Hey -- Sorry I didn't reply this sooner (I know it looks weird for me to leave a long comment on a days-old post!), but I was sick all week and then out of town all weekend, so I wasn't up to doing very much clear-headed thinking. ;) Anyway, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (and the other books in the series) have been really important books in my life, ever since I first read Roll of Thunder in fifth or sixth grade, I don't remember. It's one of those books that you can read/understand on several levels: it reads like a fairly straightforward chapter in history/outline of what racism looked like in the Depression-era South, but as I've gotten older it's given me a remarkably nuanced viewpoint on how that history of racism has shaped our present-day experiences: it simultaneously presents an amazing human portrait of a family surviving difficult circumstances, and brings to life a million small details of what life in that era was like.
Now that I've done my "I love this book!" thing, on to your actual questions. Basically, I wouldn't say the book is grim at all. It has plenty of grim details, yes. It isn't interested in whitewashing (um... no pun intended) anything. That means there's a lynching and the threat of more, and the main character is manhandled a bit at one point because she doesn't understand how it's safe to act around racist whites, and in general the blacks in the book live with fear hanging over their heads. But the message of the book is much more one of love and hope and determination to fight through to a better place. The ending of the book winds up with Logan setting some of his cotton on fire, yes, but it's not grim so much as a mixed ending: by doing that, he keeps an innocent kid from getting lynched, which seemed like it was going to be all but impossible to do. It'll be harder for the Logans to survive because he did that, but they've fought through hard times again and you know that they'll keep fighting. And meanwhile, TJ gets a trial instead of a lynching, which was a really substantial triumph in those days.
Basically it's a book about survival, but even more than that it's a book about family. There are lots of funny or lighthearted moments in the book, and they tend to be about family: family members sharing jokes or stories about the past or what have you. Their strength comes from their love and dedication to one another; it's their heritage, how they got their land in the first place, and when they can they use the advantages that their land gives them to help the community. There really is a lot of hope in the book. It depicts some grim realities, but it's much more about the Logan family and how they survive together.
(Also, the relationship between whites and blacks in the book is tentative at best -- at worst it consists of lynchings etc., of course, but at best, the blacks are wary of the whites because the power balance is so unequal and too much outright trust can get you hurt. But a white lawyer is at the center of the fight to keep TJ from being lynched, and he works with the Logans throughout the book to fight various other injustices. So in that sense it demonstrates that whites and blacks can band together to fight racism. I really like the way she did that because, again, it's hopeful but realistic.)
So... that's my pitch for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry! :)
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Now that I've done my "I love this book!" thing, on to your actual questions. Basically, I wouldn't say the book is grim at all. It has plenty of grim details, yes. It isn't interested in whitewashing (um... no pun intended) anything. That means there's a lynching and the threat of more, and the main character is manhandled a bit at one point because she doesn't understand how it's safe to act around racist whites, and in general the blacks in the book live with fear hanging over their heads. But the message of the book is much more one of love and hope and determination to fight through to a better place. The ending of the book winds up with Logan setting some of his cotton on fire, yes, but it's not grim so much as a mixed ending: by doing that, he keeps an innocent kid from getting lynched, which seemed like it was going to be all but impossible to do. It'll be harder for the Logans to survive because he did that, but they've fought through hard times again and you know that they'll keep fighting. And meanwhile, TJ gets a trial instead of a lynching, which was a really substantial triumph in those days.
Basically it's a book about survival, but even more than that it's a book about family. There are lots of funny or lighthearted moments in the book, and they tend to be about family: family members sharing jokes or stories about the past or what have you. Their strength comes from their love and dedication to one another; it's their heritage, how they got their land in the first place, and when they can they use the advantages that their land gives them to help the community. There really is a lot of hope in the book. It depicts some grim realities, but it's much more about the Logan family and how they survive together.
(Also, the relationship between whites and blacks in the book is tentative at best -- at worst it consists of lynchings etc., of course, but at best, the blacks are wary of the whites because the power balance is so unequal and too much outright trust can get you hurt. But a white lawyer is at the center of the fight to keep TJ from being lynched, and he works with the Logans throughout the book to fight various other injustices. So in that sense it demonstrates that whites and blacks can band together to fight racism. I really like the way she did that because, again, it's hopeful but realistic.)
So... that's my pitch for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry! :)