Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

64 pages • 2 hours read

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1976

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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Introduction

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

CHAPTERS 1-3

Reading Check

1. Who owns the land that the sharecroppers work on?

2. What does Little Man refuse to accept from his teacher?

3. Who arrives at the Logan home to be a hired hand?

4. Whose idea is it to dig a ditch in the road?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why do the Logan children start the school year in October?

2. What happened to three men in the family, and what does David tell the children not to do as a result?

3. What happens to the children when the Jefferson Davis school bus passes them on the way to school in late October, and how does Little Man respond?

4. Who arrives at the Logan house late at night and how does this arrival affect the family?

CHAPTERS 4-6

Reading Check

1. Whom do the Logans suspect of stealing test answers from Mary?

2. To what Mississippi town does the family travel to sell butter, milk, and eggs?

3. Who drives the children to church in his Packard?

4. What does Uncle Hammer buy for Stacey that allows him to look respectable in church?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Who is Mr. Jamison, and how does he anger Mr. Granger?

2. How does Big Ma’s behavior in the Barnett Mercantile disappoint Cassie?

3. How does Uncle Hammer respond to hearing the news of the confrontation at the store?

Paired Resource

“Jim Crow Laws in the South”

This 3-minute video from NBC News Learn explains how plans to protect the rights of freed African Americans after the Civil War failed and resulted in the Jim Crow era of discrimination.
The information in this resource connects to the theme of Racism and Violence in the United States.
How does the Logan family suffer the effects of legal racial discrimination? What forces prevent them from improving their lives?

“Gentrification”

This encyclopedic entry from National Geographic explains gentrification and other processes such as redlining that result in segregated communities.
This information connects to the theme of Land and Power and Racism and Violence in the United States.
Is gentrification a new way of displacing people from their land based on their race? Or does it have different reasons for moving people? What would the Logan family think about gentrification?

CHAPTERS 7-9

Reading Check

1. Who arrives at the house to help sign over the farm to Uncle Hammer and David?

2. What do Cassie and Lillian Jean do in the forest?

3. What part of the wagon breaks down when David, Stacey, and Mr. Morrison travel to Vicksburg?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is Mary’s plan for responding to the violence against her Black neighbors, and why does it involve traveling to Vicksburg?

2. Who is Stacey’s friend Jeremy, and why does their friendship pose a problem for the Logans?

3. How does Mary lose her job?

4. How is David injured on the trip to Vicksburg?

Paired Resource

Trailer: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1978)

This trailer for the 1978 film adaptation of the movie suggests many of the novel’s major plot points.
This connects to the following themes: Racism and Violence in the United States, Land and Power, and Family and Loyalty.
How does this trailer demonstrate the major conflicts of the novel? Did anything about the depiction of the story surprise you?

“Talking with Mildred D. Taylor”

This interview with the author explains her relationship with her father and how she came to write Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry.
This interview connects to the theme of Family and Loyalty.
When did Mildred D. Taylor write the novel? What was difficult about the writing process? When did Taylor come up with the idea for the title?

CHAPTERS 10-12

Reading Check

1. What does Mr. Morris lift out of the road when it blocks his wagon’s path?

2. What does the bank require the Logan family to pay back in full?

3. What does T.J. intend to steal from the Barnett Mercantile?

4. Which character does Cassie cry for in the final lines of the novel?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Who beats T.J., and why?

2. How does the cotton field catch on fire, and when does Cassie realize this?

3. How do the townspeople react when they see the burning field?

4. What is T.J.’s fate at the end of the novel?

Recommended Next Reads

Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred Taylor

One in a 10-novel series about the Logan family, Let the Circle Be Unbroken follows the action of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry beginning in the aftermath of T.J.’s trial and conviction in 1935.
Shared themes include Racism and Violence in the United States and Family and Loyalty.
Shared topics include sharecropping and discrimination.
Let the Circle Be Unbroken on SuperSummary

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

This novel tells the story of Esperanza, a young Mexican American girl who wants a home of her own more than anything else.
Shared themes include Racism and Violence in the United States and Land and Power.
Shared elements include coming-of-age and award-winning novels.
The House on Mango Street on SuperSummary

Reading Questions Answer Key

CHAPTERS 1-3

Reading Check

1. Harlan Granger (Chapter 1)

2. A textbook (Chapter 1)

3. Mr. Morrison (Chapter 2)

4. Stacey (Chapter 3)

Short Answer

1. While white children start school in August, Black children do not start school until after they finish planting and harvesting the cotton crop. (Chapter 1)

2. Three of the Berry men were burned in an attack by white men; one of them died from his injuries. Mr. Morrison tells the children not to patronize the Wallace store, which Cassie does not understand. (Chapter 2)

3. The driver of the school bus intentionally splashes mud and water on the Logan children as he drives by the children. Once, in late October, the Logan children fall into a gully in an effort to avoid getting splashed and muddy, and the white students on the bus call them racist names. This troubles all of the Logan children, but it particularly affects Little Man, who cries. (Chapter 3)

4. Two cars of white men arrive in the driveway late at night, frightening the family. Mr. Morrison patrols the front porch with a shotgun. (Chapter 3)

CHAPTERS 4-6

Reading Check

1. T.J. (Chapter 4)

2. Strawberry (Chapter 5)

3. Uncle Hammer (Chapter 6)

4. A new jacket (Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. Mr. Jamison is a white lawyer who treats the Logan family with respect. He sold the family their land, angering Mr. Granger, who wanted to control it all. (Chapter 4)

2. Big Ma forces Cassie to apologize to Mr. Simms even though Cassie feels she did nothing wrong; bumping into Mr. Simms’s daughter, Lillian Jean, was an accident. Cassie attempted to apologize to Lillian Jean before others gathered at the scene, but Lillian Jean was not satisfied with Cassie’s apology. (Chapter 5)

3. At first, Uncle Hammer is surprised and impressed by Cassie’s recounting of how she stood up for herself, but soon he is angered to learn that Mr. Simms pushed Cassie and that Big Ma forced her to apologize. (Chapter 6)

CHAPTERS 7-9

Reading Check

1. Mr. Jamison (Chapter 7)

2. Fight (Chapter 7)

3. The wheel (Chapter 9)

Short Answer

1. Mary plans to organize the other neighbors to shop in other places instead of patronizing the Wallace store. To do this, she may have to travel to Vicksburg. (Chapter 7)

2. Jeremy is not only white, but he also the son of Mr. Simms and brother of Lillian Jean. This poses a problem for the Logans because the relationship between these two families is strained. (Chapter 7)

3. Mr. Granger and two other white men who say they are from the school board visit Mary’s class to observe her lesson. They then fire her for unsatisfactory teaching. (Chapter 8)

4. While attempting to fix the wagon, an unknown assailant shoots David, grazing his head. The wagon then rolls over his leg, crushing it. (Chapter 9)

CHAPTERS 10-12

Reading Check

1. The Wallaces’ truck (Chapter 10)

2. Their mortgage (Chapter 10)

3. A gun (Chapter 11)

4. T.J. (Chapter 12)

Short Answer

1. The Simms brothers beat T.J. after the burglary at Barnett Mercantile goes wrong, because T.J. threatens to tell the truth about what had happened. (Chapter 11)

2. David deliberately sets the cotton fields on fire to prevent T.J. from being lynched. Cassie does not realize this until later, when Mr. Jamison advises David not to reveal the truth. (Chapter 12)

3. The townspeople come together—Black and white—to put out the fire. This also calms the violent confrontation enough to protect T.J. (Chapter 12)

4. At the novel’s end, T.J. is jailed; it is not certain that he will survive his injuries. If he does, he faces the possibility of years of hard labor. (Chapter 12)