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Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry Essay examples

Decent Essays

"Jeremy Simms & TJ Avery are two relativly minor characters in the story ROTHMC. However, they both reinforce the themes." Discuss Aprox 1000 words

There are many important Themes in the novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry. These themes include: racial prejudice, loyalty, honesty, friendship, personal integrity and respect for others. Although Jeremy Simms and TJ Avery are fairly minor people in the book, their characters are used to inforce and strengthen the themes of the novel.

We first meet TJ Avery when Cassie, Stacey, Little Man and Christopher-John are walking to school. Right from the very start we find out that none of them actually likes TJ, except for Stacey. The reader sees that he is a liar, a cheat and a …show more content…

All the whites come after TJ and try to murder him. Mr Logan sacrifices 1/4 of his cotton in order to save TJ. Because of this incredible act of friendship towards TJ, TJ only got arrested - as opposed to killed. TJ causes a great deal of damage to himself and the people around him and everyone just wishes that he would grow up.

Jeremy Simms is a complementry character. He is a quiet and timid boy who is kind and loyal. He is one of the few white people who see the blacks a equals. He always walks to school with them, despite the fact that he gets ridiculed and beaten by his family and piers.
“He was often ridiculed by the other children at his school and he had shown up more than once with wide red welts on his arms which Lillian Jean, his older sister, had revealed with satisfaction were the result of his associating with us. Still, Jeremy continued to meet us. (Pg 17)

His family are fairly poor, white sharecroppers who hate all blacks. Jeremy, however, tries not to get involved in this racism. Cassie has her first real experience of racial prejudice when she takes a trip into Strawberry. Cassie accidentally bumps into Lillian Jean. Cassie apologises but Lillian Jean

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