How does Mildred Taylor effectively portray prejudice during the 1930's Mississippi in her novel, ' Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry…..?'

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                         Zara Choudary     Year 11

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 Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry

How does Mildred Taylor effectively portray prejudice during the 1930’s Mississippi in her novel, ‘ Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry…..?’

Having read the novel, I have come to the conclusion that the author, Mildred Taylor has portrayed prejudice in a number of effective ways. The novel being set in 1930’s Mississippi plays a major role in prejudice being apparent because slavery had just been abolished, yet this didn’t have much of an impact on the society in the 1930s. Through the use of various examples, the reader is able to comprehend the prejudice at the time and the effects it had on people. The main theme running in this novel is related to prejudice and therefore all incidents that take place in the novel occur due to prejudice being present.

The time it was set in is a huge impact on the prejudice itself as the Wall Street crash had just taken place and therefore, poverty was at its peak. This incident was an excuse characters, such as the Wallaces, had used to blame the whites as being those who put them in the position they were in and if the white race didn’t use so many resources at the time, then the Wallaces would have been better off.

Mildred Taylor has made the novel’s narrator a youth of the black race and also uses first narrative, which has a greater effect on the reader as they are being shown racism and prejudice, through the eyes of a nine year old child. In the majority of novels, the authors show the novel from an adult’s point of view – in this case we are shown a youth’s reaction towards incidents experienced at the time, hence the reader gains a greater insight. It allows the reader to engage in the novel by seeing how a child explores the prejudice in Mississippi.

Taylor gradually builds up tension in the novel by showing the reader certain details of a family’s status and then shows how they may be exploited due to the way they are seen in society. We are shown this when Cassie asks Papa why he had to go to work and why the land was of such significance. Papa’s response was reassuring, as he told Cassie that she may not find it easy to comprehend at that moment, but as time passes she would become aware of Papa’s need to travel to work and what significance the land was to the Logans, as we see she later does. Mildred didn’t show how owning land was a great virtue at the time; instead she went on further to show examples of how racism and prejudice increased due to the black race owning land.

Mildred shows Mr Granger’s actions of trying to get the ‘Logan Land’ back into his possession which shows how a white man, felt the need to take over a black mans belonging. In order for Mildred to show the reader the long-term effects of the black race owning land and how it would result in the whites opposing them, due to them not approving of the blacks owning such land as it would give them a higher status in society, we are shown a question asked by a black youth, Cassie –‘I asked him once why the he had to go away, why the land was so important.’

Mildred Taylor has shown various forms of injustices taking place throughout the novel. All injustices shown relate back to the prejudice present in 1930s Mississippi. Taylor has shown us different situations where the blacks weren’t treated in a respectful manner or justly as justice wasn’t present which in turn didn’t allow the black race to have even the basic human rights. Taylor also presents the blacks as being those who were made to suffer in any way possible. To create a greater affect on the reader, the author has used character’s speeches and actions to show how the white people opposed the blacks and how they would look for any excuse to take revenge.

We are shown the ways in which the two races were segregated by attending separate schools. However, the schools they attended weren’t of the same status. The author describes the two schools through Cassie. To make the descriptions of the two schools have more of an effect on the reader, Taylor showed the two schools outer appearance and inner appearance, one after the other. This would help one to detect the differences more easily.

The two races should have been given equal rights to education, and therefore shouldn’t have been treated unequally. Due to the schools’ boards being of the white race, they had the upper hand and because they were the ones in authority, they were to decide what the schools were to be given. Therefore, in order for the school board to treat the opposing race in the same manner as the other whites did, they didn’t find anything wrong in it. Rather, they saw it as the custom at the time. By being shown such hatred in the school boards thoughts, we are able to see the real reasons behind the two schools being given different facilities. This allows the reader to unravel the ways in which prejudice was clearly shown to both the youth of the black race, as well as the older generation.

The author has already shown how prejudice didn’t only affect the older generation, but also the youth. In reference to this, Mildred also shows how Cassie speaks of how the long journey to school didn’t have a pleasant end; instead it was described as being a ‘dismal end.’ The author used the word ‘dismal’ to create a greater effect on the reader, so they would see how Cassie saw the school as being one of poor standard. From this we see how even the youth of the black race were aware of the quality of the school they attended in comparison to the one attended by the whites. By seeing that Cassie saw it as a ‘dismal end,’ we are able to see the way that prejudice was evidently seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old child.  

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Mildred shows the unpleasant incident where the blacks were splashed with the dirty waters, by the white school bus. Mildred described the thought Cassie had about the way they were treated, ‘ we consequently found ourselves comical objects to cruel eyes that gave no thought to our misery.’ Here we are shown the feelings of Cassie as a result of the way she was treated. By using the word ‘comical’ the reader sees how the youth saw themselves being treated as ‘objects’, which were used to play with and make people laugh. Here one sees that the blacks are ...

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