Chapter One Summary:

Cassie Logan and her three brothers (Stacey, Christopher-John, and Little Man) walk down a dusty road in rural Mississippi on their way to the first day of school in the fall of 1933. Stacey, aged twelve, is grouchy because he will be in the class taught by their mother. Christopher-John, aged seven, is a cheerful boy who keeps to himself. Cassie is annoyed that they must go to school on a "bright August-like October morning" and is even more annoyed that they must wear their Sunday clothes and shoes.

Little Man is six years old. It is his first day of school ever, and he walks very slowly and carefully to avoid getting the dust from the road on his shoes or corduroys. Cassie tells him that he will make them late to school, and she drags her feet in the dust until Stacey yells at her to stop because they promised their mother that they would arrive neat and clean.

As they walk, the children pass an old oak tree that marks the boundary between their family's four hundred acres of land and the forest. The forest and the land beyond is part of Harlan Granger's ten-square-mile plantation. The Logans' land had once belonged to the Grangers. Cassie's grandfather bought the family's first two hundred acres in 1887, and after he paid off the mortgage on that land bought two hundred more in 1918.

The Logans still have a mortgage on the second two hundred acres of land and have to pay taxes on all four hundred acres. In 1930, the price of cotton dropped, and the profit from their cotton crop could not pay the Logans' bills, so Cassie's Papa left to look for work. Every year, Papa works in Louisiana on a railroad, and is away from home from spring until the next winter.

Cassie remembers Papa telling her that the land is important because as long as she lives she will never have to live on anybody's place but her own. Cassie knows that the land belongs not only to her Papa but also to her brothers, their grandmother, their mother, and their uncle. Papa describes it as "Logan land." While Papa is away, Mama teaches school and Big Ma works in the fields.

Halfway to school, an "emaciated-looking" barefoot boy named TJ and his brother Claude emerge from the trees and walk with the Logan children. TJ failed Mrs. Logan's class the previous year and will be in it again with Stacey. He tells Stacey that Mr. Berry and his two nephews were burned by some white men the previous night. Stacey says that Mr. Lanier had fetched Big Ma to help nurse Mr. Berry the night before. TJ knows about the burning because Mrs. Logan had stopped by to talk to his mother about it before school earlier that morning.

TJ is angry at Cassie for telling her mother who told his mother about him going up to the Wallace store to dance. He only escaped being whipped by telling his mother that he only went up there to follow Claude, who wanted to buy candy. Cassie knows that Claude was willing to take TJ's punishment because he is more scared of his brother than of his mother.

The children have to jump out of the way as a school bus rushes by and covers them with dust. Stacey explains to Little Man, who is furious, that the bus is only for white children and that they don't have a bus. A blond white boy named Jeremy runs out of the forest and starts walking with the Logans. He tells Stacey that his school has been going since the end of August. Cassie recalls that Jeremy has always walked with them to the crossroads in the morning and met them there after school. Other kids at his school pick on him because of this and he sometimes has red welts on his arm as punishment for associating with them, but he continues to meet them.

At the crossroads, some other white children rush past and Jeremy's older sister, Lillian Jean, yells at him to come with them. Cassie looks at the white children's building, Jefferson Davis County School, and notices that it has two school buses, a sports field, and the Mississippi flag with the emblem of the Confederacy on it. The black children turn east to head to their school.

They go to Great Faith Elementary and Secondary School, "consisting of four weather-beaten wooden houses on stilts of brick, 320 students, seven teachers, a principal, and caretaker, and the caretaker's cow." Most of Cassie's classmates are children whose families sharecrop on three nearby plantations. They start school late because their families need them to pick cotton until October.

Cassie walks slowly over to the building that houses the first four grades. Mary Lou Wellever, the principal's daughter says hi, and Cassie notices that she is wearing a new dress. Cassie looks at the other children wearing their Sunday clothes and knows that after today, they will come to school barefoot again until the roads freeze. She also sees Stacey's friend Moe Turner, who walks to school for three and a half hours from the Montier plantation.

Inside the school, Cassie sits with Gracey Pearson and Alma Scott, who say they would rather have Mary Lou sit with them. When the teacher, Miss Daisy Crocker, tells everyone to sit down, Mary Lou looks angrily at Cassie. The first and second grade teacher, Miss Davis, is in Jackson for a few days, so Miss Crocker temporarily teaches both classes.

Miss Crocker announces that they will all have books this year. Cassie has never had one of her own before and is excited until she notices that they are old and worn. She sees how excited Little Man is to get a first grade reader because he cannot see the cover. Cassie picks up her book and begins to read it until she hears Miss Crocker yelling at Clayton Chester (Little Man) because he has asked for a book that is not dirty.

Little Man takes the book back to his desk, but when he opens it, sees something inside it that makes him throw it on the floor and stomp on it. Cassie looks inside her book and sees columns listing the book's condition and the race of the student for every year from 1922-1933. This is the first year that the book's condition is listed as "very poor" and the first time that the race of the student is listed as "nigra" instead of "white." As Miss Crocker is about to take the switch to Little Man, Cassie explains that her brother can already read and shows the teacher why he was angry. Miss Crocker tells Cassie that the books says "nigra" because that's what she is and orders her to sit down. Cassie tells Miss Crocker she doesn't want her book either. Miss Crocker takes the switch to both Little Man and Cassie.

After class, Cassie is determined to tell Mama the story before Miss Crocker does, but accidentally bumps into the principal, Mr. Wellever, and receives a long lecture from him on watching where she is going. When she gets to her mother's classroom, she sees Miss Crocker showing her the book that Little Man broke. Miss Crocker cannot understand why the children got so upset about what was written in the inside cover. Though Mama says that Miss Crocker had the right to punish them for disobeying, she clearly doesn't agree with her. Mama trims brown paper to the size of the page and glues it over the inside covers of her children's books. Miss Crocker is shocked that she would "damage" county property, but Mama says she is going to do it to all the seventh graders' books the next day. Cassie can tell that her mother understands, and sneaks away.

Analysis

This chapter provides an introduction to the social and historical structure of black life in the South in the 1930s. The educational system functions as a microcosm in which the reader can see the greater inequalities in society reflected in the differences in schooling available to black and white children. The black children must walk for an hour (or in Moe's case, three and a half hours) to get to school, while the white students have school buses that will drive them directly there. The physical ease with which the white children attend school reflects their greater access to education. Cassie personifies one of the two buses as "our own tormenter." The bus is a tormenter not only because it sprays them with dirt as it passes but also because in doing so, the bus illustrates society's that they are somehow inferior to, or dirtier than, the white children.

Similarly, the physical differences in the structures and appearance of the schools demonstrates the cultural and physical divide which separates black and white society in the 1930s South. The white children's school is named after Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. Cassie notes that the Mississippi flag "waving red, white, and blue with the emblem of the Confederacy emblazoned in its upper left-hand corner" flies over the white school. This flag is a symbol of segregation and oppression. Flying over the white school, the flag's presence illustrates that the "ideals" of the Confederacy, including oppression of blacks, still exist many years after the Civil War.

Cassie notes that the Mississippi flag flies above the American flag. The positioning of the flags illustrates the domination of racist Jim Crow ideology over the more inclusive American ideal of equality. "Jeremy and his sister and brothers" can "hurr[y] toward those transposed flags" because they represent a system which will allow them power and success, but the black children must turn away and head in the opposite direction.

The incident with the schoolbooks demonstrates the ability of the children themselves to recognize the system of symbolic as well as actual oppression. Little Man lives up to his name in that he is far more perceptive than the teacher, Miss Crocker, in reading the deeper meaning behind the columns in the front cover or his book. The equation in Cassie's book of "very poor" and "nigra" illustrates not only the county's contempt for black children's educational needs but also reminds the reader that characters like TJ and Claude, who have no shoes, or like the Logans, whose father must work away from home for months to afford taxes and a mortgage, are poor as a result of discrimination.

Cassie recognizes the power of language more clearly than Miss Crocker does. Miss Crocker attempts to push her students into action by making them respond in unison to her. Cassie's refusal to respond to Miss Crocker's request that she "share, share, share" comes in part because she recognizes the futility in saying something that you don't mean. "I never did approve of group responses," she thinks. Cassie also fails to respond because she is thinking of something more meaningful: the burning of the Berrys.

Furthermore, Cassie recognizes the danger inherent in the abuse of language. She says "S-see what they called us," when showing Miss Crocker the book, assuming that the teacher will think the labeling as wrong as she does. Miss Crocker, who later urges Mrs. Logan to make the children accept the way things are, cannot contemplate any means of resistance because she accepts the labels given to her by the whites in power. By accepting the racial title written in the book, she also accepts a type of subordination.

Chapter Two Summary:

Big Ma watches as Cassie balances halfway up a pole in the cotton field. She, Christopher-John, and Little Man are all picking the last of the cotton at the tops of the plants. (Stacey is too big to climb the poles now.) Big Ma tells Mama that they have picked enough for the day.

From the top of her pole, Cassie sees Papa and another man coming down the road. The children rush over to hug them, and he says they're getting too big to call his "babies" anymore. The other man with them is Mr. Morrison, who is very tall. He has burn scars on his face and neck, deep wrinkles, some gray in his hair, and "clear and penetrating" eyes. Mama wants to know if something is wrong, but Papa avoids the question.

Mr. Morrison and the family walk into Mama and Papa's room, which doubles as a living room. Mr. Morrison looks around the room, the walls of which are covered with pictures of various family members, before sitting down in Grandpa Logan's rocking chair. Big Ma asks her son how long he will be home, and he tells her until Sunday evening. It is already Saturday. The children want him to stay longer, but he says that if he does, he will lose his job.

Papa says that he came home to bring Mr. Morrison, who is going to work in the house as a hired hand for room and board and a few dollars in the winter. He used to work on the railroad but cannot get work anymore. Mr. Morrison, whose voice is "like the roll of low thunder" says he got fired from his job because some white men started a fight with him and he beat them up. They didn't get fired.

That evening, as they milk the cows, Cassie asks Stacey if Papa brought Mr. Morrison home because of the burnings. Stacey tells her not to worry about it. Cassie says she just wishes she knew more. Christopher-John, close to tears, says that he wishes that Papa could stay at home.

The next day, at church, Mrs. Lanier tells Big Ma that John Henry Berry died the night before. The deacons announce it as well, and the people pray for his soul and for his brother and uncle's recovery. After church, Mr. Lanier says that John Henry had a nice place up by Smellings Creek with a wife and six children and that "they" have been after him since he came back from the war. Big Ma says he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Mrs. Lanier says that Henrietta Toggins, who is related to the Berrys, was with them in John Henry's Model T when it happened. They had stopped for gas and some drunk white men came by and said: "That's the nigger Sallie Ann said was flirtin' with her." Henrietta made John Henry and his brother Beacon get in the car and drive off without filling up on gas. After they dropped her off at home, the three white men caught up with them and kept hitting the back of the car. Knowing he didn't have enough gas to get home, John Henry stopped at his uncle's. The white men dragged John Henry and Beacon out of the house and when their uncle tried to stop them, lit all three of them on fire.

TJ's father says that he heard that a boy was lynched in Crosston a few days ago. Mr. Lanier says that the worst thing is that no one can do anything about it. The sheriff called Henrietta a liar when she went to him, and now the white men who did it are bragging about the lynching, saying "they'd do it again if some other uppity nigger get out of line." Papa says that his family doesn't shop at the Wallace store. The room goes silent. After the Laniers and Averys leave, Papa tells the children that Mama has heard about other older kids going to the store to dance, buy bootleg liquor, and smoke. He says he does not want his children going there and says he'll "wear [them] out" if they go there. The children agree not to go, knowing that Papa swings a mean switch.

Analysis:

The power of language is once again prevalent in this chapter. The use of derogatory, racist terms and the act of racist hate-crimes are part of a continuum of power. In their society, the white men face no reprimand for calling Henry John derogatory names. This too-permissive atmosphere implicitly condones the growth of their hatred into physical action.

For this black community, language is both powerful, and, in their own mouths powerless. All the white men need to do to "justify" their attack on the Berrys is say that Henry John was flirting with a white woman. This second-hand hearsay is the only reason that they appear to have for attacking the Berrys. Similarly, their later bragging and threats operate just as strongly as physical threats. At the same time, black language does not have the same power in white society. Henrietta's testimony is powerless to make the sheriff investigate. Truth, therefore, is an essentially meaningless concept in this society, where the power of language is determined by race rather than by validity.

The allusion to the novel's title functions as a means of foreshadowing Mr. Morrison's significance in the novel. His voice, Cassie notices, is like "the roll of low thunder." Understanding that Mr. Morrison may be in danger, the reader can equate the threat represented by the sound of thunder with the threat to Mr. Morrison. His presence in the story marks the first entrance of an outsider into the safety of "Logan land" and suggests that, like thunder before lightening, Mr. Morrison's presence will herald dangerous changes.

Mr. Morrison's physical appearance is symbolic of his place in society. The scar on his face and deep lines show he has been literally, as well as economically, hurt by a white society that will dismiss a black man defending himself but will not fire his two white aggressors. Mr. Morrison's penetrating eyes demonstrate his spirit of resistance and his ability to see to the truth. His immediate explanation to Mrs. Logan of why he lost his job shows how highly he values the truth.

Chapter Three Summary:

In October, the weather turns to heavy rain, and the Logan children are soaked walking to school. The driver of the white children's school bus enjoys splashing them with mud when he drives by. This particularly upsets Little Man, who can't understand why the black children don't have a school bus of their own.

One day, the weather starts out looking beautiful but quickly turns into a thunderstorm as the Logan and Avery children walk to school. A water-filled gully separates the road and the forest bank, which is too slick with mud in some places to climb. At first they wait on the bank where the gully is narrow and easily passable, but they figure that they have left too early to meet the school bus.

At TJ's suggestion, they set off down the road rather than wait in the rain, and five minutes later the bus passes, veering close to them and forcing them to jump in the slimy, muddy gully to avoid being hit. A furious Little Man tries to throw mud at the schoolbus from which the white children yell "Nigger!" and "Mud eater!" When Jeremy tries to join them walking to school, Stacey ignores him.

Stacey makes Little Man, Christopher-John, and Cassie promise to meet him in the school toolshed at lunch. They take buckets and shovels and return to the spot where they were forced off the road. There, they dig a ditch across the area that fills with gully water and makes it look as if the road washed out from the rain.

After school, they rush back to the spot that they had worked on. As a result of hard rain during the afternoon, their "yard-wide ditch" has become a "twelve foot lake." They hide in the forest bank and watch as the Jefferson Davis schoobus approaches. Thinking that it is a puddle, the driver drives the bus straight into the hole, breaking the axle and waterlogging the engine. The white kids fall in the muddy ditch on their way out of the bus and must walk home in the rain. The bus driver tells them it will probably be two weeks before the bus can be towed and fixed.

That evening, Mama tells Big Ma that she heard Mr. Granger tell Ted Grimes, the bus driver, that they will have to wait until the rain stops to move the bus. She and Big Ma both admit that they are happy that it happened. The children are secretly proud of their revenge and cannot help laughing until Mama separates them to do their homework in different parts of the house.

Just then, Mr. Avery appears at their door and announces that "They's ridin' t'night." Mama sends the children straight to bed, but Cassie sneaks around the outside of the house into the boys' room. They hear that the "devilish night men" have been "set off." Cassie worries that the men are coming after them because of what they did to the bus, and Stacey feels as if it were his fault because it was his idea to dig the ditch.

Cassie sneaks back into her room and pretends to be asleep as Big Ma pulls a shotgun out from under the bed and sits at the window. Later in the night, she wakes up and Big Ma is gone. She goes out on the porch to revisit the boys' room and then hears something, but it is only Jason, the hound dog.

Just then, headlights from a series of cars approach the house. Jason hides, but Cassie sits frozen as two men get out of the cars and stare at the house. Then, one man waves the others away and the cars all turn around and drive off. When they are gone, Jason begins barking and Cassie sees Mr. Morrison standing at the side of the house, holding a shotgun. She goes inside and goes back to bed but cannot fall asleep until dawn.

Analysis

Once again, thunder plays a symbolic role in Cassie's world. On the morning of the incident with the schoolbus, the children set off with sun behind the clouds, only to have the weather change quickly. "Soon the thunder rolled across the sky, and the rain fell like hail upon our bent heads." The seemingly unpredictable changes in the weather mirror the children's seeming luck in escaping the bus. The hope for sunny weather is dashed when the thunder storm begins just as the children's hopes of escaping the schoolbus where the gully is smallest are dashed when they end up jumping into the muddy gully.

Earlier in the chapter, Big Ma has assured Little Man that the sun will shine again. Her words are an intentional metaphor, reminding the child not to lose hope. Though the children temporarily lose hope after being forced into the gully, they triumph over the bus in the end, not only forcing the white children to walk home that day but also for two weeks thereafter.

Cars, too, function as symbols of power and of self-determination. Mr. Granger's is the first car that the reader sees in this chapter. For him, the car is a possession which, like his land, demonstrates that he is rich. But the car is also a means of showing that Mr. Granger has more control over his transportation, and thus his life, than the Logan children or parents have over theirs.

In this chapter, cars are solely a white possession. White children ride the schoolbus, while black children walk. White landowners (Mr. Granger) drive cars while black landowners (Mama) walk. Even more explicitly, cars are a symbol of whites' power over blacks' lives. Cassie does not need to see the occupants of the train of cars in the night to know that they are white and threatening. Whites' responses to blacks' possession of cars demonstrates that they are symbols of power. The Berry's were burned by angry white men after driving around town in their car, a transgression of race lines.

Big Ma's suggestion that Little Man might someday have a car, then, may remind the reader that even if that day comes, Little Man may have something to fear from white men. On the other hand, it may illustrate her hopes for a world in which her grandchildren can drive cars safely and freely.

In this society, blacks who outwardly hold power seem dangerous to whites. That is why even children like Cassie and her brothers must exercise their power subversively and secretly. Even children as young as Cassie and Stacey realize that if someone had seen them, the mob could have come after them.

The train of cars that turns around in the Logans' driveway demonstrates that children are not exempt from the danger that faces adult blacks. Notably, Cassie witnessses the cars' arrival alone. Even the dog, Jason, leaves her and hides. Despite the fact that mama tries to shield her children from the truth by putting them to bed early, Cassie's realization of the danger that her family could face is one step on her way to growing up.

Chapter Four Summary:

One Sunday, Cassie helps make butter and hears Mama and Big Ma talk about how she and the children have been acting strangely for several weeks. She cannot tell her mother what is wrong because she and her little brothers promised Stacey that they would say nothing about the bus. When she breaks a dish, Mama sends her to find the boys.

In the boys' room, TJ suggests that Stacey look for the questions to the upcoming history test in his mother's room. He then tells the Logan children that the "night men" tarred and feathered Sam Tatum because he accused Mr. Barnett, who owns a store in Strawberry, of charging him for things he didn't buy. Later, when the children go outside to milk the cows, TJ returns inside to get his hat. They come in and find him looking at one of Mama's books, but he says he just wanted to learn more about the Egyptians.

On the way to school the next day, TJ offers to share his cheat sheet with Stacey, and Stacey rips it up. After school, Cassie and her younger brothers see TJ run off into the forest with three boys following him. A boy named Little Willie says that Stacey was caught with a cheat sheet which he'd grabbed from TJ in class and was whipped by his mother. Stacey and all the other children take off after TJ, and Moe Turner tells them that he went to the Wallace Store.

Stacey tries to get his siblings to go home but they follow him to the Wallace store. There, the Wallaces and the older Sims brothers make disparaging remarks about "little niggers" while older students from Great Faith dance. Stacey finds TJ and the two get in a fist-fight until Mr. Morrison arrives and breaks it up. He takes the Logan children home on his wagon and says that he won't tell their mother that they went to the store, but that it is up to them to tell their mother themselves.

When they arrive at home, they see Mr. Granger's Packard driving away from the house. He had been badgering Big Ma to sell her land to him. Cassie goes with Big Ma to a clearing of trees. This area was formed when Mr. Anderson, to whom she refused to sell the trees, chopped them down anyway before Papa came home and stopped him. She tells Cassie about marrying her husband, Paul Edward, who had been born a slave in Georgia and who was working as a carpenter in Vicksburg when she met him. They bought their first two-hundred acres of land from a Yankee named Mr. Hollenbeck who had bought it during Reconstruction from the Grangers, and the second two-hundred acres from Mr. Jamison, who was a lawyer. Harlan Granger has always wanted to buy back all the Granger land but Paul Edward wouldn't sell it. Their two daughters died as babies, their son Mitchell died in World War II, and their son Kevin drowned, and now the land is Big Mama's, Cassie's father's, and her son Hammer's. She says that she will never sell it.

Stacey confesses to his mother that he went to the Wallace store. Mama sends them to bed early and then, on Saturday, takes them to see the Berrys. Mr. Berry is burned beyond recognition and cannot speak. His wife cares for him. When they leave, Mama reminds the children that the Wallaces did that to him.

On the way home, Mama stops at different farms and talks to various families about finding another store to patronize without directly mentioning what the Wallaces have done to the Berrys. Moe's father, Mr. Turner, says that he would like to participate in a boycott, but that he has credit at the store and that driving to Vicksburg overnight, like the Logans do, would take too long. Finally, Mama convinces him to promise that if she could get him credit and buy the things he needs in Vicksburg for him, then he would be able to stop shopping at the Wallace store.

Analysis:

In this chapter, Cassie's struggle to grow up is further represented through the divisions which separate her from her mother and grandmother. Believing herself to be responsible for the "night men," she takes on adult-sized worries. Cassie's decision to hold to her promise to Stacey not to speak of the bus, even when her mother asks her what is wrong, shows the reader that the Logan children live by the same principles as their parents.

Cassie's accident, breaking the molding dish at the beginning of the chapter, illustrates her difficulties in assuming these new adult responsibilities. Cassie tries to overcome the limitations of being a child (being short) by balancing on a stool, but ultimately, she is still too small to carry these responsibilities. Her crash off the stool foreshadows her coming inability to keep her adult-size secrets to herself.

The author places this book in a long tradition of African-American literature with her reference to W.E.B. DuBois's The Negro, the book that Stacey catches TJ holding in his mother's room. DuBois believed that blacks would gain equality by proving that they could excel in education and business. TJ's attempt to use the book to cheat, then, is an ironic allusion to Mama and Big Ma's shared belief in the importance of education.

The story that Big Ma tells Cassie about her life with her husband is part of a tradition of oral narrative central to the African-American literary tradition. Paul Edward's birth, two years before slavery ended, connects the story to the tradition of slave narratives, like that of Frederick Douglass. Slave narratives usually tell a story in which a slave frees himself and gains independence through his own ingenuity. Paul Edward Logan earns his four-hundred acres of land through hard, honest work. The references to the honest white men who sold him the land (Mr. Hollenbeck, a Yankee carpet-bagger) and Mr. Jamison, who cares more about the law than farming, demonstrates that all white landowners are not racist and greedy like Mr. Granger.

Once more, land is seen as a symbol of freedom and autonomy in this chapter. Big Ma emphasizes the importance of owning the land and keeping it in the family. Unlike slavery days when families could be separated at their owner's whim, Big Ma has the power to keep her children close to her and to give her land to them. The story about Mr. Anderson, who cut down the trees that he was forbidden to buy, illustrates to the reader that neither the Logans nor their land are entirely safe.

Chapter Five Summary:

Before dawn on a Saturday, Cassie and Stacey depart with Big Ma in the wagon for the market in Strawberry where they will sell butter, milk, and eggs. They have never been allowed to go before, but this time TJ is going along to buy things for his mother, so Big Ma decides to take her grandchildren, too. When they get to Strawberry, Cassie is disappointed to see how small the town is. At first, she doesn't understand why Big Ma parks the wagon so far away from the entrance to the market, but Big Ma assures her that her regular customers will look for her and then tells her that the wagons near the entrance belong to white people.

After lunch, the market begins to break up, and Big Ma goes to Mr. Jamison's law office. Cassie wants to go in and talk to him, since she likes him because he always calls Big Ma "Missus," but Big Ma tells the children to wait in the wagon. After a few minutes, TJ suggests they go ahead to Barnett's Mercantile and buy the goods his mother wants, in order to save time.

At the store, TJ shows Stacey and Cassie a pearl-handled revolver in a display case, which he says he wants badly. He gives his mother's list to Mr. Barnett, but Mr. Barnett stops waiting on him to take the orders of several white customers in a row, including a young white girl. It has been almost an hour, and even though Stacey and TJ try to stop her, Cassie marches over to Mr. Barnett to remind him that he has forgotten about them. He responds angrily, telling her to get her "little black self" back to waiting and calling her a "little nigger." Cassie protests, until Stacey begins to drag her out of the store, and Mr. Barnett tells him to "make sure she don't come back till yo' mammy teach her what she is."

Outside, Stacey tells Cassie that even though she knows that Mr. Barnett is wrong, Mr. Barnett doesn't. Cassie walks down the sidewalk, thinking about Mr. Barnett's words to her, and bumps into Lillian Jean Simms, who is with Jeremy and their two younger brothers. Lillian Jean demands an apology, which Cassie reluctantly gives, and then tells her that she should walk in the street. Cassie is trying to keep from being pushed off the sidewalk by Lillian Jean when Mr. Simmons appears and twists Cassie's arm behind her back.

Mr. Simmons demands that Cassie apologize to his daughter, although Jeremy insists she already did. Cassie tries to run away and is met by Big Mama. Mr. Simms demands that Cassie say "I'm sorry, Miz Lillian Jean," and Big Mama reluctantly makes her comply. Cassie says it and runs crying into the wagon, thinking this is the cruelest day that she has ever endured.

Analysis

Cassie's difficult path toward adulthood passes another milestone when she realizes the implications of the cliche that life is not fair. Approaching Mr. Barnett to remind him that they have been waiting, Cassie expects that he will react as she does and perceive the unfairness of her situation. When he does not, Cassie is doubly outraged, both by the injustice of his racist reaction and by this upset of her generally positive worldview.

Cassie's journey to Strawberry is a metaphor for her exposure to a wider world beyond her home. She is disappointed when she sees Strawberry because it is a small, shabby place. Racism in Strawberry is more apparent and more acceptable than it is in Cassie's smaller town. In Strawberry, Big Ma is not a supreme power but instead must bow to the will of a powerful white man, no matter how much she might disagree with him.

When Cassie cries at the end of the chapter, her tears represent her loss of innocence. Her tears do not mean that she is a child, as they did in the previous chapter when she broke the bowl, but instead show that she is being pushed away from her childhood innocence.

Chapter Six Summary:

On the way home from Strawberry, even TJ stays quiet. As they put the wagon in the barn at home, Stacey tells Cassie not to blame Big Ma because she had to act as she did. Cassie insists that Big Ma is a grownup like Mr. Simms. Their conversation stops short when they spot what appears to be Mr. Granger's Packard in their barn. They run in the house where they see their Uncle Hammer. The car belongs to him.

As Mama makes dinner, Cassie tries to tell Uncle Hammer about her day in Strawberry but Big Ma keeps interrupting her. Finally, she tells him the whole story, and Uncle Hammer wants to know if it was Charlie Simms who knocked her off the sidewalk. He jumps up, saying he has his own gun when Mama glances at her husband's shotgun, and runs outside. Mama tries to stop him, but he takes off in the Packard. Mr. Morrison jumps in with him right as he is pulling away.

Mama insists he's not going anywhere and Christopher-John says that Mr. Morrison will stop him, but Cassie and Little Man envision what he might do to Mr. Simms. Mama sends the three youngest children to bed and comes in to talk to Cassie. She says that Big Ma did what she did because she didn't want Cassie to get hurt. She tells Cassie that Mr. Simms thinks Lillian Jean is better than her because she is white, even though it's not true. He is the type of person who needs to believe whites are better than blacks to make himself feel big.

Mama tells Cassie the story of slaves who were brought over from Africa, like Big Ma's great-grandparents. White people preached that people from Africa were not human so that they could make them slaves. They taught the slaves Christianity to make them obedient but even so people like Big Ma's father Papa Luke ran away three times. After the Civil War, when Papa Luke and Big Ma's mother Mama Rachel were freed, people continued to believe that blacks were not equal to whites. People like Mr. Simms hold on to that belief to make themselves feel important. Mama says that what black people give white people is fear, not respect. Cassie may call Lillian Jean "Miss" because she has to but she calls the black girls at her church "Miss" because she respects them.

The next morning, Uncle Hammer and Mr. Morrison are both in the kitchen at breakfast, looking tired. When Cassie goes to take her bath in a tub in Mama's room, Mama tells her that Uncle Hammer will take them to church in his car. Cassie watches her mother dress and do her hair and has her fix her own hair in her "grown-up hairdo." She looks as Mama puts on her shoes, which have large holes in the soles which she has patched with cardboard.

After breakfast, Stacey tells his siblings that he asked Mama outright and she said that Mr. Morrison talked to Uncle Hammer all night and did not let him go to the Simmses. He says that Big Ma told Mama that if Mr. Morrison hadn't stopped him, Uncle Hammer would have been killed. Before they leave for church, Uncle Hammer sees Stacey's too-small raggedy coat and gives him his Christmas present early. It is a beautiful new coat. They drive to church in the Packard, which attracts a lot of attention. TJ is jealous of Stacey's new coat.

After church, they drive around town, taking the Old Soldiers road which the Rebel soldiers had marched up to save the town from Yankees. Cassie wonders if Strawberry was worth saving. When they pass the Wallace store, Uncle Hammer says he would like to burn the place because he grew up with the Berrys. Mama tells him there is another way. They reach Soldier's Bridge, which can only handle one vehicle at a time. Black people driving wagons often have to back down the bridge when a white person starts down it from the opposite side. A Model T truck has started down the bridge, but Uncle Hammer speeds the Packard across and it backs up. Its passengers, the Wallaces, all touch their hats as the car approaches, thinking it is Mr. Granger, and freeze when they see the Logan family inside. Mama says they will have to pay for this later.

Analysis:

When Cassie accuses Stacey of acting like a know-it-all since going to Louisiana with Papa the previous year (after he explains to her that maybe Big Mama didn't have a choice but to obey Mr. Simms) she demonstrates the difference in the degrees they have become aware of the realities of race in the South. The incident in Strawberry and Mama's subsequent explanation of the reasons for Big Ma's actions is the proccess by which Cassie learns a lesson that Stacey has learned a year ago.

Uncle Hammer and his Packard provides a marked parallel to Mr. Granger. On the surface level, Hammer provides a means for Cassie to see the possibilities available to black men beyond becoming farmers and workingmen like Papa and Mr. Morrison. The Packard is a mark of status, which symbolizes that Uncle Hammer is just as good as, or even better than any white man.

Hammer also provides a contrast to Papa, a man who is normally careful and thoughtful in his reactions. Hammer's knee-jerk reaction to Cassie's experience validates its injustice, but Mama's worries about what might happen to Hammer if he confronts Mr. Simms make it clear that even a black man of high status will not receive equal protection under Southern law.

Soldier's Bridge, which the family crosses in Uncle Hammer's Packard, dates back to the Civil War and symbolizes the continued but crumbling domination of Old Southern racist attitudes that only allow one way of thought and one group, whites, to have power. That it is old and falling apart suggests that these ways too will crumble.

Chapter Seven Summary:

When Mama asks for Stacey's coat to shorten the sleeves, he has to admit that he has lent it to TJ until he grows into it. TJ was making fun of him, calling him preacher because of the way the coat fit. Mama wants him to get it back, but Uncle Hammer tells Stacey that if he is stupid enough to give his coat away, then TJ can keep it permanently; Stacey will not survive in the world if he lets people take things from him.

Cassie is anxious waiting for Papa to come home, but decides that she will wait to do anything to Lillian Jean until talking to him. She also wants to beat up TJ, but knows that she would be unable to. Finally, before dawn on the day before Christmas, Cassie wakes up and finds that her father is home. They spend all day cooking. That night, the adults tell stories as they sit around the fire, including a silly story about Papa and Uncle Hammer stealing watermelons.

Then, Mr. Morrison tells a story which Mama doesn't want the children to hear, but to which Papa insists they listen. One Christmas during Reconstruction, Mr. Morrison was six and lived in a shantytown with his family. Night men came in pursuit of two teenage boys accused of molesting a white woman whom had hid in his house, hoping his strong father would help save them. Mama explains that slaves were bred for strength like animals during slavery. The night men burned and killed women and children, including his two sisters, and although Mr. Morrison's parents fought hard, they both died too. Though he was only a child, Mr. Morrison makes himself remember that night.

Cassie wakes up before dawn and hears the adults talking in her parents' room about the danger of offering credit to people to shop at Vicksburg. If they use their land as collateral, they may risk losing it to Harlan Granger. On Christmas morning, the children get books (two versions of Aesop's Fables for the two younger boys, The Count of Monte Cristo for Stacey, and The Three Musketeers for Cassie). Papa tells his elder children that their books were written by Alexander Dumas who was a black man. They also get stockings of licorice, oranges, and bananas, as well as clothes from Uncle Hammer.

The Averys and their eight children come over for Christmas dinner after church. While everyone is sitting around after dinner, Jeremy Simms arrives at the door and gives the family some nuts and Stacey a flute that he carved himself. Stacey cannot understand why Jerermy brought him a gift until Papa suggests he gave Jeremy the gift of friendship in the past year. But Papa warns him that friendship between a black man and white man can never be on an equal basis and it would cost too much to find out if this friendship with Jeremy could last.

The next day, Papa whips the children for going to the Wallace store. He, Uncle Hammer, and Mr. Morrison go to Vicksburg. When they come back, Mr. Jamison visits and Big Ma signs the land over to her two sons so that it cannot be taken from them after her death and so that it will require both of their signatures to sell it. Mr. Jamison agrees to put up the credit for a group of black families to shop in Vicksburg and says that not all white Southerners feel the same way as the Grangers. Nonetheless, he reminds the Logans that the Wallace store is on Granger land and that Harland Granger lives in the past. Also, starting a boycott against the Wallace store is tantamount to saying that blacks and whites are equal by seeking to punish the Wallaces for the murder of a black man, a claim that may be dangerous in their town's current racial climate. Even if he cannot beat Granger or the Wallaces, Papa says that he wants his children to know he tried.

A few days later, after taking orders from the other families, Papa and Uncle Hammer take the wagon to Vicksburg to buy goods at the store there. The day after they get back, Mr. Granger arrives at the house. He suggests that their loan for the second two hundred acres of land might come due anytime, especially since the bank owner doesn't like people stirring up bad feelings in the community. He adds that he might have to charge his sharecroppers more than their usual portion of cotton that year, so they might not be able to pay their debts. Granger leaves after saying he plans to get the land back and that there are a lot of ways of stopping David Logan. Papa says he better make them good.

Analysis

Christian mythology plays a strong role in this chapter, which centers around Christmas. Jeremy Simms plays the role of the Little Drummer Boy, who gives whatever he can as a gift. Cassie balks at Jeremy's gift of nuts, since her family already has so many, but Mama quiets her, knowing the importance of the very act of giving.

Giving is a significant theme both in this chapter and throughout the book. Jeremy gives unselfishly but his gift is insufficient, not because of what it is, but because it is tainted by the world in which they live. Because of their racist environment, Jeremy cannot be trusted, even though he might turn out to be a better friend than TJ. Stacey is forbidden to repay Jeremy's gift with his friendship because of the danger inherent in doing so.

Stacey's "gift" of his coat to TJ, unlike Jeremy's gift, is not unselfish but instead was given ignorantly. Uncle Hammer's decision to let TJ keep the coat emphasizes the importance of deeply considering that which you give away, whether it be clothing or friendship, because gifts have long lasting consequences.

Mr. Jamison and the Logan parents both give the gift to the community, at risk to themselves, of encouraging the boycott of the Wallace store. Their moral conviction, even in the face of danger, contrasts sharply with Mr. Granger's more selfish concerns of making money and accruing possessions. This attitude towards sacrifice is also reminiscent of Christian themes including the Wise Men's gift to the baby Jesus, the defiance of King Herod, and Jesus's final sacrifice. Mr. Morrison's parents, who died to save him, also recall this theme of sacrifice.

This chapter also highlights the power of history. Papa insists that his children hear about the night men who killed Mr. Morrison's family. Storytelling in the African-American literary tradition is more than a way to pass the time; it is also a means of testifying to and remembering the past in hopes of helping future generations.

Chapter Eight Summary:

Cassie catches up with Lillian Jean as she is walking to school and tells her that after what happened in Strawberry, she has come to see how the world actually works. She says: "I'm who I am and you're who you are," and offers to carry "Miz Lillian Jean's" books. When Lillian Jean turns toward her school at the crossroads, Jeremy tells her she didn't have to do that. Her younger brothers and TJ want to tell on her to Mama but Stacey makes them promise that they won't. Stacey also won't have anything to do with TJ's plans to cheat on the upcoming final exam.

Cassie tells the reader that on New Year's Day, after Uncle Hammer left, Papa took her to the hollow with the cut-down trees. He told her that there were some things in life that you have to do to survive and that if she makes the wrong decision about Lillian Jean, Charlie Simms will get involved and there will be trouble.

During January, Cassie calls Lillian Jean "Miz," carries her books, and listens to the secrets that she tells about the girls she is friends with. After school on the last day of exams, Cassie meets Lillian Jean on the road and tells her that she has something in the woods to show her. After walking into the woods, Cassie throws Lillian Jean's books down on the ground. When Cassie won't pick them up, Lillian Jean slaps her. After the older girl has struck her first, Cassie thinks that it is fair to fight back. Cassie has had Big Ma braid her hair flat to her head so Lillian Jean cannot pull it, but Cassie grabs onto Lillian Jean's long loose hair and twists it until she apologizes for her superior behavior and for the incident in Strawberry. Cassie lets her go saying that if she tells her father about the fight, she will tell Lillian Jean's friends all the secrets that she knows about them. Lillian Jean just cannot understand that Cassie had been fooling her and says "You was such a nice little girl..."

At school the next day, Miss Crocker makes Cassie sit in the cold back of the room, under the window, after catching her daydreaming. Cassie sees Kaleb Wallace outside. Claiming to have to go to the bathroom, she follows to watch from the top of a woodpile as Kaleb, another man, and Harlan Granger enter Mama's classroom. They say that they are representing the School Board and watch as Mama continues the history lesson she that she had been teaching about slavery. Mama talks about its cruelty and the economic benefits that the ruling class got from the free labor of others. Mr. Granger opens a student's book, with the paper pasted on the front cover, and accuses Mama of teaching things that aren't in the book, which was approved by the School Board. He fires her.

The children meet their mother after school and walk home with her. When they get home, she tells Papa, Mr. Morrison, and Big Ma that she has lost her job, and says that it is their way of getting back at the family for shopping in Vicksburg. She worries about where they will find enough money for the mortgage, and Papa says that they will manage. She goes for a walk, and Mr. Morrison offers to get a job now that Papa is back, but Papa says he will be leaving again soon. He tells Little Man that Grandpa was a tenant farmer who saved every penny to send Mama to high school in Jackson and teacher training school, and that Mama was meant to teach like "the sun is to shine."

Little Willie Wiggins tells Stacey the next day that TJ had been complaining about Mama failing him on his final exam in the Wallace store and talked about the pasted book covers in front of Kaleb Wallace. TJ has stayed home from school that day, so the Logan children follow Claude home, and Stacey accuses TJ, who tries to blame it on Little Willie. Stacey doesn't believe TJ but doesn't beat him up, saying he has something worse coming to him. At school the next week, everyone shuns TJ, who still will no take the blame. TJ tells Stacey that it doesn't matter because he has better friends now who treat him like a man and who are white.

Analysis:

The theme of friendship reappears at the end of this chapter and foreshadows disaster. Papa has warned Stacey of the danger in friendships between blacks and whites because of the inequality involved. TJ proclaims himself to be superior to the Logans, who he calls babies, because they are younger than he. The that time he spends at the Wallace store, befriending the very men who burned the Berrys, suggests that TJ is putting himself in danger.

TJ's belief that he can have white friends is contrasted with Cassie's "friendship" with Lillian Jean. Both are attempting to use these friendships to their advantage, TJ to quell the inadequacy he feels about being poor and being held back in school, and Cassie to get revenge. Unlike TJ, Cassie embarks on her "friendship" well aware that it can never be real. TJ and Lillian Jean provide interesting foils for one another in this chapter. Just as TJ boasts of his new friends, Lillian Jean does not suspect that Cassie's friendship is an act and continues to be surprised even after Cassie beats her up. Cassie care to not leave any marks on Lillian Jean's face is both pragmatic (there is no evidence against her) and metaphorical, because it shows that Cassie understands the importance of appearances in a way that Lillian Jean and TJ do not.

While Cassie is acting as Lillian Jean's "slave," TJ calls her an "Uncle Tom." In part, of course, this is an allusion to Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. The word has also been transformed into a derogatory term for a black person who behaves in a sycophantic manner toward whites. This statement is in part ironic because it is TJ who is playing the Uncle Tom figure by ratting out Mrs. Logan to the Wallaces.

Chapter Nine Summary:

Spring comes, and classes are about to end at Great Faith at the end of March. Jeremy tells Stacey that he will miss walking with him and offers to visit his house but Stacey says that his father would not like it. Jeremy also says that TJ has been hanging around with his brothers RW and Melvin, who are eighteen and nineteen, and who make fun of TJ behind his back.

Cassie asks her mother why TJ would hang around with the Simms boys, and Mama tells her that they hang around with him to make themselves feel good and to use him. Mr. Jamison comes over and talks to Papa, who is working in the fields. At supper, Papa tells Mama that Thurston Wallace has been talking about stopping the shopping in Vicksburg but that it is not time to be scared yet.

Papa has still not left for the railroad when school ends. When Cassie begs him to stay he tells her he has to go in order to pay the taxes and mortgage. They have planted extra cotton to make up for the fact that Mama was fired. Just then, Mr. Avery arrives and says that he cannot buy things in Vicksburg anymore because Mr. Granger and Mr. Montier have asked their tenant farmers for sixty rather than fifty percent of their cotton and has threatened to kick those who shop in Vicksburg off their land. The Wallaces have threatened to get the sheriff to put those who owe debts on the chain gang. Stacey is angry after he leaves but Papa says that he does not understand the risks that Mr. Avery must face. When Cassie worries that they are giving up, Papa compares them to a little fig tree on their property. It is smaller than the other trees but keeps on doing what it has to do and does not give up.

That night, Cassie sneaks out of bed to eavesdrop on Mama and Papa talking on the porch. Papa wants to bring Stacey to Vicksburg with him so that he'll know how to handle himself, unlike TJ whose parents can no longer whip him. Seven families have decided to keep shopping in Vicksburg, so Papa, Stacey, and Mr. Morrison leave on Wednesday before dawn to do the shopping.

On Thursday, when they are supposed to get back, it begins to rain. Mama is so worried that she considers going out on the horse to look for them, but the wagon arrives. Mr. Morrison carries Papa into the house, his leg splinted with a shotgun and a rag tied around his bleeding head. Mama sends the unwilling children to bed while she prepares to set Papa's broken leg.

In the boys' room, at first Stacey will not say what happened but finally tells the other children that on the way back from Vicksburg, the back wheels fell off the wagon, probably a trick played by some boys he saw standing near it in town. Rather than unload everything, Stacey held the horse still while Mr. Morrison held up the back of the wagon and Papa attached the wheel. A truck with its lights off approached them from behind, and they didn't hear it because of the storm. It suddenly turned on its lights, Papa grabbed his shotgun, and someone in the truck shot Papa, grazing his temple. The horse reared up and the wagon rolled over Papa's leg. Papa told Stacey to hide in the gully. The men shot at and missed Mr. Morrison, who threw one of them to the ground and fought with the other two. Badly injured, the men drove off. Mr. Morrison put the wheel on and they came home.

Cassie asks who the men were, and Stacey tells her he thinks that it was the Wallaces. Christopher-John and Little Man want to know if Papa is going to die, but Stacey insists that he will be fine in the morning.

Analysis

Previous chapters have foreshadowed retribution against the Logans for organizing the boycott of the Wallace store. Papa's comment, early in this chapter, that it is not time to be worried yet contributes to the building tension and expectation of a crisis. The attack on Papa by the Wallaces, however, does not release this tension entirely. Papa may be alive (and is clearly better off than the Wallaces' other victims, the Berrys) but there is no certainty that retribution is over. Therefore, this crisis is a minor one that increases the tension and conflict of the novel, rather than diffusing it.

This chapter illustrates that the novel is not only Cassie's coming of age story, but also Stacey's. When Mama worries about sending Stacey to Vicksburg with his father, Papa tells her that he is twelve years old, and "a boy gets as big as Stacey down here and he's near a man." The realities of life in the South mean that a young black boy cannot afford to remain a boy even at twelve. In Papa's eyes, doing so means remaining ignorant of the very real dangers of life.

Stacey's impending manhood contrasts sharply with TJ's perception of himself as a man. In the previous chapter, he told Stacey he was "fourteen, near grown." But TJ's "manhood" does not encompass the awareness of the dangers that his actions portend. He thinks that his friendship with RW and Melvin Simms makes him an adult because RW and Melvin are older. Yet Stacey already realizes he cannot be friends with Jeremy, who is his own age. The inequality inherent in TJ's relationship with the other Simms boys, who are both older and white, foreshadows a coming crisis.

Throughout the book, the author stresses the economic factors which contribute to racism. It is no accident that the history lesson that resulted in Mama getting fired was about the ways in which white Americans used black slave labor to their economic advantage. Similarly, the Wallaces' anger stems from their financial loss.

Chapter Ten Summary:

A week later, on Papa's first day out of bed, he and Mama discuss their financial situation. They have enough for the June note on the land with only a couple of dollars left, though they will have to scrimp on food. Papa plans to sell the cow and calves and maybe the old sow to pay the July and August notes, and the cotton should pay for the September note. They do not want to tell Hammer what happened and ask him for money because they are afraid that with his temper, Hammer will do something that will get him killed. Papa, however, wishes that he could react like Hammer would and whip the Wallaces. Thurston and Dewberry Wallace are still laid up from what Mr. Morrison did to them. Mr. Morrison has been looking for work with no success.

The children go with Mr. Morrison in the wagon to lend Papa's planter to Mr. Wiggins at his farm, six miles away. On the way back, Kaleb Wallace's pickup truck stops in the middle of the road, blocking their path. Kaleb threatens to gun down Mr. Morrison for hurting his brothers. Mr. Morrison calmly looks in the pickup to see if Kaleb is carrying a gun, then uses his enormous strength to move the pickup to the side of the road. As they drive away, Kaleb yells that he is going to "get" Mr. Morrison. At home, Mama worries about Mr. Morrison putting himself in danger for them but he tells her that her children are like the family he never had.

In August, the children escape the heat by sitting by the pond in the woods. Sometimes, Jeremy joins them. One day, he says that some people are glad that Papa got hurt. Mama has told Cassie that they cannot report the Wallaces to the sheriff because Mr. Morrison might get put on the chain gang for what he did to them. Jeremy also talks about TJ hanging around with his brothers. He invites the Logans to see his treehouse, since his father isn't home, but Stacey coldly refuses.

At home, Mr. Morrison returns from Strawberry with an envelope and meets Papa in the barn where he is repairing a harness. The bank has called in the note on the land, even though they have four more years left to pay. Papa is angry and wants to ride to Strawberry immediately, but Mama persuades him to wait till morning, since the bank won't even be open and he will be putting himself in danger. Big Ma worries about what they will do if Hammer cannot get the money, and Papa promises they won't lose the land.

The annual revival begins the third Sunday of August and is filled with seven days of religious services, socializing, and food. At lunch on the first day, Stacey spots Uncle Hammer walking down the road. He has sold his Packard to pay for the land and is bringing the money to Papa. Though everyone wishes he could stay longer, they think that it would be too dangerous, and Hammer leaves early Monday morning.

It seems to be about to storm on the last night of the revival, but the Logans decide to go anyway. Before the meeting, Little Willie Wiggins and Moe Turner tell Stacey that they have seen TJ with the Simms brothers. TJ and the Simmses come to middle of the gathering and TJ, dressed in trousers, a suit coat, tie, and hat, announces that they are his friends, unaware of the condescending smirks that Cassie sees on their faces. TJ says that his new friends will buy him anything he wants, including the pearl-handled pistol in Barnett's Mercantile. Stacey turns away in disgust and follows everyone into the church, leaving TJ upset that no one cares. RW says they're going to Strawberry to buy him the pistol but TJ stands, looking puzzled and undecided, before finally following them.

Analysis:

The novel continues to move towards its climax as yet another crisis occurs when the bank calls in the note. The theme of strength found in family recurs when Uncle Hammer sells his beloved car to save the land. That car had symbolized equality to Hammer, because it was the same model as Mr. Granger's. However, Hammer chooses family over the outer appearance of equality. Mr. Morrison's choice to remain with the Logans, despite the danger to himself, also emphasizes the importance of family.

The land, of course, is a symbol of the family and its strength. Possession of the land means that the Logans are not beholden to the whims of white landowners, the way sharecroppers like the Averys are. Papa's assurance to Big Ma that they'll keep the land is a recurring refrain throughout the book.

Through Stacey's relationship with Jeremy, we can see an alternate view of race relations. Jeremy's tree-house, from which he believes, or wishes, that he can see all the way to the Logans' land metaphorizes his hope for a greater connection with the Logan children. His is far-reaching view from atop the treehouse is a vision of inclusiveness, in which the geographical as well as social boundaries cease to separate white and black friends. Stacey's insistence that Jeremy cannot possibly see to the Logans' land is a product of the harsh life lessons he has learned throughout this book and of his growing understanding of the longstanding racial inequality in the South.

Chapter Eleven Summary:

The chapter begins with the words of a song beginning "Roll of thunder/hear my cry" which Mr. Morrison sings at the thunder, as he waits outside the house as he has done every night since Papa was injured. Cassie, who can't sleep, hears a tapping at the door. It is TJ. They go in the boys' room and wake up Stacey.

TJ is bruised all over his stomach and chest and thinks "something's busted" inside. His father has threatened to kick him out if he stays out another night, and he needs Stacey to help him walk home. Stacey demands an explanation, and TJ says that when he got to Strawberry with the RW and Melvin, the store was closed. They said it would be all right to take the gun and just say to anyone who saw them that they were planning to pay the next day. They send TJ, who is skinny, in through a narrow window, and then come in wearing stockings over their faces. While they are trying to break the wall cabinet with an axe, Mr. Barnett comes down to investigate and struggles with Melvin, until RW hits him over the head with the flat side of the axe.

Mrs. Barnett comes down, sees her husband slumped on the floor, and screams: "You niggers done killed Jim Lee!" She struggles with RW until she hits her head on the stove and falls to the floor. TJ is not sure if they are dead. When the Simmses won't take him straight home, TJ threatens to tell someone that they hurt the Barnetts. RW and Melvin beat him up, leave him in the back of the truck, and go to the pool hall. TJ hitches a ride past Soldier's Bridge, in order to avoid the Simmses coming home on Jackson Road, then walked to the Logans house.

Stacey wants him to stay and get Big Ma to fix his injuries but TJ insists that he has to go home. Finally, Stacey agrees to walk him home. Cassie insists on following, and then Little Man and Christopher-John wake up and decide to come too. They walk to the Avery house and watch TJ slip in through a window. Suddenly, they see lights approaching and quickly hide in the woods.

Kaleb and Thurston Wallace and RW and Melvin Simms smash their way into the Avery house and violently drag out its inhabitants. They break TJ's jaw when he emerges. One man holds up the gun, saying that RW and Melvin saw TJ and two other boys running form the Barnett's store and demanding the money they took. Kaleb kicks TJ in the stomach, knocking him down, and throws Mrs. Avery back against the house when she protests. Mr. Jamison arrives in his car and tells them to take TJ to the sheriff. The sheriff arrives and says that Mr. Granger doesn't want a hanging on his place. Kaleb Wallace wants to take TJ elsewhere to hang him and mentions hanging Mr. Morrison, too. Someone else suggests Mr. Logan. There are cries for hangings as Mr. Jamison tries to shield TJ with his own body.

Stacey insists that Cassie go tell Papa. He needs to stay in case they take TJ into the woods. Cassie and her younger brothers go to get Papa and Mr. Morrison as thunder crashes and lightening splits the sky.

Analysis

The metaphor of thunder, which has continued throughout the book, takes center stage in this chapter, which is the crisis of the book. In the song which Mr. Morrison sings at the opening of the chapter, the reader sees the origin of the title. The full lyrics are:

Roll of thunder

hear my cry

Over the water

bye and bye

Ole man comin'

down the line

Whip in hand to

beat me down

But I ain't

gonna let him

Turn me 'round

The song is a spiritual previously sung by slaves and its presence in this chapter speaks to the continued attempts at the whites to dominate blacks seventy years after the Civil War. But the end of the song is most significant, because it portrays blacks' refusal to be dominated.

This chapter begins with "approaching thunder." Immediately after Cassie hears it, she hears TJ tapping at the door. Both sounds are marks of the approaching crisis and destruction. By the end of the chapter, a mob is clamoring to hang TJ (as well as Mr. Morrison and Papa), and the crisis is underway and inescapable.

The destruction of TJ's home and the brutal treatment of his family echoes Mr. Morrison's Christmas story about the night that his entire family was killed by a lynch mob. Earlier, TJ's refuge in the Logan house paralleled the young men who had sought safety in the Morrison home. Just as those boys unwittingly led the mob to attack the Morrisons, as the mob screams for Mr. Morrison and Papa, it seems that the accusations against TJ may lead to still more violence.

Chapter Twelve Summary:

By the time Cassie, Christopher-John, and Little Man arrive home, the adults have awakened and realized they're gone. Cassie tells TJ's story, and Papa sets off with his shotgun to stop the mob from killing TJ or finding Stacey. Mama worries that her husband will be hanged if he uses his gun and wants Mr. Granger to stop them. Papa says Granger would have already if he wanted to and leaves, telling Mama he will do what he has to do, and so will she. He and Mr. Morrison set off together in the direction of the Averys' house.

The children sit up and wait with Mama and Big Ma. Suddenly, they smell smoke. The cotton is on fire and must have been struck by lightening. If it reaches the trees, it will burn all the way to Strawberry. Mama and Big Ma set out with wet burlap and shovel sacks to fight the fire and make the children promise to remain in the house. When the boys realize that the fire is heading for the trees where Papa, Mr. Morrison, and Stacey are, they burst into tears.

Near dawn, Jeremy Simms arrives at the Logan house. He was sleeping in his treehouse, smelled the smoke, and got his father. Mr. Simms, RW, and Melvin, and the group of men from town have been all fighting the fire. Jeremy assumes that the lightening must have struck the Logans' fence post and sparked the cotton. Papa, Mr. Granger, and Stacey are all out there digging a trench together to prevent the fire from spreading. Jeremy says that the one thing that would help would be if the rain would come. He is just setting off down the road to go home when it does begin to rain. The children jump around laughing from relief in the rain.

After dawn, the fire is out after an hour of heavy rain. Cassie and Little Man head off to see what has happened, but Christopher-John won't come because they were told to stay in the house. When they get to the scene of the fire, they see that the trench was successful. Men and women covered in hats and handkerchiefs, nearly indistinguishable, continue to put out small blazes. Mr. Lanier, Mr. Simms, Mr. Granger, Papa, Mama, and Mr. Morrison all work side by side. Kaleb Wallace checks the burned stalks of cotton and does not even notice that Cassie and Little Man are staring at him.

The children rush to Mama, Big Ma, and Stacey, who tell them that Papa, Mr. Morrison, and Claude are all right but say nothing about TJ. Finally, Mama says that the sheriff and Mr. Jamison took him into Strawberry. Stacey says that the men stopped hurting TJ when Mr. Granger sent them to fight the fire, so Papa and Mr. Morrison didn't have to use guns to fight the men. The fire started, and Mr. Morrison got Stacey out of the woods. He says that Papa couldn't climb the slope with his bad leg, but Cassie is suspicious. She has seen her father move fast on that leg when he had to. Mama also assures Cassie that the taxes will get paid, despite the fact that a quarter of their cotton was burned and destroyed. She sends the three younger children in to bed, but Cassie reemerges to join Stacey on the porch.

Stacey tells her what happened after she left. The men stuffed TJ in a car, but Mr. Jamison jumped in his car and parked it across the road so that nobody could pass. Mr. Granger would not do anything more than to tell Hank Wade, the sheriff, to take care of the situation. Kaleb Wallace tried to grab Mr. Jamison's keys, which he threw into a flowerbed, and then RW and Melvin moved Mr. Jamison's car to the side of the road. Suddenly, Mr. Granger noticed smoke coming from his land and demanded that they men give TJ to the sheriff and join him in fighting the fire.

As Papa and Mr. Morrison walk up the driveway, Mr. Jamison's car pulls up. He tells them that Jim Lee Barnett died at four o'clock in the morning. TJ has a couple of broken ribs and a broken jaw but will "be all right...for now." Mr. Jamison is going to bring the Averys to town and Papa wants to go, but Mr. Morrison suggests he stay clear of the situation to avoid suspicion. Cassie is confused by this comment, until she realizes that Papa started the fire himself to keep TJ and Stacey safe. She knows that this fact is "something never to be spoken, not even to each other."

Stacey asks Papa what is going to happen to TJ and Papa says that he is in jail and could possibly go on the chain gang. Stacey asks if TJ could die and Papa says that he never lies to his son but wishes that he could now. Stacey's eyes fill with tears and he runs off into the woods. Mama and Papa tuck Cassie into bed. Only after she watches Papa setting off into the forest after Stacey does she begin to cry.

Cassie realizes that TJ will never be free to do all of the things she and her brothers do. She never liked him but he had always been there. She cries for the things which had happened that night: "for TJ. For TJ and the land."

Analysis:

When Cassie tells Papa that there is a mob clamoring to hang TJ, he says to his wife: "This thing's been coming a long time, baby, and TJ just happened to be the one foolish enough to trigger it off." A tone of inevitability pervades this chapter. All of the events of the book--the rising racial tensions, the previous incidents of violence--have led to this point. TJ is simply foolish, not evil, and only functions as a catalyst for an incident bound to happen in such a tense and violent climate.

Here, the weather metaphor of the previous chapter becomes full-fledged. The weather functions as a force as strong as that of hatred or love. It appears to be a sympathetic force, beginning to rain just when the fire cannot be stopped any other way.

In the image of men and women, black and white, working together to stop the fire, the author displays her most powerful suggestion yet of the possibility of racial harmony and cooperation. Race is symbolically erased by the bandanas and hats the people wear to protect themselves and their faces from the fire. This image suggests that, in a time of crisis, great divisions can be overcome.

However, it is important to remember that the reason that everyone fights the fire together proceeded not from an unselfish impulse but from Mr. Granger's desire to protect his own land. Here and throughout the book, Mr. Granger is a foil for Papa. The men have many surprising similarities, and both place an enormous importance on land and on family. While these feelings spur Papa to protect others, they lead Mr. Granger to act selfishly, hurting or ignoring others. Because of these parallels, however, Papa is able to conceive of a way to make Mr. Granger act by appealing to what he holds dear: his land rather than his sense of justice.

The book has a dual focus on the earth and on human life. Cassie's thoughts conclude the book, and she realizes that some things like the mud and the dust will pass away, while others, like her memory of this night will not. She cries for TJ and the land, for both have been punished for things beyond their control.

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