What are the themes to the book roll of thunder hear my cry?
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a coming of age book. That’s the main theme: a girl grows up in the Jim Crow era. Empowerment is another theme. The main character is empowered by getting the best of a white girl who hounds her. But another character comes to grief because he hangs out with white boys who make him feel like he’s one of them, but eventually frame him for robbery and murder leading to disaster. “Good” empowerment vs “bad” empowerment. A third theme is the importance of family and ties to the land. A visiting cousin whose mother is white and can “pass” learns to accept who she is, and what she comes from (or was that the second book–durn cannot recall)–that it is her family which makes her strong.
