As they drove by shops they entered to a ‘wide field with wooden stalls’. Near the entrance were already several wagons and pickups already parked. However, Big Ma drove to the other side of the field where only two wagons were stationed. Cassie was inquisitive to why Big Ma parked in an isolated spot: ‘‘What the devil we doing way back here then! Can’t nobody see us’. ‘Them’s white folks’ wagons’’, replies Big Ma. This is a very significant quote because Mildred Taylor shows us that black people weren’t authorized to park their wagons near the entrance just because of the colour of their skin. There was no integrity for black people. The black person was always regarded as the guilty party. As a result the white people were virtually at liberty to treat black people as they wished. ‘Now, hush up and help me get this food out’. This quote shows us that Big Ma doesn’t want a loud conversation and it suggests that it is not safe to take any chances. This is Cassie’s first confrontation that introduces her to racism outside her immediate environment.
Later on Big Ma goes to see Mr. Jamison at his office to do business with him. T.J is disgusted that Big Ma wants to see ‘that ole white man’.
T.J. attempts to persuade Stacey so that they can go to the mercantile store. Stacey, foolishly, is influenced and goes along with T.J.’s initiative without paying attention to Cassie when she reminds him that Big Ma said ‘stay here!’ Big Ma wanted them to stay out of trouble, since they are not wise enough to deal and be able to cope with white racists if they were to be in dilemma. As T.J., Stacey and Cassie enter ‘The Barnett Mercantile’, T.J. directs them towards a counter at the far corner of the room. T.J. is mesmerized by the ‘pearl-handled’ gun which lay under the glass-top counter. Our attitude towards T.J. is becoming more and more negative. His behaviour becomes
increasingly disturbing because he says: ‘I get me that gun and nobody gonna mess with me. I wouldn’t need nobody’. T.J.’s words hold great irony as at the end of the novel he is involved in an armed robbery. And in the sequel to ‘Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry’, ‘Let the Circle be Unbroken’, he goes on trial for murder.
T.J. hands his list over to Mr. Barnett who studies the list then walks over to another counter and begins filling the order, but before he finishes a white woman calls, ‘Mr Barnett, you waiting on anybody just now?’ Mr Barnett turns around, ‘Just them,’ he says indicating them ‘with a wave of his hand’. This biased comment confers on us the idea that Mr Barnett does not show any respect or value towards Cassie, Stacey or TJ as customers treating them with insolence and contempt.
After Mr Barnett had finished filling the order for the white woman, he picked up T.J.’s list, but before he had moved on to the next item his wife calls for him and he walks off to help her out. So they waited anxiously several minutes for his return. Stacey could not loiter any longer for Mr Barnett to arrive and serve T.J., therefore he marches outside with Cassie. Conversely, Cassie turns around and decides to remind Mr Barnett about T.J.’s order as he might have forgotten about it. She walks up to him and clarifies the circumstances, but he doesn’t look up, so she tugs on his ‘shirt sleeve to get his attention’. He ‘recoiled’ as if she had struck him. Obviously the store-owner was used to not only treating blacks in this way, but in them putting up with it. However, Cassie was a high spirited young lady who, as yet, was not weighed down by the ‘yoke of racism’. The word ‘recoiled’ also hints at what is to come; for it is Mr Barnett whose store is to be raided by T.J. and the Simms brother at the climax of the novel.
While Cassie strives to elucidate the situation, Barnett is infuriated and shrieks ‘whose little nigger is this!’ Cassie was angry and humiliated as everyone in the store turned and stared at her. Stacey appeared and held her hand. Cassie was thrilled to see her brother by her side, although when she yearned for help Stacey did not respond. Mr Barnett informed him to ‘make sure she don’t come back till yo’ mammy teach her what she is.’ He wanted Cassie to realize that she and other black people are second-class citizens; consequently deems that he has the power to treat them as he desires. Cassie was exasperated at the way Mr Barnett treats them in his store. The racial injustice makes her furious and she finds it difficult to control her tongue.
Stacey angrily rushes outside with Cassie and orders her to ‘shut up’. He then crosses the street still irate to Cassie’s foolish act. While Cassie tries to figure out why Mr Barnett acted the way he did, she stumbles into Lillian Jean, Jeremy’s big sister. She tells her to apologize but Cassie exclaims that Lillian Jean had bumped into her. Subsequently, Cassie could not bother to have a quarrel with her as she had other things on her mind, so she says ‘sorry’. Lillian Jean doesn’t find it adequate; she tells her to get down in the road then says ‘maybe that way you won’t be bumping into decent white folks with your little nasty self’. This statement to Cassie discriminates and shows her how disgusting white racists the Simms’s really are. Lillian Jean’s father arrives, grabs Cassie by the arm and throws her into the middle of the street. He forces her to make an apology, but Cassie sprints directly for the wagon. Unexpectedly, Big Ma appears and stops her. She wrathfully urges her to apologize to Lillian Jean. Cassie was disorientated to why Big Ma didn’t support her when she was in need for her help. Big Ma has a more complicated way of dealing with racism.
However, she is an old woman and she had little choice. If Big Ma were to refuse, she knew that they would have to face the consequences, therefore she forced Cassie to act contritely. Crushed and heartbroken, she apologizes to Lillian Jean. Then turns round and runs into the back of the wagon.
A day that began full of expectations went from bad to worse. Cassie’s silence on the return journey home is a reflection of the hurt and humiliation she had suffered. Cassie’s first real taste of racism had totally subdued this normally impulsive and lively nine-year-old. Cassie is an enthusiastic girl trapped in an inhumane and disgraceful racial system.
Along with her brothers, Cassie is learning the hard way about racism prevalent in the deep south of the United States at that time. She cannot comprehend as to why people of her skin colour have to back down in the face of whites, even when they have done nothing wrong. This is even more
incomprehensible as Big Ma is a very strong character who Cassie admires greatly. Apologising to Lillian Jean is mortification that the headstrong Cassie finds almost impossible to bear. She is not the sort of girl to forget what has happened and later in the novel, it is no surprise that she is able to avenge her current humiliation. There is a certain amount of irony in the name ‘Strawberry’ which for Cassie left rather a bitter taste in the mouth. She has learnt from hard experience that things aren’t always what they seem.
