In the case of educational resources, when Cassie and Little Man open their much awaited new books, they find a table on the inside front cover that shows the condition and the names of the previous owners. Against white children it lists good or excellent condition and only reaches the blacks when poor condition, ‘he just stood staring down at the open book, shivering with indignant anger’ by this incident the audience empathise towards Little Man. The audience are also angry because of the condition of the books. The blacks are thought to be inferior because of the colour of their skin and as a consequence they have poor conditioned resources, this makes Cassie and Little Man hurt and angry. When they open the book the table inside shows an ignorant attitude towards the black children which they interpret in a distressing way.
Then Mr Morrison arrives to live on the Logan’s land ‘Mr Morrison was a quiet man, almost shy’. Mr Morrison is brought into the story by Papa because he is aware of the unnerving burnings happening in the community. Papa is hoping that because of Mr Morrison’s size he will be able to intimidate the whites.
The digging of the hole is a happy and amusing part of the story because it is pure sweet revenge, ‘Stacey and I shovelled ragged holes almost a yard wide and a foot deep towards each other’. This incident occurs when the Logan children decide that they have had enough of acceptance towards the behaviour of the driver on the bus and Stacey comes up with the idea of digging the hole so that the bus gets stuck in the mud and the white children have to walk like they do. This action makes the reader feel delighted and rather amused with the revenge.
Notably, Cassie seeing the mysterious night men is a very alarming piece of tension, ‘the man walked slowly up the drive!’ This event happens when Cassie goes out onto the porch because she hears Jason her dog barking outside. She goes out and sees caravans and cars pull up. This is a high level piece of tension because the night men are unknown to Cassie and to the reader. This occurs after the children dig the hole so Cassie assumes that they have come to take her, Stacey, Little Man and Christopher John away because the bus broke down as a result of the hole. The night men also make the reader worried for Cassie.
The ripping of the cheat notes and the whipping from Mama to Stacey is tension filled. Stacey is in his mother’s class at school, and a test is set. T.J finds the answers when on a visit to the Logan’s, ‘well we were in the middle of the examinations and ole T.J slips out these cheat notes’. T.J is Stacey Logan’s best friend. In this incident T.J betrays Stacey and the readers in the way that they think they could count on him. The language is full of anger and hatred.
The visit to the Berry’s house when they see the result of Mr Berry’s burning is a depressing and passionate part of the story, ‘see Mr Berry, this could be me or you’. The readers feel sorry for the black community and what they have to accept into their lives. They also do not want the same thing to happen to the Logan’s because they have got to know them and know that they are good people.
When Big Ma takes Cassie, T.J and Stacey to Strawberry, Cassie is talked to as if she were a piece of dirt ‘a tear trickled down Cassie’s cheek. This was the most cruel day in her life’. When Cassie is walking along the pavement after waiting so long to be served at the market, she is angry and frustrated and as a result she accidentally bumps into Lillian Jean Simms, a white girl who attends the Jefferson Davis School. Mr Simms, Lillian’s father, sees this and makes Cassie apologise. Cassie refuses because of her anger and Big Ma overhears. Cassie is surprised because Big Ma forces her to apologise when she normally sticks up for Cassie. The reader feels sympathy towards Cassie because of her hurt feelings.
Cassie is feeling that the unfair attitudes of the whites is getting too much for her and thinks that Big Ma has turned against her. At home her mother speaks to her and says ‘everyone on this earth is born something’ which makes Cassie think of her revenge plan against Lillian Jean. She befriends Lillian Jean in order to humiliate her when Lillian Jean thinks that she has the upper hand.
As you can see this novel shows a lot of things that the black community had to put up with. Its description of social relationships in the1930s Mississippi remains relevant today. The novel brings to life the consequences of slavery and racist attitudes. For me this book shows that if there was enough love and acceptance in the world things like this would not happen and everyone could live their lives as themselves and not be afraid.
