Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Book Cover

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a historical fiction book written by Mildred D. Taylor. The novel won the 1977 Newbery Medal. The novel explores the struggles of African Americans in 1930s Southern Mississippi through the perspective of nine-year-old Cassie Logan. Taylor uses the novel to highlight several themes including Jim Crow segregation, Black landownership, sharecropping, the Great Depression, and lynching. [1]

Plot

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie's story—Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having land of their own is so crucial to the Logan family, even as she figures out how to draw strength from her own feeling of poise and sense of pride. [2]

Controversy

The story builds to a fiery climax and features violence motivated by racial prejudice. A family is undermined by a white neighbor and by fire; a crowd makes threats against people; three men are set on fire; children are beaten up by their teachers and parents; a teen boy is bullied by some older men, one man gets shot, and there are vague references to rape. [3]

References

  1. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 25 2021.
  2. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Amazon. Retrieved January 25 2021.
  3. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Common Sense Media. Retrieved January 25 2021.