In this essay I am going to talk about discrimination in the novel Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. Roll of Thunder was written by Mildred D. Taylor in 1976. Mildred D. Taylor was born in Jackson Mississippi and was born on September 13, 1943 but went to university in Mississippi and got a degree in art. The book itself was set some time before this, during the time of the post-slavery in the USA. The 1930s was a hard time of hardship for many Americans, but mostly black people. Although slavery had ended white people were still taking advantage of black people. Examples of this were the Jim crow laws and share-cropping. Share-cropping is when a black family works on a farm for a white family and the black family works on a farm for a house to live in. Share-cropping is bad because white folks used to make black folks do free labour instead of paying them.
A scene of discrimination is when all the kids go to school and the Jefferson Davis school bus splashes them (the Jefferson Davis school only has white kids and teaches). The black school on the other hand hasn’t got a school bus so they also get splashed, it shows this when little man says “look big ma they did it again.” This shows that the white people don’t treat the black people the same because if the white people did care, they wouldn’t splash them.
Another scene of discrimination is when Cassie and TJ go to Mr. Barnet store and he lets all the white folk go and pay first. This shows discrimination by showing that the black folk are second class and not as good as the white people. Secondly, when Cassie went outside of the shop and accidentally bumped into Lilly Jean she discriminates Cassie by saying to her “get down of the side-walk.” This shows discrimination by making a black person get down on the road and walk below all the white people. Another scene is when Mr. Barnet called Cassie a “nigger” and told her to get out his shop. This is also discrimination because she did nothing wrong and he told her to get out his shop.
Another scene of discrimination is when all the kids were at school and they got their school books.When they looked inside the books they see that the books are second-hand and that the white people used them before them. It shows discrimination because at the bottom of the book it says nigger = bad. This shows discrimination because the black people haven’t got enough money to by new ones and are getting the books when they are terrible and when nobody wants them no more. They are basically saying the black folk are lower class then the white folk.
Conclusion
After this essay I think we can all say that discrimination is shown in this book and that it is extreme. Discrimination and racism should never have been created and it is very sad/bad. Discrimination is still shown in our everyday life today and it should stop.
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