Jane starts to resist the unfairness; and she continues to struggle against unfair treatment throughout the novel. She compares herself to a rebellious slave with John as a slave driver.
The servants of the Reeds are thoroughly shocked at Jane’s resistant and rebellious behaviour even though they are treated in the same way, this shows that in Victorian times it was always the case that the children are never heard unless spoken to, and is never so stubborn or rebellious but always accepts the guardian/parents’ wishes and never disagrees or speaks back. By having this unconventional heroin Charlotte Brontë can argue effectively against society through the character.
Mrs Reed soon requests for Jane to go to school and Mr Brocklehurst comes to the house, he runs Lowood Institute, which is a charity school for girls. Mr Brocklehurst is a caricature, and Charlotte Brontë uses him as a caricature to show how stupid society is. A caricature is normally a picture of someone exagerating certain aspects of their looks to make them look funny and ridiculous, in writing Mr Brocklehurst is a fanatic of religion and Victorian societies’ issues, who is often made to be funny because of his stupidity.
When Jane first meets Mr Brocklehurst she describes him as a black pillar: ‘I looked up at – a black pillar! – such, at least, appeared to me, at first sight, the straight, narrow, sable-clad shape standing erect on the rug: the grim face at the top was like a carved mask, placed above the shaft by way of capital.’
When Mr Brocklehurst questions Jane,his questions show the strong Victorian attitudes to religion and children. Firstly when Mr Brocklehurst hears that Jane is an apparently naughty girl he asks Jane where the naughty go after death, Jane replies: “They go to hell,” was my ready and orthodox answer’. By stating that her answer was orthodox it shows how she knows it without even thinking and so religion is very important to the Victorian people. Mr Brocklehurst threatens Jane with the prospect of going to hell if she does not repent her sins and become a good girl, this shows how Victorian people teach children, they threaten and force them to believe in God and to become good girls.
When Mr Brocklehurst questions Jane on the parts of the bible she likes and Jane says: “Psalms are not interesting,” Mr Brocklehurst quickly concludes: “That proves you have a wicked heart”’, this shows how quickly and blindly he jumps to conclusions because he has a preconceived ideas on life, people and religion. He also strengthens his attitude towards Jane when he hears that she is apparently deceitful. When he hears that Jane is apparently deceitful, he directly relates deceit as an immoral thing in the eyes of God, and so he is yet again threatening Jane. Jane has enough independence to deny Mr Brocklehurst, this shows her rebelliousness and honesty. However, Mr Brocklehurst is even more of a caricature as we find out later that he is very hypocritical when he stresses that the girls should not have beauty, however his own daughters are very beautifully dressed and they are shocked at the girls at Lowood, Mr Broclehurst says: “my mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh; to teach them to clothe themselves with shamefacednessand sobriety, not with braided hair and costly apparel…”. Then Jane discribes his daughters: ‘They ought to have come a little sooner to have heard his lecture on dress, for they were splendidly attired in velvet, silk and furs.
Lowood is in a ditch and is very hard to see at a distance out of it, this is again showing that she has very little independence and her journey is far from complete.
When Jane arrives at Lowood she is surprised at the kindness of Miss Temple, as Jane had never really experienced such kindness. Because of this kindness and warm-heartedness Jane became very fond of Miss Temple and admired her. Jane also gets to know Helen Burns another girl at the institute who is very religious but not in the same way as Mr Brocklehurst, who is hypocritical and unfair and just selfish, Helen has a very strong faith, her faith is genuine, she is a Christian in the true sense. Even on her deathbed she is happy to be going to a better place. Jane sees Miss Scratchard unfairly beating her and Helen is very much a martyr in that she does not feel anger or hatred towards Miss Scratchard but she is sympathetic and repentant as she feels that Miss Scratchard does not appreciate her and so Helen empathises her, not in a selfish way in that it is her problem, but in a kind and sorrow way. Jane is shocked by this extreme way of life but is amazed at her and admires her. After a few months Jane is doing well at school but then Mr Brocklehurst arrives and tells everyone not to talk to her as she is a liar: “You must be on your guard against her; you must shun her example; if necessary, avoid her company, exclude her from your sports, and shut her out from your converse.”’
The idea soon backfires as Miss Temple proves that she is not a liar. Jane continues at the school for a few more months where she is inspired by Miss Temple and Helen Burns. Helen Burns is more typically Victorian than Jane as she is passive, however Helen was genuinely religious. After a while Typhus disease kills some students whilst Helen becomes more ill. Jane meets Helen on her death bed where Helen sticks to her Christian ways and is kind to Jane. Helen is dead next morning.
After eight years at Lowood, six as pupil, two as a teacher, Miss Temple leaves to another job, this makes Jane very restless. It was not normal for woman in Victorian times to feel restless especially as she was penniless, plain and with no family.When Jane goes to Thornfield she still feels restless until Mr Rochester arrives: ‘Anybody may blame me who likes, when I add further… I climbed the three staircases, raised the trap-door of the attic, and having reached the leads, looked out afar over the sequested field and hill, and along dim sky-line – that I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit;’ this quote shows her wish for more.. In between this quote it states that whilst she climbs up to the roof Mrs Fairfax is down in the kitchens making jellies, this is a contrast of Jane longing for more whilst Mrs Fairfax a normal woman is down in the kitchens happy and busy, not at all restless. Jane also states the following:’ It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility:they must have more action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Jane enjoys the company of Mr Rochester although he is blunt and he does not mind showing his opinion even if it is offensive. Mr Rochester is a very unconventional hero as he is not handsome. Having an unconventional hero and heroin was abnormal at the time, but for this story it makes it appealing, it would not have been interesting with a conventional heroin as it would have been boring if, for example if Jane abided all the rules and was not impulsive there would not be a story.
Jane cannot resist wandering off to the attic where she enjoys the view; this is again showing that she has travelled further towards independence however she is not there yet. Charlotte Brontë is criticising Vistorian society here by having Jane showing that she deserves more.
The idea of having a mad lady in the attic makes the novel a gothic novel as Jane does not know anything about her and why she is there, especially when Jane rescues Mr Rochester from the fire and Jane is surprised that Grace Poole has not been dismissed.
The novel also becomes a romance as Jane falls in love with Mr Rochester.
Soon there is a party at Thornfield where the Ingrams and other high-class friends of Mr Rochester’s arrive. Blanche Ingram is like Mr Brocklehurst, she is a caricature, she is a fanatic of society; she fully discriminates against governesses. When the party first arrive at Thornfield most of them are very ironic in that they are meant to be upper class polite people, however when they saw Jane who curtseyed to them most of them merely stared at her and the one or two who didn’t stare merely bent their heads, this is again Charlotte Brontë criticising the prejudice and dicrimination between different classes. During the party Blanche and her mother talk about their hatred of all governesses in front of Jane: “My dearest, don’t mention governesses; the word makes me nervous. I have suffered martyrdom from their incompetency and caprice. I thank Heaven I have now done with them!”. However this shows the reader and Mr Rochester their selfishness and cruelty. Blanche is used by Charlotte Brontë to show how governesses are discriminated against and by having Jane as the first person narrator it shows that she is not as bad as she is discriminated against.
Blanche Ingram is very arrogant and selfish, she talks about governesses in front of Mr Rochester and Jane as this shows how people treat those with less power then them, and this is part of Charlotte Brontë’s criticism of society.
On one evening of the party Mr Rochester dresses up as a gypsy to find out firstly whether Blanche wishes to marry him for the money and secondly to see how Jane feels about him. When Blanche Ingram asks Mr Rochester as the gypsy whether Mr Rochester has much money he replies no, she then becomes very sad and angry and storms out the room. This shows that the Victorian people generally only married for money or social position and connections, but not for love. So the Victorian high-class woman only married for support as they had very little power in contrast to men. It was also fine at the time to have a man marry a high up social class woman but not for a man to marry a lower class woman, if this happened then he would be frowned upon.
Jane notices Blanche’s cruelty and self-centredness and realizes that Mr Rochester sees her faults also. Later, she judges Mason as having a weak character, despite his handsome looks. Jane is not fooled by appearances, unlike the highborn guests who have such a high opinion of them. Charlotte Brontë is commenting on how firstly you should not judge someone by his or her looks and secondly how the higher class treat those without looks.
Jane returns to her Aunt and two remaining cousins. Jane shows her increased strength of character here: she does not take more money than she is owed from Mr Rochester and she has confidence in travelling to the Reeds as they will not intimidate her any more. She is also much more mature and is able to forgive Aunt Reed although she does not forgive Jane. Aunt Reed dies.
Soon Mr Rochester becomes engaged to Jane and on the day of their marriage Jane finds out about Bertha Mason. Jane does not stay with Mr Rochester as their relationship would not be equal and this is extremely important to Jane. This is also a struggle for independence. Mr Rochester’s attempt to have a bigamous marriage would have been very shocking to a 19th century reader, Jane is strongly set against it and she says: ‘one idea only still throbbed life-like within me- a remembrance of God’. Mr Rochester however is unrepentant though he says: “I am little better than a devil at this moment”’.
Jane leaves and becomes homeless and penniless, she goes hungry and just when she is really desperate St. John, Diana and Mary Rivers take her in. Jane argues with Hannah that she should not judge people by appearances only. However, Jane is relieved to be clean and respectable looking: “no speck of dirt …which seemed to degrade me.” Jane has no prejudice against poor people though she still has her pride.
When Jane discovers that she has inherited £20,000, she is happy about this though not overjoyed. Then she is told that the Rivers are her cousins, she is fully overjoyed by this knowledge and shares the money with them £5,000 each. Jane does not care about moving into high-class circles, she thinks more highly of love and companionship then material things like money and status.
St John asks Jane to marry him after Christmas to go to India with him. He does not have any love for Jane though he sees her as useful for the task of helping those in India. At first Jane backs away from the idea in disgust, Jane would go to India but never marry him on such pretences. St John soon becomes more forceful; he says that if she rejects him he is rejecting God. Charlotte Brontë is again showing how people do not marry for love.
Now that Jane has this money she now has a lot of independence and does not need to stay at the River’s house but she continues to stay there. St John continues to ask Jane to go to India with him and she eventually accepts but then she hears the voice of Mr Rochester calling her, she goes immediately back to Thornfield.
Jane meets Mr Rochester having understood about Bertha Mason’s death and soon they marry, and they are, as Jane wished for, equal. Charlotte Brontë wanted them to be equal to show that the role of women should be the same as men, and they should be equals.
“Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” takes place over an approximate time span of a year when Cassie is about 10 years old.
It was written to strongly criticize the very harsh racism in Mississippi, many people who read the book did not believe it was like this, though it was and this is what Mildred Taylor is trying to show.
The language of “ROTHMC” is much more modern and so it has short, simple sentences and a modern style and so is much more familiar to a reader. However as it is set in America the speech can be confusing especially when Mildred Taylor shows the peoples’ accents, for example: ‘Big Ma clucked her tongue as she surveyed us. “Well go on and get out of ‘em, honey, and wash ‘em out. All of y’all, get out of them clothes and dry yo’selves,”’.
At the time when “ROTHMC” is set is at a time when coloured people have by law just been given equal rights to the white people, although very few white people do not prejudice and discriminate against the black people. Most white people still think the coloured people are not as capable as the whites and should definitely be lower in the hierarchy, they think that the coloured people are sub-human. So at the time blacks were still heavily and harshly discriminated against by most people even those such as sheriffs.
“ROTHMC” begins when Cassie and her brothers are walking to school, which is a few miles away. They do this trip twice daily to go to school, but the white people have a school bus, which they go on. The white school bus always tries to splash them and they have to run up the bank when it comes, whilst the white children laugh. This is the first scene of discrimination not just by the people but also by the government, the government funds the school bus and the white school but the black school is not. This is one form of segregation. On this day all the children become mud-soaked, Mildred Taylor has the reader experience them being completely mud-soaked to make the reader empathise them.
It is Little Man’s first day at school. For the first time they have been given textbooks donated by other people. When Cassie and Little Man look at the inside label of the books and see that they were not good enough for white people but apparently good enough for Nigras (with a small letter for Nigra – nigra, where as ‘White’ a capital letter), they throw down their books in disgust. This rebellious attutude shows the way which the Logan family will continue to struggle to stop racism. This is another act of discrimination, which Mildred Taylor is criticizing.
Soon after this event Papa brings Mr Morrison home to stay and also to protect them while he is away. We hear that Mr Morrison has lost his job because of a fight between him and some white men; the white men did not get fired. This is another case of discrimination where a good man is discriminated against whereas the bad men receives no discrimination against him, by having this unfair discrimination the reader produces a sense of anger towards the white men, making them disagree with racial discrimination. Having Mr Morrison there to protect them also suggests that there is and will be dangers for the black people.
After a few days the shool bus soak Cassie and her brothers. They get annoyed and make a plan. They set a trap, so when the white school bus returns it falls in the trap and cannot go any further forcing the white people to walk home in the rain. This shows the sense of revenge the Logans have, this sense of revenge is also shown when Cassie takes her revenge on Lillian Jean Simms. After Cassie hears that the Ku Klux Klan are about and sees them approaching the house she is terrified that they are after them because of the school bus incident, however they leave without touching them. This is done by Mildred Taylor to show how the black people constantly fear the whites and are affected by being black, in contrast to the white people who would not have such fear.
The Logans find out about yet another attack on a black person, from TJ Avery. As ROTHMC is a 1st person novel it is necessary that there is someone like TJ to keep them informed of events which did not take place in Cassie’s eyes. The person who was attacked: Sam Tatum was an innocent man and this attack is another example from Mildred Taylor to show how extreme the racial discrimination was.
When Stacey is caught fighting at the Wallace Store by Mr Morrison they find out why they should never go to the Wallace Store as the owners are very racist white people who are sick-minded and enjoyed watching the two black people fighting: Melvin Simms says, “Just look at the little niggers come to dance”’. It is necessary for Cassie to follow them to find out about the situation otherwise the audience would never find out about the incident.
We hear about the Logans’ land and why it is so important to them. This is necessary to allow the reader to understand the story later on. It was rare at the time for a black family to have their own land, normally they would be paying to stay on other white peoples’ land, this gives them some power during the story to influence others for example when they try to persuade others not to shop at the Wallace store.
The Logans see Mr and Mrs Berry, Mr Berry has become very disabled and Mrs Berry has a broken arm which has not been fixed. This shows how extreme racial discrimination has affected them making the reader see how stupid and cruel it is. Yet Mr and Mrs Berry are not upset in fact Mrs Berry is cheerful, this shows how they are used to this kind of extreme treatment and how the black people keep their courage up and will not give up in their battle against racism.
The Logans try to persuade others not to go to the Wallace store after the fight with TJ, however many families are so poor and in debt it is impossible to shop at another store when they do not give credit. Only the Logans and a couple of other families manage to shop at another store.
When Big Ma takes Cassie to Strawberry for the first time she does not know what it will be like, it is a big jump in her growing up as she experiences strong racial discrimination. When she, Stacey and TJ are in the Barnett Mercantile they have to wait a long time before they are served, eventually when they are served they are interrupted by a white person, the white shop assistant serves the white girl. When Cassie enquires about his apparent mistake in serving the girl before them the shop assistant ignores her, then when she tugs his sleeve he becomes outraged and says, “Well, you just get your black self back over there and wait some more,” then Cassie responds in temper and he says, “Whose little nigger is this!”’, Cassie then screamed, “I ain’t nobody’s little nigger!”’. As Cassie had not experienced this kind of racism before it shows the audience how she reacted and so how bad it was, her youth and her innocent make this an effective way of criticising racism.
She then bumps into Lillian Jean Simms, Cassie apologises but Lillian Jean tries to push Cassie into the road, Cassie dodges her attempt but s pushed to the ground by her father. She gets forced to apologize even in the situation. This is a very emotional experience for Cassie making it an emotional experience for the reader and so again getting the reader to despise the racism that they experience.
When the Logans and Uncle Hammer are driving in Uncle Hammer’s car they arrive at a bridge, where the Logans usually have to back off to allow the white people to cross before them. The Wallaces are on the other side and Uncle Hammer drives over the bridge forcing the Wallaces to reverse. The Wallaces think that they are Mr Granger and they touch their hats respectively until they realise that it is the Logans, they are very annoyed. This is yet again showing the audience the racism the black people receive.
On Christmas Day Jeremy visits them and gives them presents, however Papa sends him away saying that it is necessary at this time (time as in years) to segregate from the white people as they may mean well but you will never have an equal friendship with them.
Mr Jamison who is a straight and honest white man arrives to talk about business. He is also not at all racist. He then talks about not shopping at the Wallaces and says he will back up the credit.
Cassie is normally impulsive and has a fiery temper however she does show us that she can think things over and be clever. She plans her revenge on Lillian Jean Simms for treating her as she did in Strawberry. Cassie tricks her into making her believe that she wants to be her friend and that she admires her. Then a long time afterwards when Lillian has faith in Cassie, Cassie leads her into the woods and beats her up, which gives the reader a sense of revenge and so it increases the reader’s good-against-evil like feeling against racism.
Cassie’s mum (Mama) gets fired when Mr Granger goes to inspect the class, hoping to fire her, and enters the class without any advanced warning and says he wishes to learn something. This is ironic however as he does not think he will learn something, it is even more ironic as if he had listened he would have learnt something. Mr Granger criticizes Mama for teaching things which are not in the textbook. Mama defends herself but gives the opportunity for Mr Granger to make sure she loses her job.
When Stacey, Papa and Mr Morrison go to Vicksburg the Wallaces attack them. This is because they are black, if they were white they would not have been attacked, so this is another strong example of racism.
Again to try to force the Logans to buy at the Wallaces store and sell their land to Mr Granger the bank wants its money back from a loan, to help pay for this Uncle Hammer sells his car, this is a sign of how their family is more important that possessions.
TJ has stupidly made friends with the Simms boys Melvin and RW, they are also stealing from other people. TJ appears at the revival hoping to impress others, this is a sign that the whites are assumed better and more impressive than the balck people, but this is foolishly thought.
When TJ arrives at the Logans house badly hurt after he had been badly beaten up by RW and Melvin. TJ with RW and Melvin had robbed the Barnett shop. The Barnetts had woken up so Melvin, TJ and RW killed him and his wife. The white men, who wanted to kill him for what he had done to the Barnetts, were looking for TJ, however they would not have done anything to RW and Melvin. The Logan children take TJ back to his house. The Logans watch from behind trees as the Wallaces and others including ironically RW and Melvin demand TJ. The family are treated brutally and TJ receives another beating. TJ would have been killed but the arrival of Mr Jamison stops this.
A thunderstorm starts and Stacey makes the rest go tell Papa what is going on.
Once they reach Papa he goes to try and stop a lynching. Papa creates a fire and the whole community work together to put it out. The fire stopped the lynching but the Logans still fear that TJ might die.
This ending shows how the white people take extreme action on a black boy when he accidentally killed a couple of white people. However it also has a good ending in that the community work together, black and white to save the crops. It also has a strong ending as Cassie cries for TJ, because he is receiving immense racial discrimination: ‘And I cried for those things which had happened in the night and would not pass. I cried for TJ. For TJ and the land.’ The fire that Papa created burned down a quarter of the Logans’ cotton crop, however it was still a good thing to do.
My conclusion is that both books use first person narrators to show how they are affected by the societies’ prejudice and discrimination, and so make the reader empathise them and all those who are discriminated against in the same way. Both books are written in the styles of their time. Both novels attack society by having the narrator as the one who receives the harsh discrimination. The novels show how second-class the women and coloured people were treated, and these issues are still around today. If these issues were long gone it would probably not be a very successful book at all. They show how life was so different in the 1930’s and in the 19th century. For example, it is now illegal to choose who an employee will employ depending on whether they are black or white, or male or female. However, in those days it was very important for an employer whether or not the employee was black or female. They show how at the time people thought so very differently on matters like education. For example, in the 19th Century girls only studied a few subjects and schooling was not at all compulsory, especially for girls. However, now it is necessary for both girls and boys to go to school until they are 16, learning a variety of subjects.
Bibliography:
I have used the following books for my coursework:
- “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” by Mildred Taylor, Heinemann New Windmills editon.
- “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë, New Windmill Classics edition by Heinemann, with information on book background and other information.
- “Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë for GCSE” by Letts Explore, literature guide.
- “Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë” “Teach Yourself” literature guide.
- “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor” “Teach Yourself” literature guide.
- “Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë” read by Emma Fielding, from “Naxos AudioBooks”.
- “Jane Eyre” film (1996), (William Hurt and Charlotte Gainsbourg).
- “Jane Eyre” film (1983), (Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke).
Andrew Robertson Form 4, English+ English Literature Coursework Pg
