Themes In Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Jakob Stickles

In the novel “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,” Mildred D. Taylor implemented many themes that slowly developed throughout the story. One of the more obvious themes was courage, when the Logans faced trouble to protect their family, themselves, or just bring justice. Another theme that worked it’s way through the story was the love of family, when the Logans or even other people took risky actions to protect or even just elate their family. Finally, perhaps the most evident theme that progressed throughout the story was racism, when white people dissed black people for no good reason other than to make themselves feel better. There were other noticeable themes that appeared in the book, but of all the themes, courage, the love

of family, and racism were the most conspicuous.
One of the themes that progressed throughout the story was courage.

Mr. Morrison was courageous when Kaleb Wallace (one of the most powerful people in the town) blocked the road with his truck and threatened to kill him, but Mr. Morrison “lifted the truck… walked it to the left of the road… reached home and… [said] ‘Miz Logan, don’t ask me to go’” (Taylor 225). Mr. Morrison moved Kaleb’s truck and left, and even after all of the threats, Mr. Morrison still wanted to stay with the Logans. Mama didn’t want Mr. Morrison to stay, fearing that he would be taken, but Mr. Morrison had lots of courage and was still willing to stay in order to protect them. However, Mr. Morison wasn’t the only courageous one; Papa was too, because “Papa had found a way, as Mama had asked, to make Mr. Granger stop the hanging: He had started the fire” (Taylor 273). Papa secretly set his own land on fire in order to prevent T.J’s hanging. He was so courageous, he was willing to lose a quarter his own land and potentially even his home in order to save a life. Papa’s wife, Mary, also had a lot of courage, for when the most powerful people in the town entered her classroom, “her lesson of the day was slavery… Mr. Granger picked up a student’s book… [saw] the pasted-over cover… [and said] ‘I don’t see all them things you’re teaching in here… if it ain’t in here, then you got no right teaching it’… [but] Mama… answered… ‘all that’s in that book isn’t true’… [Later] said finally, ‘ I taught things some

folks just didn’t want to hear” (Taylor 182). Even though Mr. Granger was in the classroom and Mama knew that he wouldn’t like the lesson she was teaching, she still continued to teach it, because the students needed to know. Mama was so dedicated to giving her students a good education that she was willing to break a few rules and even risk losing her job to do it. There was a lot of courage that came to light later in the story, making it one of the main themes in the book.
Oftentimes, this courage had been provoked by the love of family, another theme that had advanced through the story. Cassie’s love of family was revealed after she tried to explain to her teacher why Little Man didn’t want his book, “but as the hickory stick sliced the tense air, [she] turned back around. ‘Miz Crocker,’ [she] said, ‘I don’t want my book neither.’” (Taylor 27). Even after Cassie explained what was wrong with the books, the teacher still punished Little Man for what he had done, so Cassie copied Little Man and also got punished. This means Cassie felt that the teacher was being unfair to Little Man, so she was willing to get into trouble just to bring Little Man justice. LEAD_IN, “QUOTE” (MLA). EXPLAIN. EXPLAIN. Finally, when the Logans were running low on money and couldn’t pay for the mortgage, “Uncle Hammer sold the Packard… [saying,] ‘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 on it’” (Taylor 235). Uncle Hammer knew that the Logans needed money, so he sold his car to earn enough money for the mortgage. He cared for his family so much that he was willing to lose his hard-earned car so that they could keep their home.
Finally, perhaps the most obvious theme that developed throughout the story was racism.

Even while just walking to school, “we had to worry about the Jefferson Davis school bus zooming from behind and splashing us with the murky waters of the road… [becoming] comical objects to cruel eyes that gave no thought to our misery...the county did not provide buses for its black students” (Taylor 43). Even though the Logan children were doing nothing wrong, the bus driver sprayed mud all over them, with the white school children inside the bus laughing. Because the Logans were black, many people in the school district saw them as unimportant, and felt that it was ok to make the Logans miserable for their entertainment. However, this was not the first time the Logans were treated unfairly; on the first day of school, every black student was given a book that said “September 1922, New, White… September 1933, Very Poor, nigra” (Taylor 25). All of the the white students got the brand new books, while the black students got the beat up and soiled books. This means that the white people who owned the books didn’t care about black people, and just gave the black students their trashed books when they didn’t want them anymore. Additionally, when Cassie visited Strawberry and accidentally bumped into Lillian Simms (a white girl), Lillian said, “you can’t watch where you going, get in the road. Maybe that way you won’t be bumping into decent white folks with your little nasty self… [Mr.

Simms] shoved [Cassie] off the sidewalk into the road” (Taylor 114). Just because Cassie bumped into Lillian on accident, Lillian insulted her and had her dad shove Cassie onto the street. This means that Lillian thinks very lowly of black people; she even said that black people are nasty and while white folk are decent, and her dad pushed Cassie off the road for such a little thing. So, now with all of this evidence, it is quite obvious that racism was one of the main themes in the story.
In conclusion, out of all of the themes in the novel, courage, the love of family, and racism developed the most throughout the story. The theme of courage appeared when Mr. Morrison, Papa, or another person faced a scary problem and managed to solve it. The love of family was another theme clearly seen when members of the Logan family troubled themselves in order to help others. Finally, the theme racism was obvious every time a white person belittled Cassie and other black people just because of their color. There were, of course, many other themes, but in this specific novel, these were the themes that were the most relied on.