Discrimination In Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry

The fiction novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor does a phenomenal job portraying the discrimination felt by African-Americans around the 1930s and 40s in the southern Unites States (specifically Mississippi). The novel depicts this discrimination by illustrating the life of a young nine-year-old female African-American named Cassie Logan, and showing how she and her family must live. By using a first-person point of view to write the book, Mildred Taylor presents the opportunity to the reader to see social discrimination from a different viewpoint than is often portrayed. By reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, readers will easily sympathize with Cassie and the Logans, and will hold their breath

as they encounter problem after problem. The Logan’s main struggle was keeping their rightfully-owned land. They fought so hard and for so long because their land displays their ability to provide for themselves and live as everyone should. The symbolization of land representing independence is the most important theme in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
At this time, everybody knew the importance of owning land, as it proved a family to be self-reliant. Mr. Turner provides one example of this view in chapter 4 when he says, “Y’all got it better’n most the folks ‘round here ‘cause y’all got yours own place and y’all ain’t gotta cowtail to a lot of this stuff…” Mr. Turner expresses how lucky the Logans are to have land they can call their own, since it is the most imperative aspect in living an independent life. When Mr. Turner says this, he expresses how the Logans are free of debt, and can shop wherever they want, as a result of them owning their own land. Mr. Turner, being a sharecropper in massive debt to Mr. Granger, finds himself tied to the Wallaces, since, they too, sharecrop for Mr. Granger. This is unfortunate for him because the Wallaces are horrible people, but he still has to do business with them because he’s in debt, and the Wallaces are the only ones who he can afford to shop from. Also, by shopping from the Wallaces, Mr. Turner must push aside his ethics in order to buy things he needs to survive. On the other hand, the Logans can keep their morals, since they can afford to shop in Strawberry. This all relates back to their land because their land allows them to earn more money than a sharecropper, and, therefore, allows for them to shop without the worry of needing backing on credit or going further into debt to a landowner.. Lastly, they aren’t burdened with the problems of a sharecropper or a slave, since they own their own property and can decide what they feel they should do with it. For example, if they thought it would be more profitable to plant tobacco instead of corn, they could do it. However, if a sharecropper had the same idea for the land he lived on, he couldn’t do this because, technically, he doesn’t own his land; he just lives and works on it. Mr. Turner’s quote is a great detail in the book of why land is a symbol of independence, but it’s not the only one.
Another example of land being a symbol for independence is in chapter 5 when Papa says, “Two hundred acres of this place been Logan land for fifteen. We’ve been through bad times and good times but we ain’t lost none of it.” In this sentence, Papa explains how the Logan's have owned two hundred acres of land for fifteen years, and they have never lost a single acre. One of the more obvious ties to the main theme this contains is the fact that the Logans have been fighting for their land. During this era, the southern U.S. contained a large population of white racists who thought that African-Americans shouldn’t own land or, in other words, have any independence from their former state: slavehood. Often, blacks who openly disagreed with this view found themselves punished, sometimes by tarring-and-feathering or even by lynching. To have been fighting for two hundred acres of land for almost two decades really says a lot on how remaining unrestricted by owning land is the main priority of the Logans. Secondly, even though Papa admits that there were some tough times, the Logans remain unrestricted by whites. They don’t have to put up with things like what Mr. Lanier has to go through. On page 203, he admits that, ever since he has stopped shopping at the Wallace store, his landowner, Mr. Granger, has raised the price of living on his land by ten percent. The Logans have never been concerned with anything in that manner. Similarly, the Logans don’t have to oblige to what Mr. Granger wants purely out of fear of him doing something like what he did to the Laniers. The best example of this is when Mr. Granger threatened to do something to the Logans and their land if they don’t stop helping sharecroppers shop at Vicksburg (pages 168-170). Unfortunately for him, he can’t just take their land or charge them a higher percentage of their crops like what he can do with his sharecroppers, so they can continue to do what they believe is right, whether Mr. Granger likes it or not.
In this example, Taylor shows off her ability to tie deep-rooted Southern beliefs on blacks post- Civil War to her character’s personal life, but she also includes many personal details further exemplifying land as a symbol for independence.
In chapter 10 of Roll of Thunder, Hear Me Cry, Papa says “Don’t worry, Mama.

We ain’t gonna lose this land...trust me.” He says this in response to the mortgage on the land suddenly becoming due. Coincidentally, the mortgage had suddenly became due right after Mr. Morrison and Papa got into a skirmish with the Wallaces. This is Mr. Granger’s form of revenge. On page 233 Papa says, “He’s got to show us where we stand in the scheme of things. He’s got a powerful need to do that. Besides, he still wants this place.” Papa basically sums up how powerful white people feel threatened by land-owning African-American families, since their land symbolizes their independence. Papa knows that he must keep the land and he risks his own life to go pay the mortgage. This is shown on page 232 when Mama says “You want to be out on that road again in the middle of the night after what happened?...Don’t you understand I don’t want you dead?” Then, the next morning, Papa goes straight to Strawberry to pay the land’s mortgage. Papa isn’t the only person who makes huge sacrifices to maintain the Logans independence by paying for the land. On page 236, Uncle Hammer reveals that he sold his silver Packard to help pay for the land. He says he sold his car because, “What good’s a car? It can’t grow cotton. You can’t build a home on it. And you can’t raise four fine babies in it.” Uncle Hammer realizes that the land is so important in living an independent life, and he is willing to sell his most prized possession in order to keep it. The Logans made tremendous sacrifices, with either their most prized possessions and even their lives, to remain the proprietors of their

land.
The two-hundred acres of Logan land symbolizes their ableness to live however they feel is right; their independence. Mr. Turner acknowledges the vast significance of owning land and Papa and the rest of the Logans, time and time again, fight to keep their land, and, ultimately, maintain independence. Does your property carry the symbolization of independence like it did for the Logans?