. Gruwell’s students learn to see beyond the barriers of race and ethnicity, discovering that peace and tolerance are infinitely greater goals than remaining focused on people’s different identities. Ultimately, the Freedom Writers commit to focusing only on everyone’s inherent humanity, concluding that there is only one race that matters: the united human race.

The students at Wilson High School are immersed in the urban world of Long Beach, where racial tensions and a vicious gang war divide the population along ethnic and racial lines. As a result, one’s social identity and appearance determine one’s entire life, from one’s friend group to one’s chances of survival in the street. Erin Gruwell begins to teach in a historical context of racial tensions. Two years earlier, in 1992, officers in the Los Angeles Police Department were filmed brutally beating Rodney King, an unarmed black man, before arresting him. When the police officers were acquitted for this act, six days of violent rioting erupted in Los Angeles, protesting the long-standing discrimination and abuse that the African-American community has suffered from the police. This long stretch of rioting had a severe effect on increasing racial tensions in the area, and Ms. Gruwell notes that the tension could be felt in the school itself. Later events, such as California’s Proposition 187, meant to prohibit illegal immigrants from using various services in California (including health care and public education), only heightened the sense of discrimination and exclusion that many minority communities experienced at the time, in particular Asian and Latino immigrants.

Ethnic and racial communities were also in direct rivalry with each other, as African-American, Asian, and Latino gangs engaged in a ruthless war for power and territory. To remain safe, people generally stayed loyal to their own group, as one could be shot at for the mere fact of having the wrong skin color—regardless of whether or not one actually belonged to a rival gang. At Wilson High School, these divisions are strikingly visible. The school quad is divided according to color and ethnicity, as people mostly make friends with members of their own identity group.

This ethnic hatred and violence affects all students. Most of them have been shot at, have directly witnessed gang-related violence, and have seen their friends die over the course of the years due to gang rivalry. After Ms. Gruwell questions a student about the rivalry between the Latino and Asian gangs, trying to make that student realize that this war is just as senseless as that of the Capulets and Montagues in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet , the student comes to realize that Ms. Gruwell is probably right. Yet even though he cannot justify the gang’s divisions, he still abides by their logic: “[Ms. Gruwell] 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.”

Through Ms. Gruwell’s teaching, the students discover that racial and ethnic tensions have deep historical consequences in other places in the world. Reading the diaries of Anne Frank, who was killed in Nazi Germany for being a Jew, and of Zlata Filipović, a young girl caught in the contemporary Bosnian war, divided among nationalities and religions, allows the students to examine ethnic divisions from a distance. They come to realize that peace and tolerance are much more inspiring messages than ethnic hatred and rivalry.

When, as a student teacher, Erin Gruwell intercepts a racist caricature of an African-American boy in her class, she becomes furious and tells her students that such stereotyping is precisely what led to horrific events such as the Holocaust. She soon realizes that most of her students have never heard of the Holocaust. As a result, she decides to devote her teaching to the promotion of tolerance. When her students discover the stories of two fellow teenagers, Anne Frank and Zlata Filipović, they come to terms with the devastation that ethnic divisions can cause. During World War II, adolescent Anne Frank is forced to hide for years and is ultimately sent to a concentration camp, where she ultimately dies—all because of the mere fact that she is Jewish. In early-1990s Bosnia and Herzegovina, another young girl, Zlata, is forced to hide in a basement to escape the brutal ethnic war that is tearing her country apart. Ms. Gruwell’s students soon note similarities between their own lives and the senseless violence that these two young girls had to endure. Inspired by these young diarists’ messages of tolerance, the students become inspired to write their own diaries, chronicling their lives in a world where racial tensions and gang violence are rife.

It is when the students delve into a geographically closer past, that of the United States, that they find the inspiration to make a commitment against racial violence and injustice. They read about the Freedom Riders, a group of civil rights activists—seven black and six white—who rode a bus across the American South in the early 1960s to protest the segregation of public buses. In Alabama, the Freedom Riders were violently beaten by a mob of Ku Klux Klan members. When Ms. Gruwell’s students discover that these black and white activists were ready to sacrifice their lives to champion equal rights, they realize that they can use this episode in American history as inspiration in their own fight for diversity and tolerance. Making a pun with the original activists’ name, they decide to call themselves the “Freedom Writers.”

After long months of studying the historical consequences of racial hatred, the Freedom Riders conclude that dividing people according to their appearance or group identity is absurd and dangerous. They commit to the ideal of unity, based on the premise of recognizing everyone’s humanity. The students come to terms with the fact that separating people among racial or ethnic groups can generate injustice and harm. In Diary 33, a student recounts a time when she had to testify in court. After having seen her friend Paco kill another man, she is supposed to defend Paco and lie about his involvement in the murder, so as to defend her fellow Latino “people,” her “blood.” However, in court, she sees the despair in the eyes of the accused man’s mother—who is black—and realizes that this woman reminds her of her own Mexican mom. In this moment, she realizes that both sides of the conflict are affected by the same, senseless violence, and that protecting injustice in the name of her group identity will only tear more families apart. In a courageous move, she decides to tell the truth and accuse Paco of murder, therefore going against her presumed loyalty to Latinos in order to defend a greater ideal of justice. This decision demonstrates her commitment to recognizing everyone’s humanity and dignity, regardless of their race or identity.

However courageous and inspiring the Freedom Writers’ messages of diversity and tolerance might be, the young students often experience resistance from close-minded adults. When the Freedom Writers invite Zlata to come to the United States, she gives a speech at the Croatian Hall where she talks about her experience of ethnic hatred in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even though she is a direct survivor of severe ethnic violence, some adults still ask her what her ethnicity is: Serbian, Croatian, Muslim? The adults’ reaction demonstrates their resistance to conceiving of the world in a color- or ethnicity-blind way. Yet Zlata boldly answers: “I am a human being” and the Freedom Writers stand by her, confirming that people’s humanity—and not their nationality, religion, or skin color—should be the only thing that ever matters. In Diary 17, a Freedom Writer reiterates this conclusion in her own words: “As long as I know that I am a human being, I don’t need to worry about what other people say. In the end, we all are the same!”

Race, Ethnicity, and Tolerance ThemeTracker

Race, Ethnicity, and Tolerance Quotes in The Freedom Writers Diary

I asked, “How many of you have heard of the Holocaust?” Not a single person raised his hand. Then I asked, “How many of you have been shot at?” Nearly every hand went up. I immediately decided to throw out my meticulously planned lessons and make tolerance the core of my curriculum. From that moment on, I would try to bring history to life by using new books, inviting guest speakers, and going on field trips.

My P.O. hasn’t realized yet that schools are just like the city and the city is just like prison. All of them are divided into separate sections, depending on race. On the streets, you kick it in different ’hoods, depending on your race, or where you’re from. And at school, we separate ourselves from people who are different from us. That’s just the way it is, and we all respect that. So when the Asians started trying to claim parts of the ’hood, we had to set them straight.

I’m not afraid of anyone anymore. Now I’m my own gang. I protect myself. I got my own back. I still carry my gun with me just in case I run into some trouble, and now I’m not afraid to use it. Running with gangs and carrying a gun can create some problems, but being of a different race can get you into trouble, too, so I figure I might as well be prepared. Lately, a lot of shit’s been going down. All I know is that I'm not gonna be the next one to get killed.

[I]t’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?

“Do not let Anne’s death be in vain,” Miep said, using her words to bring it all together. Miep wanted us to keep Anne’s message alive, it was up to us to remember it. Miep and Ms. Gruwell had had the same purpose all along. They wanted us to seize the moment. Ms. Gruwell wanted us to realize that we could change the way things were, and Miep wanted to take Anne’s message and share it with the world.

I have always been taught to be proud of being Latina, proud of being Mexican, and I was. I was probably more proud of being a “label” than of being a human being, that’s the way most of us were taught. Since the day we enter this world we were a label, a number, a statistic, that’s just the way it is. Now if you ask me what race I am, like Zlata, I’ll simply say, “I’m a human being.”

When I was born, the doctor must have stamped “National Spokesperson for the Plight of Black People” on my forehead; a stamp visible only to my teachers. The majority of my teachers treat me as if I, and I alone, hold the answers to the mysterious creatures that African Americans are, like I’m the Rosetta Stone of black people. It was like that until I transferred to Ms. Gruwell’s class. Up until that point it had always been: “So Joyce, how do black people feel about Affirmative Action?” Poignant looks follow. “Joyce, can you give us the black perspective on The Color Purple?”

I believe that I will never again feel uncomfortable with a person of a different race. When I have my own children someday, the custom I was taught as a child will be broken, because I know it's not right. My children will learn how special it is to bond with another person who looks different but is actually just like them. All these years I knew something was missing in my life, and I am glad that I finally found it.

As I got older, people who heard my story would ask me how I dealt with the idea of death and dying. I would think about it for a minute and reply, “See, being poor, black, and living in the ghetto was kind of like a disease that I was born with, sort of like AIDS or cancer.” It was nothing I could control.

Essays About Freedom: 5 Helpful Examples and 7 Prompts

Freedom seems simple at first; however, it is quite a nuanced topic at a closer glance. If you are writing essays about freedom, read our guide of essay examples and writing prompts.

In a world where we constantly hear about violence, oppression, and war, few things are more important than freedom. It is the ability to act, speak, or think what we want without being controlled or subjected. It can be considered the gateway to achieving our goals, as we can take the necessary steps. 

However, freedom is not always “doing whatever we want.” True freedom means to do what is righteous and reasonable, even if there is the option to do otherwise. Moreover, freedom must come with responsibility; this is why laws are in place to keep society orderly but not too micro-managed, to an extent.

5 Examples of Essays About Freedom

1. essay on “freedom” by pragati ghosh, 2. acceptance is freedom by edmund perry, 3. reflecting on the meaning of freedom by marquita herald.

• 4.  Authentic Freedom by Wilfred Carlson

5. What are freedom and liberty? by Yasmin Youssef

1. what is freedom, 2. freedom in the contemporary world, 3. is freedom “not free”, 4. moral and ethical issues concerning freedom, 5. freedom vs. security, 6. free speech and hate speech, 7. an experience of freedom.

“Freedom is non denial of our basic rights as humans. Some freedom is specific to the age group that we fall into. A child is free to be loved and cared by parents and other members of family and play around. So this nurturing may be the idea of freedom to a child. Living in a crime free society in safe surroundings may mean freedom to a bit grown up child.”

In her essay, Ghosh briefly describes what freedom means to her. It is the ability to live your life doing what you want. However, she writes that we must keep in mind the dignity and freedom of others. One cannot simply kill and steal from people in the name of freedom; it is not absolute. She also notes that different cultures and age groups have different notions of freedom. Freedom is a beautiful thing, but it must be exercised in moderation. 

“They demonstrate that true freedom is about being accepted, through the scenarios that Ambrose Flack has written for them to endure. In The Strangers That Came to Town, the Duvitches become truly free at the finale of the story. In our own lives, we must ask: what can we do to help others become truly free?”

Perry’s essay discusses freedom in the context of Ambrose Flack’s short story The Strangers That Came to Town : acceptance is the key to being free. When the immigrant Duvitch family moved into a new town, they were not accepted by the community and were deprived of the freedom to live without shame and ridicule. However, when some townspeople reach out, the Duvitches feel empowered and relieved and are no longer afraid to go out and be themselves. 

“Freedom is many things, but those issues that are often in the forefront of conversations these days include the freedom to choose, to be who you truly are, to express yourself and to live your life as you desire so long as you do not hurt or restrict the personal freedom of others. I’ve compiled a collection of powerful quotations on the meaning of freedom to share with you, and if there is a single unifying theme it is that we must remember at all times that, regardless of where you live, freedom is not carved in stone, nor does it come without a price.”

In her short essay, Herald contemplates on freedom and what it truly means. She embraces her freedom and uses it to live her life to the fullest and to teach those around her. She values freedom and closes her essay with a list of quotations on the meaning of freedom, all with something in common: freedom has a price. With our freedom, we must be responsible. You might also be interested in these essays about consumerism .

4.   Authentic Freedom by Wilfred Carlson

“Freedom demands of one, or rather obligates one to concern ourselves with the affairs of the world around us. If you look at the world around a human being, countries where freedom is lacking, the overall population is less concerned with their fellow man, then in a freer society. The same can be said of individuals, the more freedom a human being has, and the more responsible one acts to other, on the whole.”

Carlson writes about freedom from a more religious perspective, saying that it is a right given to us by God. However, authentic freedom is doing what is right and what will help others rather than simply doing what one wants. If freedom were exercised with “doing what we want” in mind, the world would be disorderly. True freedom requires us to care for others and work together to better society. 

“In my opinion, the concepts of freedom and liberty are what makes us moral human beings. They include individual capacities to think, reason, choose and value different situations. It also means taking individual responsibility for ourselves, our decisions and actions. It includes self-governance and self-determination in combination with critical thinking, respect, transparency and tolerance. We should let no stone unturned in the attempt to reach a state of full freedom and liberty, even if it seems unrealistic and utopic.”

Youssef’s essay describes the concepts of freedom and liberty and how they allow us to do what we want without harming others. She notes that respect for others does not always mean agreeing with them. We can disagree, but we should not use our freedom to infringe on that of the people around us. To her, freedom allows us to choose what is good, think critically, and innovate. 

7 Prompts for Essays About Freedom

Freedom is quite a broad topic and can mean different things to different people. For your essay, define freedom and explain what it means to you. For example, freedom could mean having the right to vote, the right to work, or the right to choose your path in life. Then, discuss how you exercise your freedom based on these definitions and views. 

The world as we know it is constantly changing, and so is the entire concept of freedom. Research the state of freedom in the world today and center your essay on the topic of modern freedom. For example, discuss freedom while still needing to work to pay bills and ask, “Can we truly be free when we cannot choose with the constraints of social norms?” You may compare your situation to the state of freedom in other countries and in the past if you wish. 

A common saying goes like this: “Freedom is not free.” Reflect on this quote and write your essay about what it means to you: how do you understand it? In addition, explain whether you believe it to be true or not, depending on your interpretation. 

Many contemporary issues exemplify both the pros and cons of freedom; for example, slavery shows the worst when freedom is taken away, while gun violence exposes the disadvantages of too much freedom. First, discuss one issue regarding freedom and briefly touch on its causes and effects. Then, be sure to explain how it relates to freedom. 

Some believe that more laws curtail the right to freedom and liberty. In contrast, others believe that freedom and regulation can coexist, saying that freedom must come with the responsibility to ensure a safe and orderly society. Take a stand on this issue and argue for your position, supporting your response with adequate details and credible sources. 

Many people, especially online, have used their freedom of speech to attack others based on race and gender, among other things. Many argue that hate speech is still free and should be protected, while others want it regulated. Is it infringing on freedom? You decide and be sure to support your answer adequately. Include a rebuttal of the opposing viewpoint for a more credible argumentative essay. 

For your essay, you can also reflect on a time you felt free. It could be your first time going out alone, moving into a new house, or even going to another country. How did it make you feel? Reflect on your feelings, particularly your sense of freedom, and explain them in detail. 

Check out our guide packed full of transition words for essays .If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Freedom Writers — The Theme of Racism in “Freedom Writers”

The Theme of Racism in "Freedom Writers"

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Published: Sep 1, 2023

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The stark reality of racism, impact on characters' lives, a journey towards empathy, conclusion: a call to confront racism.

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Shani Mott, Black Studies Scholar Who Examined Power All Around Her, Dies at 47

Her work looked at how race and power are experienced in America. In 2022, she filed a lawsuit saying that the appraisal of her home was undervalued because of bias.

By Campbell Robertson and Debra Kamin

Shani Mott, a scholar of Black studies at Johns Hopkins University whose examinations of race and power in America extended beyond the classroom to her employer, her city and even her own home, has died in Baltimore. She was 47.

She died of adrenal cancer on March 12, said her husband, Nathan Connolly, a professor of history at Johns Hopkins.

Though Dr. Mott spent her career in some of academia’s elite spaces, she was firmly committed to the idea that scholarship should be grounded and tangible, not succumbing to ivory tower abstraction. She encouraged students to turn a critical eye to their own backgrounds and to the realities of the world around them. In a city like Baltimore, with its complicated and often cruel racial history, there was plenty to scrutinize.

“How do we think about what we’re doing and how it relates to a city like Baltimore?” is how Minkah Makalani, the director of the university’s Center for Africana Studies, described some of the questions that drove Dr. Mott’s work. “There was this kind of demanding intellectual curiosity that she had that she brought to everything that really pushed the conversation and required that people think about what we’re doing in more tangible ways.”

Her research focused on American books both popular and literary, and how they revealed the kind of conversation about race that was allowed by the publishing industry and other cultural gatekeepers. This work connected to a larger theme of her scholarship: how big institutions determine how race is discussed and experienced in America.

As an active member of the Johns Hopkins faculty, she pointedly explored the ways the university engaged, or did not engage, with its own workers and the majority Black city in which it sits. In 2018 and 2019, Dr. Mott was a principal investigator for the Housing Our Story project, which interviewed Black staff workers at Johns Hopkins whose voices had not been included in the campus archives.

“What she had a keen ability to do was to say and remember that we’re thinking of things that are real, not just abstract,” said Tara Bynum, an assistant professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Iowa who received her doctorate at Johns Hopkins.

Though Dr. Mott taught her students to understand racism as an ongoing force in American life, the hard reality could still be jarring. In 2021, she and Dr. Connolly were hoping to refinance the mortgage on their home, which sits in a historic, predominantly white neighborhood. But the appraisal was far lower than what they were expecting, and their application for a refinance loan was denied.

Believing that race played a key role, they applied for a loan again several months later, but for this appraisal they hid evidence of their race, such as family photographs, and had a white colleague stand in for them when the appraiser came for a visit. The second appraisal was almost 60 percent higher than the first.

Months later, in 2022, they sued the mortgage company that denied the loan, the appraisal company that was contracted and the individual appraiser who was at the home. All parties have denied that bias was involved, and the individual appraiser countersued for defamation.

For Dr. Mott, it was a discouraging real-world illustration of what she had long researched.

“People say it all the time: It’s one thing to study something, but it’s an entirely different thing to actually experience it,” Dr. Mott said in a 2022 interview with The Times. She understood discrimination through her work, she said, but “to actually be living a kind of life that was always a dream and then to have someone in 45 minutes come in and just ruin that, or try to — it leaves me feeling angry.”

Shani Tahir Mott was born on March 16, 1976, in Chicago. Her mother was a schoolteacher, and her father was an Army veteran who lost his sight in the Vietnam War.

After graduating from Wesleyan University, she received her master’s degree and doctorate at the University of Michigan. Her dissertation focused on midcentury American literature, particularly books in which Black authors portrayed white characters and in which white authors portrayed Black characters. Such attempts by writers to “free themselves from the racial boundaries” that the country kept in place were ultimately unsuccessful, she concluded.

She considered the work she did outside of academia consistent with her research. In Baltimore, she encouraged students to work alongside her as volunteers at Orita’s Cross Freedom School , a program that provides instruction and recreation for Black youth when their families are at work. In 2020, when many of those children were stuck at home during Covid, Dr. Mott and her family produced a series of YouTube videos in which they read and discussed children’s books celebrating Black history and culture. Her survivors include her husband and their children, two daughters and a son.

She was diagnosed with cancer in 2021, but colleagues said she continued to keep a packed schedule of teaching and outside projects. Days before her death, Dr. Mott gave an eight-hour deposition in the appraisal suit, which was still pending, Dr. Connolly said. She declined to take her pain medication, he added, so that she would be able to respond to questions with clarity.

“She burned through two oxygen tanks and was in a wheelchair the entire time,” Dr. Connolly said. “And her ability to speak forcefully and to be direct and, frankly, to be so crystal clear about how real estate works and, in particular, instruments within the structure of a mortgage transaction, it was a master class.”

Campbell Robertson reports on Delaware, the District Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, for The Times. More about Campbell Robertson

Debra Kamin reports on real estate, covering what it means to buy, sell and own a home in America today. More about Debra Kamin