Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: Character Description #1

There are a couple of main characters in this book, but I will only be describing one of them. The one that I will be describing is Cassie Logan. Cassie is the narrator of this story. She is the second oldest. She has two younger brothers, Christopher John and Little Man, and one older brother, Stacey. She lives with her brothers, her parents, her grandmother, and Mr. Morrison. He is the man of the house when Cassie's father is gone working for the railroad.

Cassie is a young African American child that is in the process of understanding how life is. I believe that she is intelligent, outspoken, and is very bold (personality wise). Some of these qualities get her into trouble when she speaks her mind in the world where white people are dominant. She knows that she is different and she embraces it. She just doesn't appreciate the way she is treated. She is treated like a dog. When she goes up to Strawberry to trade and buy goods with her grandmother, Big Ma, she goes into Mr. Barnett's store to order a few things. Mr. Barnett takes the list that she gives him and stops waiting on them to take orders of other white people. He purposely makes her wait for over an hour. Cassie started to get angry and nobody could stop her from walking straight up to Mr. Jim Lee Barnett to remind him that he has forgotten about her and her order. He replies angrily, "get your kin and your little black self on the side and wait some more!" and calls her a "little nigger." Cassie is hurt by his cruel remark and starts to talk back. Then she gets kicked out of the store altogether. This experience has made her bitter towards racist white folks in the town. The only person that's white and is her friend, Jeremy. He is Lillian Jean's younger brother. He likes the Logan's but his family dislike the fact that he plays with them.

In the beginning and most of the rising action, Cassie is proud of herself and her race, but she is clueless of what consequences her pride may bring. She witnesses lynchings and experiences cruelness and violence. The safety of her family is put on the line when the Logans encourage everyone to boycott the Wallace Store. Mr. Granger, the owner of most of the land including the land that the Wallace Store is located on, heard about it and got infuriated. He goes up to the Logans and threatens to take their land away by getting the county the put the price of cotton lower and raise taxes. Cassie and her family have to struggle together to save their future.