A Book Report
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a famous historical fiction by Mildred Taylor, an African American writer. It was published by the Penguin Group in 1991, including 276 pages. It mainly tells us the conflicts between black and white and how black fought against racism.
The main characters of the fiction are as follows: Cassie Logan (the narrator), Cassie’s Papa (David Paul Logan), Uncle Hammer, the Wallace Brothers and TJ. Five main events are included in it. First, Cassie’s teacher gave the broken textbooks to the black students while the white got the good ones. Second, TJ set Cassie’s brother Stacey up by claiming that Stacey cheated on an exam. Third, Lillian Jean's father, a white guy, insulted Cassie just because Cassie complained about the service in his store. Fourth, Papa burned the cotton field to save TJ’s life when TJ was almost killed by the white. In terms of the setting and time period, it happened in 1933 during the Great Depression in Mississippi. The most useful thing I learned from the fiction is that we should say no to racism and treat people of different race equally.
On the whole, it is not difficult for me to understand the fiction. I think it is impressive and instructive. The racism mentioned in it greatly triggered my interests to keep on reading. I found so many advantages in the book. For instance, it is divided into 12 sections, which facilitate my reviewing of the whole book. In addition, there is a great deal of conversations which effectively reflect the characters’ personalities. As for the weakness, if any, would be a lack of illustrations. I think it would help readers to develop a picture of the plots if the text comes along with appropriate illustrations. In my view, the author succeeded in making her writing effective. For example, the author described how the white students’ school bus fell into the trap set by Cassie and her brothers in this way – “The bus rattled up the road, though not as quickly as...