Standing Up Summary and Analysis

Immaculee and her brothers routinely walked eight miles to the local elementary school. By some standards, this would seem like a long or unsafe journey, but as a child Immaculee never felt the need for protection. She felt at ease in Rwanda. On her first day in the fourth grade, having graduated from her mother's schoolhouse at the age of ten, Immaculee experienced ethnic segregation for the first time. During roll call the students were separated according to the categories of Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. Immaculee had never been exposed to these terms before and did not know where she belonged. This gained her expulsion from the classroom and much embarrassment. It was also her introduction to Rwanda's ethnic divide. Following her embarrassment at roll call, her father approached the teacher. During the next day's roll call she was...