Christopher-John, Cassie’s second youngest brother, is mentioned twice, but only by name with no description given apart from the fact that he was “not too pleased about the clothing or school either”. Later on he is given a short description of his character by Cassie which gives me the impression that he is a polite young man who likes to stay cheerful and in a good mood regardless of the circumstances. I also got the impression that he minded his own business and was quite quiet because the first time he speaks is when T.J. Avery mentions the burning of the Berry’s, which he appears quite frightened about.
Mildred Taylor uses the different method of introducing Christopher-John because she is describing him though Cassie’s eyes and her knowledge of being his sister which gives it a more personal approach than just describing what is on the outside without actually stating what is on the inside because just knowing what a character looks like will not give the reader an insight into his personality or beliefs. This method provides some variation to the description of characters because if all the characters were introduced the same way it would make the reader bored and make the beginning of the story read as if each description was grouped together and you were supposed to know about each character before anything happens. If that was done, it wouldn’t allow the reader to use his or her imagination to construct a mental image of the characters and this would cause them to become uninterested in what is happening because they would be being told the story and not reading it in the sense that they would not be given freedom of thought.
The first characters name to be mention in the whole story is Little Man’s and that is because Cassie is addressing him as he is slowing down the group of people who are on their way to school in their best clothes on their first day of this term. My first impression of him which I got from the second paragraph was that he didn’t like getting anything dirty at all, and tried his best to see it that way and that he was also looking forward to his first day of school, which was the opposite to the others. He gave me the impression of the direct opposite of a young boy, as I would have thought he wouldn’t have wanted to go to school or stay clean.
Mildred Taylor introduces Little Man in another different way because he is described while Cassie is observing him, as if she is writing down exactly what she is seeing at the time whereas Christopher-John’s description is more like an aside to what is happening. The portrait of Little Man is built up gradually as you read about his interactions with the other characters and this builds up layers of details to give the reader on big picture of him.
The other character that is mentioned throughout the first chapter who you don’t actually meet until the end is Mama, and even thought there is no description of her I immediately got the impression that she was in charge of the children and their lives as she was mentioned as a threat at first and then as a person to turn to when Cassie and Little Man have the episode about the books. The only real information that is given about Mama is just before she is encountered, and it is a description of her hair and nothing else which leaves the rest up to the reader’s imagination.
Mildred Taylor also succeeds in accomplishing a little background to the story as she describes the history of the Logan land and the land around it which gives the story a setting. This is important as this establishes the basic facts about who owns what and how the local area operates and differentiates between black and white people. The author sets the story straight generally about how everyone’s lives interact with each others, including how people make money and how the children are educated. She also shows the importance of family life because the children are all interacting with each other and they are always mentioning Mama and I think these two facts will come into play greatly at the end of the story. Mildred Taylor also gives the reader information about the situation in history at the time including the Logan land but more importantly how black people and white people have got a long in the past which I think will give the reader some background about why certain people act in certain ways and why something’s have come to be.
Mildred Taylor also slips in little pieces of information along the way about how each character reacts with each other and gives the author and overall feel of how they are now as if suggesting that they won’t be like this later on in the story. The first chapter is written very cleverly because it combines character introductions, background information and little pieces of information to make this chapter and the rest of the story piece together and I think Mildred Taylor has made it very successful in getting all this information across to the reader.
