The Role of Reality in Children's Literature

The Role of Reality in Children's Literature: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

ENG/290

March 18th, 2013

Korijna Valenti

The Role of Reality in Children's Literature: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Growing up as a child, Mildred Taylor heard many stories about life in Mississippi from her habitual story-telling father. It was listening to these stories of a world that seemed so foreign to her that helped cultivate the idea for her novel, “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry”. This story looks at life in Mississippi during the Great Depression, when people were poor, and poverty and racism were a common part of life. Taylor focuses the story on the Logan’s, who are an African American family that are fortunate to own a small piece of land but because of this are dealt a great deal of racism and criticism from others.

Taylor chooses to focus on the Logan’s as a solid example of family values. This is families that has seen their fair share of hard times and yet have stuck together no matter what has happened. The family faces many racial injustices but is taught to always keep their heads up high and to always try to be the better person. Each member of the family realizes at different times that they have been victims of racism and yet they all seem to prevail. Taylor uses the example of Ma urging all the other members of the community to boycott the Wallace’s general store after it is learned that the Wallace boys were responsible for burning a black man. This is an example of social values and how Ma feels like it is her responsibility to prove to the Wallace’s that what their children did was not right and a direct reflection upon them and their business.

One of the main symbols that Taylor uses in this novel is that of the land. The land represents something different for each person. For the Logan’s it represents everything; this is their livelihood. If the Logan’s cannot maintain the land, then they will not survive. They are the fortunate ones in the...