Year 2001 The Blacks And Whites example essay topic

1930's Mississippi was a harsh place for black people. Slavery had finished but white people still treated black people like slaves. Mildred Taylor wrote of how she learnt to grow and understand more about injustice. Cassie, the main character tells us what it was like to be living at that time in America. In the essay I will discuss about how blacks got ignored in shops and the unjust education system. The blacks had few rights and the whites controlled their lives in almost everyway.

Cassie tells us about how unfair the education system was. Such as one incident when their teacher tells the children that they have new books. They were all excited until Little Man saw the front page, which shows that the books have been passed down by whites and at the bottom of the page is the word nigger. It said that the condition of the book was very poor.

Another example is the description of the white school. Behind the building was a wide sports field around which were scattered rows of tiered gray looking benches and In front of it were two yellow buses. These two examples show how wonderful the white school is compared to the great Faith Elementary school. The blacks didnt have a sport field while the whites did; the blacks had nothing compared to the whites and that wasnt right.

Also the blacks had to walk to school while the whites travelled by bus. This is not right and it shows just one point of how badly the blacks where treated by the whites. Another example of injustice is when the education board sacks Mama. They accuse her of teaching the wrong syllabus as she wished to deliver a curriculum suitable for black people. In Strawberry we see some horrible incidents of prejudice. The blacks get the worst spot for selling their goods when the white get the best spot.

In Strawberry Cassie went to the Barnett store and Mr Barnett was being very unjust to Cassie because she was next in line and he let a white child come in front of her. After leaving the store Cassie tries to stand up for herself when Lillian Jean knocks her down. At that moment Cassie is too young to understand the way things were. She made me apologize to that ole ugly Lillian jean bout something wasnt even my fault. In Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry there is a situations where Stacey has had enough of the white bus splashing them with mud and making them jump off the road. Stacey takes revenge by digging a ditch in the road.

The bus rattled up the road, We could hear the students stealing with delight. The bus got stuck in the road and so the white children had to walk home. Stacey was angry with them even with he didnt know them so he took revenge so for one day they would feel how all the blacks feel all their lives. The Logan children were very happy but later on they become really worried and scared. The main reason they were scared was because of the night men. The night men are a group of whites who attack blacks.

The reason why the children were scared is because they think that the night men are after them because of the bus incident. The night men affected Cassie the most. In the book Mr Avery comes in and says, I lay paralysed with fear. She saw the headlight of a car come and stop and go. This fear, which Cassie had, didnt go away.

We know this because later in the book Mama and Big Ma notice that Cassie isnt acting like herself and that she is staying at home more. A group of white men had this affect on the children not just Cassie. This shows that the whites felt protected at night but the blacks couldnt be because one night the night men could come. Not only did the night men scare Cassie they also burned the Berrys. The Berry were burned because of some white men who were drunk said to each other that the nigger Sallie Ann was flirt in with her. Henrietta Togging who was kin to the berrys heard this and told John Berry to get out of there as soon as they got the gas.

The white men caught up after John had taken Henrietta home. When John noticed that he had to stop so he stopped at his uncles. The white men dragged them both out and set lit them and the boys. Soon after Henrietta told the sheriff about the incident but got ignored just because she was black. Later in the book Mrs Silas Lanier told us John Henry died last night.

This shows the awful things that could happen to the black people in the community. In Chapter Nine Papa tells mama I think Ill take Stacey with me. Papa is referring to Vicksburg. This is the place were Papa got his leg shot. From Stacey in Chapter Nine we learn that the wheels came off and that Mr Morrison and Papa thought that someone had been messing with them. Stacey explains to the children that he saw two boys near the wagon and also that papa got shot in the leg while putting the first one on.

He describes how Mr Morrison picked one man up and flung him to the ground. F This shows how that even when they tried to help the community the whites might be ready to stop them. Being shot is nothing compared to what TJ went through in the last chapter. TJ nearly died because the Simms brothers told everybody that TJ was part of the attack on the Barnett and that they saw him run off.

When some whites heard about this they went to Tj house and dragged him out and kicked him. In the book it says that TJ, let out a cry of pain. Stacey sees what is happening and runs to Papa for help. Papa burns a quarter or the cotton in his effort to save TJ. This makes the people forget about TJ and help with the fire.

The end of the book was very sad but hopeful atmosphere as Cassie thinks about everything that has happened and learns to accept the way her community is treated. At that time, the life of black people was extremely hard. They constantly had to watch your back and to be guarded from the night men. Now in the year 2001 the blacks and whites are equal but still now there is still racist people who cause hurt because they dont like the colour of a persons skin. Mildred Taylors book teachers us about learning us about learning to be more tolerant by showing the pain than injustice can cause. 36 e.