Blog Nov. 16, 2015

Prompt: Analyze the theme throughout your book. 

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor 

            One of the themes is the the book Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is family. The Logan family loves eachother and would do anything to protect one another. In the book the Logan's show that they deeply care about their family. When Papa got hurt Mama helped him, because she knew he was badly hurt. The kids were very scared for Papa. They were also very angry and wanted to know who hurt him. Also when Cassie was pushed on the street by Lillian Jean's father her family had different ways of seeing how to solve the situation. Mama wanted to just leave it alone, because she thought it might become a worse situation, and might hurt the family. Uncle Hammer was very upset and wanted to do something to the father, because he felt it was wrong to do that and wanted to protect his family. Cassie's best friends are her siblings. She rarely does anything without them and doesn't seem to have any relationship with the kids at her school. Showing that her family are like her friends. 

            Another theme in the book is race. The story takes place before the Civil Rights Movement, so race is a major concern in the book. Th book shows that back then race did matter a lot when it came to certain things. In different parts of the book it shows how the black people were treated very poorly compared to the white people. In one part of book the black school received books, inside of the book it showed the race of the student and the quality the book was given to them. For their books it said "Very Poor" and for the white students. Lot of them said "New", "Excellent", and "Good". This showed that because of their race they got poor books while the white children got good books. People treated other people so differently, because of their races. 

            Another theme in the book is justice and injustice. Throughout the book there are many examples of people being treated fairly and unfairly. The Logan family have to face the many kinds unfairness caused by the racist oppression of the time period. In the book at one point the kids go to a store where they receive racist remarks toward them. Another time at a store Cassie and her brother went to the cashier to make their order when they were interrupted. A white man comes and the cashier goes to him before finishing their order. Then a white girl comes and the cashier once again goes to her before finishing their order. When Cassie makes it clear to him that that was not fair since they were there first he replys with, "Whose little nigger is this?" For a much more serious matter a man was burned to death for speaking to a white women. The Logan family has to grow up learning how to deal with these injustices. The book shows how white people are treated with respect while most of the time the black people were treated disrespectfully.