What is the importance of family in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry?

Authors Avatar

          What is the importance of family in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry?

        The novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is set in Mississippi, in the Deep South of America, in the 1930’s and covers a year in the life of the Logan family. The Logans are a respectable black family closely bound in love, respect, and support for each other. The story is told through the young eyes of Cassie Logan and through her experiences we see the great importance of family throughout the novel. Family plays one of the most important themes of the story and it seems as though the author, Mildred Taylor created the Logan family to present them as a role model family for life.

Throughout the novel, the guiding role of parents is clearly shown by Mama and Papa Logan. They teach their four children by example at several points in the story. One of these times is when Mama covers the offensive pages in the books at school. The other teachers regard mama as something of a maverick because of her liberal views. When told that her children have, “got to learn how things are”, she replies that they will, but they don’t necessarily, “have to accept them”. She glues paper over the offensive pages, despite what others think, and therefore shows Cassie and Little Man the way to behave when an incident like this occurs.

Mama and Papa use firm discipline with their children throughout the story. This is shown when Papa whips the children for going to the forbidden Wallace Store, and when Mama whips Stacey for cheating in the test. Mama and Papa use this punishment to discipline their children, and, as a result, they learn their lesson. After the children are punished for going to the store they never go there again, proving that their parents message is clear.

Throughout the novel Mama and Papa listen carefully to their children and offer advice to help them deal with the situations they find themselves in. There are several instances of this including when Papa and Cassie go into the woods to discuss the Strawberry incident, and how Cassie might deal with Lillian Jean. Papa listens to her and says that, “the Bible says you’re s’pose to forgive these things”. He goes on to say that he thinks that means, “forgiving”, but not, “forgetting”. He points out that he will never forget what John Anderson did to his trees. He warns Cassie to, “think real hard”, on whether Lillian Jean is, “worth taking a stand about”, but also reminds her that whatever she does, she must make sure there are no repercussions for her and her family as, “it could be bad”. As a result of Papas advice, Cassie successfully gains revenge over Lillian Jean and she makes entirely sure that nothing comes out of it.

Join now!

Mama also gives Cassie valuable advice after the incident in Strawberry. She carefully explains to Cassie why things are the way they are, and why Big Ma had little option in Strawberry but to behave the way she did. Mama gives Cassie a detailed description of her history, going back to slavery and the civil war. She is trying to make Cassie understand why blacks are sometimes seen as inferior to whites and why racism occurs. She finishes with, “we have no choice of what colour we’re born or whether we’re rich or poor”, and goes on to say, “what ...

This is a preview of the whole essay