Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Analysis

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry takes place in rural Mississippi, where there are places with quaint names like "Strawberry." We never know the name of the town where Cassie and her family live. What...

The story is told from Cassie's point-of-view. So we only know what Cassie knows at any given time—which isn't always much, since she's only nine years old.A story told by a nine-year-old could g...

Historical FictionLet's see: Fictional characters? Check. Real-life setting? Check. Time period from the past? Check. We think it's safe to say that we're dealing with historical fiction here. Cass...

Taylor doesn't need to shout at us about her message of racial injustice, because the events speak for themselves. Like Cassie's run-in with Lillian Jean Simms in Strawberry: Behind him were his so...

Okay, we admit that sounds contradictory. But check it out:Taylor uses a lot of plain dialogue in conversations between characters. Once you get used to the dialect, the speaking style is quite tru...

Well, first, check out the "Epigraph" section, and then come back. (And here's some appropriate tuneage while you're doing it.)Great. All set? Onwards and upwards, then.The title is the first line...

Have you ever heard the term "negro spiritual?" Well, these "spirituals," or religious-based songs, were originally sung by slaves in the fields, and then handed down through African-American churc...

Did we mention that we're dealing with some pretty heavy stuff in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry? Because we are. In the end, T.J. has been taken away to jail for killing Mr. Barnett, and Papa has st...

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry uses relatively simple language to tell a very weighty story about racism, injustice and inequality in the Depression-era American South. Keep in mind that Cassie, our...

Down and Out in Rural MississippiThe opening chapters give us some much-needed exposition. We find out that racial tensions are running high in Cassie's town—really high. So high that a few men h...

Taylor's characters are way autobiographical. Most are based on her own family members. She modeled David and Stacey Logan on her grandfather and father. (source) When the world called... Mildred...

family Bible (1.119)W.E.B. DuBois, The Negro (4.114)Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers (7.72, 7.73)Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (7.72)Aesop's Fables (7.72)Uncle Tom...