Treatment Of Negroes In Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry Essay, Research Paper

1930?s Mississippi was a harsh place for black

people. Slavery had finished but white people still treated black people like

slaves. Mildred Taylor wrote of how she learnt to grow and understand more

about injustice. Cassie, the main character tells us what it was like to be

living at that time in America. In the essay I will discuss about how blacks

got ignored in shops and the unjust education system. The blacks had few rights

and the whites controlled their lives in almost everyway.Cassie tells us about how unfair the education

system was. Such as one incident when their teacher tells the children that

they have new books. They were all excited until Little Man saw the front page,

which shows that the books have been passed down by whites and at the bottom of

the page is the word ?nigger?. It said that the condition of the book was very

poor. Another example is the description of the white school.?Behind the building was a wide sports field around which

were scattered rows of tiered gray looking benches?and ?In front of it were two

yellow buses?. These two examples show how wonderful the white

school is compared to the gGreat Faith Elementary school. The blacks didn?t

have a sport field while the whites did; the blacks had nothing compared to the

whites and that wasn?t right. Also the blacks had to walk to school while the

whites travelled by bus. This is not right and it shows just one point of how

badly the blacks where treated by the whites.Another example of injustice is when the education

board sacks Mama. They accuse her of teaching the wrong syllabus as she wished

to deliver a curriculum suitable for black people.In Strawberry we see some horrible incidents of

prejudice. The blacks get the worst spot for selling their goods when the

whites get the best spot. In Strawberry Cassie went to the Barnett store and Mr

Barnett was being very unjust to Cassie because she was next in line and he let

a white child come in front of her. After leaving the store Cassie tries to

stand up for herself when Lillian Jean knocks her down. At that moment Cassie

is too young to understand the way things were.?She made me apologize to that ? ole ugly Lillian jean

?bout something wasn?t even my fault?.In Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry there is a

situations where Stacey has had enough of the white bus splashing them with mud

and making them jump off the road. Stacey takes revenage by digging a ditch in

the road. ?The bus rattled up the road?, ?We could hear the students sqealing

with delight?. The bus got stuck in the road and so the white children had to

walk home. Stacey was angry with them even with he didn?t know them so he took

revenge so for one day they would feel how all the blacks feel all their lives.

The Logan children were very happy but later on they become really worried and

scared.The main reason they were scared was because of the

night men. The night men are a group of whites who attack blacks. The reason

why the children were scared is because they think that the night men are after

them because of the bus incident. The night men affected Cassie the most. In

the book Mr Avery comes in and says, ?I lay paralysed with fear?. She saw the

headlight of a car come and stop and go. This fear, which Cassie had, didn?t go

away. We know this because later in the book Mama and Big Ma notice that Cassie

isn?t acting like herself and that she is staying at home more. A group of

white men had this affect on the children not just Cassie. This shows that the

whites felt protected at night but the blacks couldn?t be because one night the

night men could come.Not only did the night men scare Cassie they also burned

the Berrys. The Berry were burned because of some white men who were drunk said

to each other ?that the nigger Sallie Ann was flirtin with her?. Henrietta

Toggins who was kin to the berry?s heard this and told John Berry to get out of

there as soon as they got the gas. The white men caught up after John had taken

Henrietta home. When John noticed that he had to stop so he stopped at his

uncles. The white men dragged them both out and set lit them and the boys. Soon

after Henrietta told the sheriff about the incident but got ignored just

because she was black. Later in the book Mrs Silas Lanier told us ?John Henry

died last night?. This shows the awful things that could happen to the black

people in the community.In Chapter Nine Papa tells mama ?I think I?ll take

Stacey with me?. Papa is referring to Vickburg. This is the place were Papa got

his leg shot. From Stacey in Chapter Nine we learn that the wheels came off and

that Mr Morrison and Papa thought that someone had been messing with them.

Stacey explains to the children that he saw two boys near the wagon and also

that papa got shot in the leg while putting the first one on. He describes how

Mr Morrison picked one man up and flung him to the ground. F This shows how

that even when they tried to help the community the whites might be ready to

stop them.Being shot is nothing compared to what TJ went

through in the last chapter. TJ nearly died because the Simms brothers told

everybody that TJ was part of the attack on the Barnett?s and that they saw him

run off. When some whites heard about this they went to TJ?s house and dragged

him out and kicked him. In the book it says that TJ, ?let out a cry of pain?.

Stacey sees what is happening and runs to Papa for help. Papa burns a quarter

or the cotton in his effort to save TJ. This makes the people forget about TJ

and help with the fire. The end of the book was very sad but hopeful atmosphere

as Cassie thinks about everything that has happened and learns to accept the

way her community is treated.At that time, the life of black people was extremely

hard. They constantly had to watch your back and to be guarded from the night

men. Now in the year 2001 the blacks and whites are equal but still now there

is still racist people who cause hurt because they don?t like the colour of a

person?s skin. Mildred Taylor?s book teachers us about learning us about

learning to be more tolerant by showing the pain than injustice can cause.

36e