Roll of Thunder Character Analysis: T.J. By: Peter Chuen Introduction T.J.

appears to be a mischievous, unimportant character at first, but as you continue reading; his importance to the story becomes evident, and in the end, his is the backbone of the story. Personal Choice ( A ) The reason that he s the backbone of the whole story is that T.J could be considered the antagonist of the story, which is a necessary element for a story to be made (Not to mention that antagonists really are what make stories interesting , which leads to why I chose him for my essay). Not only that, T.J. reminds me of a character from the Harry Potter series, Severus Snape. The two both help end and their stories and make them interesting , such as T.J. and his mischievousness makes the story interesting by causing the reader to guess what happens next (Although with some though, it can be quite predictable), and his death or turning point leads to the end of Roll of Thunder. Snape makes his story interesting because at first he looks villainous; that he might be causing Harry trouble, but in the end it is revealed that Severus Snape has been helping Harry finish his quest. Severus s death also led to the end of the series. Basically, T.J. reminds me of Severus because Roll of Thunder might not have existed or be as interesting if T.J. wasn t there, and for Snape, Harry would not have finished his quest. Character Traits As I have said earlier T.J. is a mischievous character, for example: In chapter 8 Mrs. Logan (Also known as Mama) gets fired by the county s Board of Education, the cause of this was revealed later by Little Willie claiming that T.J. was blabbering to Mr. Kaleb (Wallace s Store Owner) about Mrs. Logan failing him on purpose, claiming that she was destroying text books, not only that, he also mentioned about Mrs. Logan s plan to boycott the Wallace s store. Mr. Kaleb, who is affiliated with Mr. Granger, reports this to him. Mr. Granger sees this as an opportunity to fire Mrs. Logan; he reports this to the county s Board of Education, who then fires her. T.J. caused such a huge chain reaction, just because he mentioned Mrs. Logan to Mr. Kaleb. T.J. s strengths would be persuasion, particularly to Stacey. Such as when T.J convinced Stacey to cheat on his test, but he later got caught cheating by his mom (Teacher of the class), which leads to him getting spanked in front of the whole class , then T.J. runs to the Wallace s story, which he is then followed by Stacey s vengeance(Plus since he s the eldest of the four children, his siblings look up to him and follow him to the Wallace s Store) , the two fight, Stacey s siblings are engrossed in the fight to the point that they have not realized Mr. Morrison was

towering above them. Mr. Morrison then teaches Stacey about being responsible (The children were ordered not to be around Wallace s Store), which makes Stacey wiser, and the two then share an understanding smile. This massive chain reaction was caused by T.J. convincing Stacey to use cheat notes; this also proves my point that T.J. is mischievous. Contrast: T.J. & Stacey In contrast, Stacey and T.J. are not much alike besides their race, which makes one wonder, Why is Stacey even friends with T.J.?!? . Stacey is smarter than T.J. as he has plotted the destruction of the White s bus (I have not seen anything of great intelligence from T.J., but it also mentions that T.J. has failed Mrs. Logan s class twice). Stacey is stronger in terms of strength than T.J. as seen in the fight between the two. Responsible, since his parents and Mr. Morrison teach him well, and true to his word such as when he promised Little Man that he ll somehow stop the White s bus, which he did. T.J., on the contrary, is completely opposite of Stacey in terms of personality. Turning Point As I have said earlier, T.J., whose personality is totally different than Stacey, has changed as he encounters his most fatal flaw of all. His mischievous demeanor, nave and lying endeavors come to an end when he gets brutally beaten-up by R.W. and Melvin (R.W. and Melvin have been collection information about the Logans by bribing T.J. with gifts , in return , T.J. would answer their questions; they then report these answers to Mr. Granger). It was when R.W. and Melvin, who cleverly wore black clothing , including a mask to hide their skin color (Which makes them look Black), break into Mr. Barnett s store and steal the pearl-handed pistol for T.J. , who requests it (then regrets it) along the way knocking Mr. Barnett and his wife unconscious. T.J. objected and said that he would tell everybody (Not smart) that it was R.W. and Melvin who had hurt the Barnetts unless they took him home. The two, instead, savagely beat him up till he cannot stand, and left him in a truck. T.J s oblivious, obnoxious, cloud has been lifted from his eyes and he realizes what he has done, and regrets it. This is T.J. s turning point.

Symbol
My symbol for T.J. represents his turning point; I have two symbols for him: One, it s a vial (flask that I visualize like a potion) that represents his familiarity of Severus Snape to me. (Severus was the potion master of Hogwarts in books one through five or movies)The vial has boiling water in it; the water is evaporation away, representing the time he has left when he realizes his foolishness, and when he dies (vial empty, all the water has evaporated). My second symbol for him is a wolf, from the story of The Boy who Cried Wolf ! Like the boy, people did not trust T.J., for instance: It took some time for Cassie and Stacey to realize T.J. really wasn t lying

that he got beat up badly. The boy who cried wolf! twice just for fun, was not trusted when he actually encountered a real wolf. Therefore, a moral for T.J. would be: Do what you re supposed to do and don t lie .