Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a 1976 young adult novel by American author Mildred D. Taylor. It is a sequel to her 1975 novella Song of the Trees and is the second book in the Logan Family Saga. Set in Mississippi during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Logan family, Black landowners facing racial injustice. Narrated by Cassie Logan, the story follows the family’s struggles against racism and economic hardship. For example, Mr. Granger, a landowner who keeps a number of black families working his land as sharecroppers and who wants to get back 400 acres of land his ancestors sold to the Logans, threatens to make the Logans lose their land if they don’t stop the boycott. Papa ignores the threat. On the way back from a trip to Vicksburg, the Wallaces attack Papa, Mr. Morrison, and Stacey. Papa’s leg is badly injured. Mr. Morrison fights off the Wallaces, hurting two of them badly. It explores themes of resilience, solidarity, and the pursuit of justice in the face of systemic oppression. The book was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1977.
Every life matters. We should cherish every life. We shouldn’t have opinion on skin colors. This is called segregation. Segregation happened in the USA between white and black people. White people disabled Black people to many jobs and let them be slaves. For example, black can’t learn with white, black can’t work with white, black also can’t eat with white. Fortunately, more U.S. people started to notice this urgent problem and started to take action; Slavery was forbidden in the North but still going in the South. In the story, the Logan family was black so they were often jeered, mocked, or even hurt by white man. They want money and land from them. Luckily, there were upstanders from the North and eventually started to weaken this problem. It doesn’t matter with skin color, it matters your personalities, talent, and mind.
Black can also be better than white at some ways. Even though black were mocked by white, they are many black men or women who are good at sports. For example, Usain Bolt is an athletic runner who got over ten gold medals in many worldwide competitions. He also smashed 2 world records replacing 9.58 seconds in the men 100m and 19.19 in men 200m. Also, Serena Williams is an American tennis player who revolutionized women’s tennis with her powerful style of play and who won more Grand Slam singles titles (23) than any other woman or man during the open era. Don’t judge people on the appearance, they may have amazing talent.
Many people would have opinions about themselves or others, but we should only think of yourself. If we made a heart-hurting opinion to others, they would be furious and may do bad actions to us. The best way to do (my parents told me) is to only compare to yourself. For example, I was always faster than my other teammates in hockey; I wanted to laugh at them but later I thought that I need to improve the speed more. In the story background, the white may say, “White is the best, black are ugly!!!” and the black and yellow people may say the opposite. However, they didn’t have the power to resist white people. Never think you are the best and laugh at others, there is always space to improve.
In conclusion, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry written by Mildred D. Taylor, talks about a time in the Great Depression where the Logan family fights against the White as for the injustice and segregation between them. Papa was hurt and T.J. got locked. Every life matters. Everyone is free and we shouldn’t control others. We have our own power to do things and we shouldn’t be judge on appearance. Even if someone looks ugly, we shouldn’t mock them because they may have great talent. Shortly, everyone, every living thing is free.
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