Roll of Thunder Heat My Cry Study Answers Essay Example for Free

Roll of Thunder Heat My Cry Study Answers Essay A. I think Mr. Morrison gets attached to the Logan family because of his role as a body guard for the family. He appreciates the kindness that he is offered and went through memorable moments with the family, such as the story he told about the night men murdering his sisters and parents. Story telling amongst African-Americans is a tradition, but this is still regarded as a personal moment, even though he is brought in by Cassies father to protect the family because of racial conflict. He is a big strong man, who works as a protector instead of an instigator; therefore the family feels safer with his presence. His attachment is probably due to the connection he has with family and the past of his actual familys death. Perhaps he looks at himself as not the actual member but an important part of the Logan Familys life, which creates a mutual respect and friendship between the two. He was also honest from their first encounter, which is a good sign coming from a stranger. He already explains to the mother he was fired for fighting, but further details explain he was fired because the man he was fighting with was white. The mother doesn’t hold it against him. B. Violence is a key theme in the story, and the situation that T.J is in is somewhat similar to the story of Mr. Morrison with the night men, showing the brutality of the white folks through accusation. T.J is merely accused of the crime, but because he is black not only will violence be portrayed against him but his entire family as well. For example his younger brother Claude, who had nothing to do with T.J’s crime, gets beaten up by the mob, even though he fears T.J rather than respect or admire him as a role model. T.J nearly got lynched, but so was his father, just for actually being his father. He is small and quite sickly and cannot control his son’s foolishness. Then there is the mother, who is merely just trying to protect her foolish son from death is thrown back against her house. This clearly shows the strong brutality of racism in the area because of the catalyst of racial tension of one foolish black boy can easily portray all black people as law breakers. C. If papa had not set fire to the cotton, his son Stacie could have been either tortured or lynched and by staring the fire he managed to save his life. It couldn’t have been a difficult decision because it was either start the fire, and lose crops and later deal with the financially situation or save the lives of others. Of course someone as noble and honorable as papa would have made a decision like starting the fire. Due to papa’s action on setting the fire, T.J was not lynched and the white folks backed away from doing terrible things to the Avery family and Stacie. At the end they were saved and T.J was just sent to prison. Starting the fire not only saved lives but also had the white folks actually collaborate with the black folks to put out the fire, which was somewhat of a miracle. D. I never liked T.J since his introduction because he is a cheat, a liar and not a very respectable character either. However, in most stories the ‘bad character’ usually has some kind of rough background, such as no love from the family and not actually sharing real friendship with others. As the book progresses, the more I detest TJ, but at the end my feelings has changed from hate to a bit of sadness for this character. Perhaps because he did not deserve this much hate and brutality from the others. In his defense, he is not a character representing the side of evil, but rather a character or actually a victim of unfortunate circumstances. He has reasons for his actions, such as jealousy. For example the Logan family owning their own farm, having more money makes T.J want to show he is just as good as them, as he is a nobody in his position. His father is also just a share cropper. E. The images on white people are not all bad as it is expected in a Dixie state America. Some are respectable and actually have the courage to show respect to their black neighbors. Harlan Granger is a bad man. He is wealthy but yet still wants to show off the things he has, such as his Packard. He is also a racist, like the Wallaces. However the respectable white characters are Mr. Jamison, who is from the north and still carries his northern mannerisms. There is also character like Jeremy who constantly receives verbal abuse because of his friendliness towards the Logans. His siblings Lillian-jean, R.W and Melvin however are racist as they are brought up that way by their father Charlie. His siblings do not show kindness to the blacks and are quite ignorant on how they suffered for years in America.