In Fire From The Rock, the novel by Sharon Draper describing the Central High School Integration of 1957, the falling action of the book revolves around the protagonist Sylvia’s final decision to not attend the integrating Central High School and instead go to the all-black school, Horace Mann. “‘I’m going to call Miss Daisy Bates this afternoon.’ Sylvia began without introduction, ‘and have my name removed from the list of students who will integrate Central High School.’” (p. 198). Although this conclusion was put quite simply in a single sentence, it’s impact on the story is truly great. This, of course, leads to intriguing discussion. Some topics that will be brought up are the significance on the story and the character moving forward,…show more content… This is a very strange amount of narrative left after the whole book considers whether or not she even goes to this school. However, I think Sharon Draper did a particularly excellent job wrapping up the story and ending it on a note other than just having Sylvia stating “I’m not going to Central High.” This choice, nonetheless, advances the story smoothly. Sylvia now finds that she is a lot more happy now that she doesn’t have this burden of always thinking about which school to attend. Much like the things I stated in my Prediction RRJ and Sylvia’s thoughts before the matter, she was correct on thinking Horace Mann would be an overall better fit. There she is able to easily socialize with friends, focus on her studies, and not worry about harassment from white people. To attempt and explain how much this changes Sylvia’s life, she “couldn’t believe that her life was so pleasant right now, while nine of her friends had to be biting their fingernails to the bone, worry about what would happen.” (p. 208). Sudden changes like this allow for Sylvia’s former problems to now be resolved, and cleanly achieves an ending. Sylvia now can concentrate on her life and what she wants to do, clearly a change from her typical way of life. In the long run, Sylvia choosing this path advances the plot by permitting her to focus on other things that differ from Central High
