Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
By: Mildred D. Taylor
ISBN-13: 9780140384512
Cassie Logan, the narrator, is the spirited 9 year old girl living in 1933 on the 400-acre farm in Mississippi with her family. The Logan family works extremely hard trying to keep up their farm while facing the many racial prejudices that existed during this time period. Cassie and her brothers have to tread for miles to attend the badly equipped schoolhouse where they are a part of a class that uses hand-me-down supplies. Everyday they have to walk past the large Whites school building while having to watch the school bus pass them on the same road, while having the kids laughing and saying discriminating things as they get filled with mud and dust from the bus. Throughout the book there are several acts of prejudice towards the blacks in the community. The first is the Wallace boys burning and even killing some black men at the local store. Mama and Papa decide that the local store is no place for the children and they make it known that they aren’t allowed to go there. Because of another fight at the store, Mama tries to get the community involved and boycott from buying goods from there. Since Papa is away most of the time working and trying to make a good life for his family, Mama and Papa’s mother are trying to keep up with the children and the discriminating issues that are surrounding the community. The Whites in the neighboring towns are trying to stir things up by planning and going through with different attacks on the local black residents. Papa brings home a friend (L.T.) that got fired from his local job, for fighting with a white, to help and look after his land and family. T.J., the trouble-making teen and the (sort-of) friend of the Logan children teams up with two trouble-making Whites (Melvin and R.W.) that end up not being friends at all. Melvin and R.W. decide to take T.J. along with them on a vicious murdering route and then frame him to taking the fall for it. T.J.’s ultimate outcome for his actions is to be murdered; to stop the local chaotic scene in town Papa starts a fire in the cotton field. By doing this it the blacks and whites has to join forces in order to be able to put out the fire, which is a local commodity for all.


Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry is a realistic piece in the genre of fiction that takes you through historical events that sufficiently demonstrate showing how life was throughout this time period of the 1930s. This story puts together the overlying themes of the importance of family while fighting against the evil strings of racism. The story is told through the voice of Cassie Logan, who the author does a fantastic job putting it into perspective the kind of life those individuals led during that time period. The importance of family shines through the entire novel as the Logan family demonstrates what it means to “stick together” during the hard times. Cassie firmly believes in the value of family ties as she has witnessed through Big Ma and Papa that it is about never abandoning one another, especially during the rough times. During this rough time, this novel also brings the issue of Hope when all seems lost. Numerous troubling events effect many characters and the community of this piece with the sense that all might be lost, especially through the racist acts; but by the end of the text both white and black people have to work together to extinguish the flames of the cotton field. This situation shows the ray of hope of overcoming these racial barriers as they work together to achieve the common goal to save the cotton commodity while effectively working through the racial differences altogether. The final theme that is evident throughout the text is how unfair and prejudice life can be, especially when living in the South of this time period. Racism is everywhere and can effect anyone, and through this novel it shows how one is able to overcome many obstacles, simple to very life-threatening, if you use your strong will to do so.
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry is a novel that puts life in the 1930s into perspective for readers today. It is about giving a historical feel to what life was like as a black family living in the South, as it is told through Cassie Logan life experiences. I believe this text is an excellent piece and source of information for all readers to enjoy. This text brings you into the story and life of those during this time period as you are able to imagine yourself taking the journey as well. This piece of literature also brings about the historical feel of what being a part of the African American culture was like living in a “white” dominant society. I believe this novel puts into perspective how much turmoil the blacks had to go through and are still going through today. It is a wonderful piece of adventure and historical events that I would use within my future classroom to represent this time period.

This piece of literature is more than a work of fiction as it is retells many events that came from Mildred Taylor's own family's life while being a portrayal of an important record of an African-American experience throughout a our country's very complicated history. It is a fictionalized piece that works through actual real life events that were told to her from her father's perspective. Even though oral tradition has some discrepencies, Mildred Taylor is able to retell these different events as she and her family were all insiders of these different experiences.

Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. New York: Penguin Young Readers Group, 2002.