Roll of Thunder-TJ analysis
In the novel ‘Roll of Thunder’ T.J. Avery is a young black boy who has a younger brother named Claude and two sisters. His family work for Harlan Granger and T.J.’s best friend was Stacey Logan. T.J. is a deceitful, chatty, lying and arrogant boy. At the end of the novel, T.J. is wrongly accused of murder, caused by R.W. and Melvin Simms, and was beaten up and could possibly go on the chain gang, but would most likely die. There are a number of clues in the novel to suggest that T.J. would get into serious trouble.
The main clue we are given to suggest T.J.’s final downfall is that he doesn’t take responsibility for his wrongdoings. Two examples of these are when he gets caught for going to the Wallace store, but he lies and says he was up there to get Claude, which is shown when T.J. says, “but don’t worry, I got out of it, I just said that ole Claude was always sneakin’ up there to get some of that free candy Mr. Kaleb give out sometimes… Mama ‘bout wore him out!” The other time he blamed someone else to get him out of trouble was when Mama Logan was coming towards him in a test and he slipped the cheat notes he had to Stacey, who is supposed to be his best friend. Stacey got the blame and was whipped by his mama in front of the whole class. This is shown when the other Logan children are looking for him and Little Willie says “We was in the middle of an examination and ole T.J. slips out the cheat notes… then he sees Miz Logan startin’ toward ‘em and he slipped Stacey the notes. Wasn’t nothin’ Miz Logan could do but whip him. Failed him too.” This shows that since T.J. blames others, he will inevitably be caught, and get into trouble. This also shows that he makes unwise decisions by cheating, which will get him into big trouble.
In addition, Mildred Taylor also suggests to the reader that T.J. will get into trouble because T.J. makes bad decisions. One example of this is how T.J. always goes to the Wallace Store, even though he knows that he isn’t supposed
The main clue we are given to suggest T.J.’s final downfall is that he doesn’t take responsibility for his wrongdoings. Two examples of these are when he gets caught for going to the Wallace store, but he lies and says he was up there to get Claude, which is shown when T.J. says, “but don’t worry, I got out of it, I just said that ole Claude was always sneakin’ up there to get some of that free candy Mr. Kaleb give out sometimes… Mama ‘bout wore him out!” The other time he blamed someone else to get him out of trouble was when Mama Logan was coming towards him in a test and he slipped the cheat notes he had to Stacey, who is supposed to be his best friend. Stacey got the blame and was whipped by his mama in front of the whole class. This is shown when the other Logan children are looking for him and Little Willie says “We was in the middle of an examination and ole T.J. slips out the cheat notes… then he sees Miz Logan startin’ toward ‘em and he slipped Stacey the notes. Wasn’t nothin’ Miz Logan could do but whip him. Failed him too.” This shows that since T.J. blames others, he will inevitably be caught, and get into trouble. This also shows that he makes unwise decisions by cheating, which will get him into big trouble.
In addition, Mildred Taylor also suggests to the reader that T.J. will get into trouble because T.J. makes bad decisions. One example of this is how T.J. always goes to the Wallace Store, even though he knows that he isn’t supposed