To What Extent Does Mildred Taylor Portray T.J. as a Victim of the Times? :: English Literature

To What Extent Does Mildred Taylor Portray T.J. as a Victim of the Times?The novel Roll of Thunder is based approximately racism and discrimination,during the 1930s. Mildred Taylor has chosen to set her novel in atime where black people were discriminated against. The context inwhich the story is set is a conscious choice of the writer toemphasise the extent of racism. T.J. is used by Mildred Taylor torepresent the injustices the Black community were subjected to inthese times. Although T.J. is not portrayed as a victim throughout thenovel, he is certainly seen as a victim during the concluding chaptersof the book.The narrative is by a young girl of ten years, Cassie. Cassie is a truly opinionated, strong willed character who tends to judge people atface value, without taking other factors into consideration. Thiscould be seen as a hindrance in such a novel, a novel that is beingused to exploit racism and could benefit from a more open- candidateednarrator. In this book however, the character is purposefully make tobe single-minded by Mildred Taylor because it encourages the referee tothink in more depth about the story.The author uses this narrow perspective of T.J. to encourage thereader to establish that he is a victim of the times. This realisationis encouraged not through Cassies opinion but because she cannot seethis fact until nearing the end of the story. Cassies view of T.J. isblunt, I didnt like T.J. very much, and during the beginning of thebook the reader is persuaded that T.J. is not a nice person as thereis no evidence otherwise. As the book proceeds however, the reader canshow more insight into details that Cassie overlooks. This is as thewriter intends, it helps to include the reader more in the book and isa resembling idea to dramatic irony used on the stage. Mildred Taylor hasused Cassies simplistic views of T.J. to persuade the reader to thinkmore deeply. She has used this simple point of view to show that theeffect of racism is not al ways obvious and as the reader comes torealise that T.J. is a victim, Taylors central theme is portrayed.To help the reader empathize that T.J. is a victim of the times,Mildred Taylor uses other characters to show a more balanced opinionof him. Stacey is often used in this way he is one of the hardly a(prenominal)characters that show sympathy towards T.J. Stacey demonstrates acertain level of understanding about T.J.s position and why he is howhe is.