Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry- Lit Summary

Roll of Thunder Hear My CryLiterature ProjectTerm 3/ 2012Marie Bozeman

Family Tree:Logan Family Tree

Family Tree of other characters: Wallace and Simms family trees

History/Background:Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, is based in countryMississippi in 1933. Here, the main protagonist, Cassie Logan, lives in a situation similar to many of those in the South. After the ending of the Civil War in 1865, the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Amendments allowed black people to receive citizenship and had the right to vote. These additions to the law were meant to achieve the end of racism that was first brought on from the period where the black people in the South were slaves. However, this racism did not go away. The white people living in the South and had a taste in the privileges of having slaves did not want the black people to join into their society as equals. The inequality that ran through society even in the 1930s where widely shown, through the allowances of actions the black people could take part in, the education standards and services provided for them. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry shows examples of these. Taylor had described how black children were required to travel an hour or more to arrive at school when white children had buses. In the same way in which the society then considered black students inferior to the white

students, white students had a long white wooden building with sports fields and rows of benches, as well as new schoolbooks. In contrast of that, the black students studied in four weather-beaten wooden houses on stilts of bricks with only 7 teachers for 320 students. In addition to that, theyre school year ran only from October to March, others only attending school from the start December when the last of cotton was picked. In the 1930s, the whole country plunged into the Great Depression after the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929. Nearly everyone in rural Mississippi were poor, both white and black people. Here, Taylor showed an example of this describing the shoes T.J. and Claude Avery couldnt afford shoes. Under the strain of lacking money, people lost jobs, needing to travel far out to find work. Mr. Morrison lost his job and David (Papa) Logan needed to work most of the year away from his family laying track in Louisiana so they had enough to pay the taxes and other bills. Besides the social injustice in society and the Great Depression being pressed upon the black people, a secret terrorist group of extreme racists called the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) terrorized the black people. In the novel, Taylor described them as night riders. The KKK started right after the Civil War, strongly believing that white people were far better than black people. They were known for wearing white sheets and masks topped with pointed hoods. To prove and announce their positions of power, they killed black people in many ways. They carried out lynching, attacked black people, covered them in tar and feathers and also set people on fire, just as a reminder of who was in charge. In complete fear, black people rarely tried at all to stand up against them and stop them. The Southern community in 1930s believed that it was all right to attack the blacks. It was due to these facts that it was only a minor consideration that a black person was murdered and punishment will not be carried out, as it would only denote equality. Mr. Jamison, explained this to Mary (Mama) Logan about the Wallaces terrorizing black people. It was in this background that Taylor managed to fully portray the hardships of being a black child in the time. Not only did they receive different and lower levels of education being fed the concept that white people deserved the place of

authority, they also had beware of their actions as the KKK and other white people may come and harm their families. It was a dangerous period to be in.

Book Cover:

Book Review:Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, written byMildred D. Taylor, tells a story of family struggling through a society of prejudice. This novel received a New York Times Book Review Best of Childrens Books award, citations from

The Boston Globe and Jane Addams Honor,known as an American Library Association Notable Book, won the Pacific Northwest Young Readers Award and was a finalist for a National Book Award. To top it off, this most distinguished contribution to American literature for children was awarded with the Newbery Award. All around the world, Roll of Thunder

Hear My Cry is known for portraying a graphicpicture of history and life, as it would seem, in a childs (Cassie Logan) perspective. Instead of persecuting the white people for what they had done in the past by writing with rancor, she instead wrote with pride, strength and respect for humanity, focusing on important statutes of family relations. In this fragile segment of American history where indignities and insults were placed upon black people, Taylor managed to present the matter to the current population without being nasty about the hatred her characters faced. Within the facts of past reality for the people of Mississippi in the 1930s, Taylor managed to bring forth the Logan family, united in strength. The gentle affection of which the family maintains within allows them to overcome the suppression of events that came at them. It is here that Taylor teaches us the first lesson, is that the importance of family is far more important than all others. Taylor wisely places within Papas mouth the description of how a family should be, the fig trees got roots that run deep It dont give up. It give up, itll dies. Theres a lesson to be learned from that little treecause were like it. Time and time again,

Taylor shows how through every difficulty thrown in their paths that together, the Logan family could work together to overcome them. The novel also teaches us about self-respect and the respect of others. Despite the bad times and how powerful people constantly try to rip away their possessions, the Logan family manages to keep their pride and earn the respect of the people who know them. In retrospect, you can see that the racism carried out in the time goes against that teaching. In respecting yourself and the people around, you learn to hold yourself up above challenges while maintaining within the right moral concepts. Mama, a character in the novel, mentioned to Cassie, Everybody born on this earth is somebody and nobody, no matter what color, is better than anybody else. Respect needs to be demanded and earned, through actions and motives, showing what you stand for and how you carry yourself. Mildred D. Taylor keeps her lessons within a beautifully painted picture of Mississippi with vivid sensory details and descriptions. While learning history and the harsh rawness of it, she coats it in a layer of virtue. Taylor wrote Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry in hopes to share the dignity and survival of a people living in a society that allowed little rights and treated them as inferior citizens. She showed hope in the midst of all despair in antecedent experiences. She set aside the guilt that might have followed being reminded of the cruel times, and allowed people to feel release from their past and understand that in applying the same values that helped families through to hold their own in society today.

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry is a work of a genius.

Timeline of Events/Actions:1887 Grandpa bought land put up to sale by the Grangers during the Reconstruction to pay taxes to a Yankee. Grandpa bought another 200 acres after the first two hundred had been paid off. The stock market crashed, and the price of cotton dropped Money was needed. Papa set out to look for work and went west laying track in Louisiana. He worked the remainder of the year there not returning until deep 1918 193 1931 0

winter. First day of school for Logan children Night men came to burn the Berry's house, Big Ma went to help the injured as she was good with medicines Little Man had his first experienced being sprayed with dust by the white October Late October 1933 November December student's school bus. Students received second hand textbooks from white school children that was in poor condition, showing Cassie and Little Man's first experience in public exclamation of racism. Papa comes home for the weekend and brings Mr. Morrison for protection against the night men. Papa announces that people should not go to the Wallace store. Rainy season starts. Out of anger of being splashed constantly, Stacey comes up with a plan to vandalize the white student's school bus and digs a ditch, leaving the bus which drove through to require weeks of repair. Night riders visit outside the Logan's house. Cassie spies the caravans parked out side and sees Mr. Morrison holding a shotgun in case of danger. Stacey gets angry at TJ and results in beating him up in the Wallace store. Mr. Morrison catches him but builds trust as he doesn't tell Mama. Mama shows Stacey the Berry's with burns and explained that it was the Wallaces that did it. Soon they set out to look for another store to visit, in so boycotting the Wallace store. Cassie, TJ and Stacey are brought by Big Ma to visit Strawberry. In a store, Cassie faces social injustice as they were not served first because of their race and is forced out the store. She does not understand it. She bumps into Lillian Jean Simms and her dad, Charlie Simms, pushes her off the walk way and demands an apology. Uncle Hammer comes for a visit and gets very angry after hearing the Strawberry incident with the Simms and runs out to kill Charlie Simms, but Mr. Morrison stops him in time. Uncle Hammer give Stacey a sweater. TJ manages to trick Stacey out of it. Mr. Morrison shares how his family died and the children are requested by their father to listen to the history of how slavery was and how the black people then were being treated. Jeremy visits Stacey on Christmas day and gives him a present. Asking about their friendship, Papa says that it was fine, but friendship with whites often lead to trouble. Mr. Jamison visits to give Big Ma legal documents to hand the owner of the land to Uncle hammer and Papa. Jamison says that he is willing to back the credit of the families that want to boycott the Wallace store and shop at Vicksburg. Soon, the Logans are

transporting goods from Vicksburg to sharecropping families in their community Harland Granger comes and threatens that the bank will foreclose on the loan the Logan's took out to buy their property if they continue boycotting the Wallace store and buying their goods at Vicksburg. Uncle Hammer leaves around New Year's. Papa talks to Cassie about the incident with Lillian Jean. He tells her to take action only if she must, and she mustn't do anything that Charlie Simms would hear about. January 1934 February Spring 1934 Cassie pretends to be nice to Lillian Jean in a plan to extract her revenge on her. She carried LillianJean's books around and in return, she receives all Lillian Jean's secrets. Cassie finally beats Lillian Jean up and manages to keep her both quiet and humiliated as Cassie threatens to tells everyone her secrets if she doesn't keep quiet. Harland Granger, Kaleb Wallace and another school board member comes to visit the school and accuses Mama of altering textbook content and teaching students "inappropriate" matters and then fires her. The Logan children find out it was TJ who told them about the school textbooks in revenge for receiving a terrible fail in a recent examination sent by Mama. They turn on TJ, no longer being one of their friends.

Timeline of Events/Actions:Students in school are released for cotton-picking season. Rumors spread about TJ hanging around RW and Melvin Simms, whom everybody knows they were just using TJ. Granger and other plantation owners threatened their sharecroppers doing the boycotting that if that was continued, to decrease their pay and kick them off their land, even place the men on the chain gang unless they begin shopping at the Wallace store again. So families asked Papa to stop buying their share at Vicksburg. On the way back from their trip from Vicksburg, Stacey, Papa and Mr. Morrison are ambushed. While Papa was fixing the sabotaged wagon, night men come and shoot him, the bullet grazing the side of his head. The horse is spooked and drags the wagon wheels over leg, breaking it. Mr. Morrison go out to fight the men, finding that it was the Wallaces after breaking Dewberry Wallace's back. Papa cannot head back to Louisiana for work because of his leg and the family is left without enough finances. The bank asks for the loan on the land to be paid for completely, and Papa needed Uncle Hammer to pay for it. Uncle Hammer sells his car for the money, happy to help keep the land that the family is so reliant on. TJ comes to show off his new friends, RW and Melvin Simms, trying to impress the Logan children with his new clothes and the children are disgusted.

TJ followed RW and Melvin to Strawberry thinking that they would give him the Last night of the Revival pearl-handed pistol promised to him. Instead, they robbed the store and attacked the owners. Since TJ was the only one without masks he was accused and other black children of doing the deed. The might men and lynching mob came to take him when he tried to get away in the Logan's property. Papa and Mr. Morrison go to the Avery household where the mob was after hearing from the Logan children who were spying the event in hiding that the mob planned to hang TJ as well as Mr. Morrison and Papa themselves. It is noticed that the cotton fields catch fire set by Papa and the lynch mob is distracted and both white and black men work together to put the fire out. Saving everybody but TJ is still arrested and sentenced to be hung for robbery.

About the Author:Mildred D. Taylor was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1943, spending most of her childhood in Ohio where racism was not as strong. She joined the Peace Corp and spent two years teaching English and history on

top of graduation from the University of Toledo. The inspiration for her novels came from the stories she heard from her parents and grandparents. They had told her stories of the dignity and the survival of people living in a society allowed on few rights. These stories were about slavery and the days following breaking away from the hold of racism. She took her setting from the visualization of her grandparents house that was built by her great-grandparents in the beginning of the century located in Mississippi. They talked mostly of the history of the land and that was where Taylor first began to imagine all the families who had known and owned the land before her time. After hearing these stories, she felt the need to share the experiences she felt from the stories told to her. She taught history and valuable lessons within her novel that she passed on from the original tales from her grandparents.