Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Nelson Mandela once remarked, “When people are determined they can overcome anything.” In literature, one can explore what it really means to be determined, to turn injustice into fuel to motivate the struggle to build a more just society. In Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala, Malala is faced with injustice in the form of education being denied her because she is a girl. She finds herself speaking up for what is right—namely, that girls should get an education just like boys. Similarly, in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor, Cassie deals with the ongoing issue of racism. Cassie is not afraid to speak her mind even if she knows she’ll get hurt by doing so. Through an analysis of these texts, we see that when someone is faced with

Early on, Little Man and Cassie are standing and waiting at the bus stop when the bus goes right by them and doesn’t even acknowledge them standing there. Little Man demands, “Well, where’s our bus?” Cassie replies, “We ain't got one” (Taylor, 13-14). Little Man is confused about why the bus passed them but Cassie knows that the reason they were passed by is that they are black. While the other kids ride by on the bus, they have to walk an hour to and from school every day, just because their skin is a different color. As Cassie is becoming self-aware of the problem, she also tells Little Man about it too because she wants to clue him in to the reality of racism going on in their town because it’s important. The Great Depression, when a lot of families were poor, had already put the children at a disadvantage to start their lives, which was compounded by the fact that they were black. Cassie and her brothers are going to have to live in this world where they are being judged by their race instead of, as Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, “by the contents of their character.” They cannot help being who they are on the outside and they have to experience not being able to get the same privileges/services as other people. This is the start of Cassie becoming conscious about the injustice around

One example of this in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is when Cassie is casually shopping in Mr. Barnett’s store and trying to do a transaction with T.J, while Mr. Barnett stops waiting on them every five seconds to help out white customers. But little does anyone know Mr. Barnett is about to humiliate Cassie. Cassie says to Mr. Barnett, “And you ought not be waiting on everybody ‘fore you wait on us “... Cassie then says to T.J., “I know it and you know it, but Mr. Barnett doesn’t know it, and that’s where the trouble is” (Taylor, 111). When Cassie and T.J are at Barnett Mercantile shop they both are aware of the fact that Mr. Barnett is a racist person which he proves by calling Cassie and T.J. a racial slur. Cassie gets upset with Mr. Barnett for ignoring them while they wait to purchase their items, and tells Mr. Barnett to actually pay attention to them. After that, Mr. Barnett calls them “n******.” Cassie stands up for herself in this moment when she is being belittled by a very racist man. She calls him out on his actions and defends herself when someone is being racist to her. She is doing what's right and no one else in that store will stand up for Cassie except herself. By doing so she is setting a good example for those unwilling to act and she is taking action against the