Roll Of Thunder Hear Me Cry

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Recommended: Racism and literature

Violence Is Never the Answer There are all sorts of ways to deal with people you do not like. You can reason with them, you can talk about them behind their back, and you can even fight them. In the novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, the main character and narrator, Cassie Logan, fights with a white girl named Lillian Jean. Later on, a black boy named T.J. is beat up by two white men, R.W and Melvin Simms. When Cassie fights with Lillian Jean, she is better than R.W and Melvin Simms in their treatment of T.J because of their motives, tactics, and brutality. Cassie is better because she has a better motive, she uses the same tactics, and she was much less brutal. "Maybe that way you won't be bumping into decent white folks with you little nasty self." (114) When Lillian Jean says this it is as if she has fired a bullet straight at Cassie. Cassie wants revenge on Lillian Jean and she knows that Lillian Jean won't apologize, so she befriends her and then strikes when Lillian Jean is not aware. R.W. and Melvin though have a different motive. Melvin and R.W. rob the mercantile with T.J. After they have gotten the money, they beat T.J. to make sure he doesn't tell anyone. This proves that Cassie is better because it is bad to hurt anyone, but it's a lot worse when it is to …show more content…

. . found it just the other daydown in the woods." (179) Cassie lures Lillian Jean by befriending her. She walks with her, carries her books, and she even calls her Miz Lillian Jean. When Lillian Jean is not expecting it, Cassie calls her into the forest and beats her up. R.W. and Melvin on the other hand, not only lure him in by buying him cool stuff, but after they force him to rob the mercantile with them, they call the cops on themselves to get T.J in trouble. Although both of these tactics are similar, in R.W. and Melvin's plan, after they beat T.J they get him in trouble and harm his family as

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    Lillian Jean is a white girl who goes to school with the Logan kids. When Cassie went with Big Ma to Strawberry, she saw Lillian Jean Simms. ¨It was then that I saw Lillian Jean Simms.” (Taylor, 113). This proves that Cassie was not eager to see Miss. Simms and she despises her. She got mad, and ordered Cassie to get in the street and apologize. Cassie refuses and Big Ma makes her do what Lillian Jean ordered. Mr.Simms comes to investigate, and Cassie ends up having three people against her. After Big Ma tells her to say sorry, Cassie says, ¨´I´m sorry...M-Miz...Lillian Jean.´¨ (Taylor, 116). This shows Cassie didn't want to apologize because she knew she didn´t have to, she did nothing

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    Cassie and her brother, Little Man, got a whipping because they were standing up for what they knew was right. “Sitting so close to the desk, I could see that the covers of the books, a motley read, were badly worn and that the gray edges of the pages had been marred by pencils, crayons, and ink.” (Taylor, 21) Cassie knew the books were very old books from the white schools. Cassie and her brother saw what the whites called them and they got mad about it, so the teacher, Miss. Crocker, gave them both a whippings. “The switch landed hard on Little Man’s upturned bottom. Cassie knew she would get in trouble for helping him, but she helped him anyway. “Everything. I poured out everything. About T.J.’s breaking into the mercantile with the Simses, about his coming in the night fleeing the Simses, about the coming of the night men and what they had done to the Averys. About Mr. Jamison and the threat of the men to come to the house to get him and Mr. Morrison.” (Taylor, 258) Cassie knew she would get in trouble for sneaking out to go help T.J. but she had to tell her dad what happened so T.J. wouldn’t die. “What happened to T.J. in the night I did not understand, but I knew that it would not pass. And I cried for those things which had happened in the night and would not pass. I cried for those things which had happened in the night and would not pass. I cried for T.J. For T.J. and the land.” (Taylor, 276) Cassie knew T.J. would die, but she knew she helped as much as she could. She knew she was

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