During the civil rights movement in the 1960’s, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor was written about the 1930’s in the racist South telling how a black family had to survive a terrible life. Even though racism is something that people see as a problem of the past, in reality, it is still going on today. Therefore, Taylor’s novel is still relevant today. She communicates racism through many symbols using everyday things, such as a school bus, property/house/land and a car, things that are commonly taken for granted. The bus is a symbol of racism in this novel because only the whites get a bus, plus the bus driver likes to “entertain” his white passengers. As the black Logan kids are walking to school, in their Sunday clothes no less, because they don’t have a bus, they keep glancing over their shoulders to make sure that the white kids bus doesn’t get them dusty. When Little Man sees the bus coming, he finally understands …show more content…
But the Logan’s fight against this injustice with all they have. Papa (David Logan) has just received a note from the bank saying that they are advancing the loan and want it now. When Papa decides that he is going to go to the bank, Mama objects to which he responds, “‘Mary, don’t you understand they’re trying to take the land?’ Papa said, his voice rising so that we heard” (232). It is now clear that Harlan Granger and the bank want the land back, which infuriates Papa. Taylor uses the land as a symbol of unfairness and racism because Harlan Granger and the bank feel that they are superior to blacks, and, therefore, they can cheat the black family by advancing the loan, knowing that the blacks don’t have enough money at the time. The Logans can’t pay the loan back because the crops have not come to harvest time yet. Even though the land and the bus play a huge part in this novel as symbols of racism, in addition Uncle Hammer’s 1930 Packard plays a part