Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is a very powerful

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is a very powerful

novel about the Logan family living in Mississippi in the 1930's.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is a very powerful

novel about the Logan family living in Mississippi in the 1930's. The

story is told through the eyes of nine-year-old Cassie Logan, who has

to learn throughout the entire book, how harsh the world truly is for

blacks. Cassie has to learn that it is a white man's world out there,

and that black people don't have much of a say in what goes on in it.

There are many events in this book which lead me to say how prejudiced

our country was at that time.

One thing that stays on my mind is the conflict between Cassie and

Lillian Jean, a white girl about the same age as Cassie. During

Cassie's first visit to the town of Strawberry, she accidentally bumps

into Lillian Jean. It is then that Lillian Jean starts calling Cassie

names (comparing Cassie's "nasty little self" with "decent white

folk"), and makes her apologize. Big Ma and Charlie Simms, Lillian

Jean's father, force Cassie to do so, and Cassie is also told to call

her, "Miz" Lillian Jean. Cassie does not understand why this must be

so, and the idea of calling someone "Miz", who is the same age as

herself, hits Cassie hard. She takes her revenge by beating Lillian

Jean up, and also blackmailing her. It is the first time that Cassie

realizes that white and black children are treated differently. It

shows how black children are forced to feel inferior to white

children.

Another cause of racism is where the whites hate the Logan family for

owning their own land. Throughout the book, there are many efforts

from the white people- mainly, Mr. Granger- to get...

... middle of paper ...

...is saved for the moment, though

because of the fact that he is black, it is unlikely that T.J. will be

saved. This situation just goes to show that the idea that all men are

created equal in the U.S., does not apply to the blacks in Roll of

Thunder.

I can see from Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, that

racism affected the black people in the Deep South, years after

slavery was abolished. Everywhere you turn, you can see that this

issue was a daily part of their lives. The law turned a blind eye to

crimes committed against blacks. The education system for blacks was

second-rate. Black children were separated from whites from the

beginning, thus making the blacks hate whites, as they grew older.

Whites did not want blacks to feel in any way equal to them. And from

the book, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, I can better understand this

issue.