Foolishly, Cassie stood up to Mr Barnett, replying, “I aint nobody’s little nigger!” By doing this Cassie thought that Mr Barnett would serve her but in reality it made him more infuriated and he demanded that she leave the store. At this point in the novel, Cassie is young and naïve and she still does not understand the cast system.
Personally, I understand how Cassie is feeling. Being a young child, she has not yet learned to accept her status in life, and so protested vociferously at what she saw as grave injustice. Normally, it would be difficult for such a young child to stand up for herself in that situation. However, Cassie copes admirably, until she is hauled away by her brother, who is aware of the consequences of her actions. Cassie’s childish naivety frequently leads to outbursts of quick temper, which indicate her brave approach to the racial discrimination in her society.
Fortunately, for Cassie’s self-preservation this naivety rapidly changes to cunning duplicity. This is highlighted with the incident that occurs just after her argument with Mr Barnett, when she finds herself accidentally bumping into Lillian-Jean Simms, the daughter of a white man. Being the mannerable child she is, Cassie apologises but she is hurt and angered when she is made to walk along the dirty road as if she is somehow less worthy than the white girl is.
After this incident her boyish sensibilities, as well as her sharp intelligence, come to the fore. Unlike a typical girl who would fight back and forth with her tongue, Cassie cleverly plans an attack of revenge. She fools Lillian-Jean into a false sense of security by pretending to be her best friend, carrying her books and finding out her darkest secrets. Lillian-Jean feels that in this situation she has the upper hand.
Then Cassie gets her in the bushes and gives Cassie a good beating, cunningly enticing Lillian-Jean to hit her first. Cassie plans it like a strategic carefully manoeuvred battle, getting advice from her father. She also gets Big Ma, her grandmother to braid her hair so Lillian-Jean could not pull it in the fight. For a 9 year old she is very bright and discerning, as she leaves no marks or bruises on Lillian-Jean, so there is no evidence for anyone to accuse her of the beating. Cassie gets full satisfaction as she gets Lillian-Jean to give her a full apology; excusing her and her family for all the ill treatment they had given her family.
I also feel that Cassie learns to be prudent in order to protect her family and her community. Harsh experience such as the incidents in Strawberry, have taught her to defend herself with intelligence and skill.
A whole train of events led up to the exciting climax: the family were having financial difficulties because of Mr Logans injury, so they are entirely dependent on their crop. However, in order to deflect attention from TJ, Mr Logan sets fire to the crops. Soon after the fire, Cassie realised that Papa had set fire to the crops, sacrificing a quarter of the Logan cotton crop to save TJ. At this point, Cassie gains awareness of how vital it is that she keeps such information to herself. Had she been her former, outspoken self, her whole family would have suffered greatly as a result.
Despite Cassie’s more obvious traits of thoughtlessness and outspokenness, she can also be extremely sympathetic and understanding. This is evident in her relationship with TJ whom she really does not like. Cassie dislikes his attitude of believing he is superior to his fellow citizens. Like Cassie, he fails to comprehend at that point in life where his status lies. Over time, TJ constantly betrays the Logan family. He is deceitful and he causes Stacey to fail his class test. Also, he instigates the loss of Mrs Logan’s teaching job and finally requires the family’s help in the end, in his time of need. Although Cassie imagines all of the bad things that she would like to happen to him because of the hurt he had caused her family, she sympathises with the agony that he and his family were to encounter after his stupidity.
As well as being outspoken, Cassie is a sensitive character who shows great consideration for others. This is evident in her relationship with Jeremy. Jeremy is a local white boy who wants to befriend the Logan children. However, relationships between Black and White children are strongly frowned upon, and so great awkwardness surrounds this situation. At one pint in the novel, Jeremy delivers some Christmas gifts, but is quickly dismissed by Mr Logan. As he dejectedly slides out of the door Cassie shouts,
“Merry Christmas,” which makes Jeremy smile. Instinctively she knew how to make him feel better.
As we progress through the novel Cassie begins to grow up, becoming wiser and realising that she has to take risks in order to defend things that are important to her. However, she is most careful in her risk taking and tries to reduce the danger to herself. Cassie learns the value of not telling everybody, everything she knows. Her mature attitude comes across effectively in the TJ incident. Once, Cassie would have wanted to know the whole story about TJ Avery’s run in with the law. At that point she knows that it was something her brothers did not need to know, as it would only frighten them. Cassie realises that if the boys need to know, her Mother and Father would inform them of the details, as it is not her place to frighten them. Cassie demonstrates that, despite her earlier outspokenness, she has learned to accept her status in society.
Throughout the novel, Cassie goes through the same experiences as many adolescents, such as parental conflict and the desire for independence. However, as a young Black girl growing up in the prejudiced Deep South of America during the 1930’s, she also experiences unwarranted hardships due to her colour. During the course of this novel, Cassie learns to deal with these hardships, and as a result she matures very quickly. This maturity comes at a price, for Cassie she learned that she must sacrifice honesty and dignity in order for her and her family to survive.
