Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

In Chapter One, the children have to jump out of the way as a school bus rushes by and covers them with dust. Cassie personifies one of the two buses as "our own tormenter." The bus is a tormenter not only because it sprays them with dirt as it passes but also because in doing so, the bus illustrates society's that they are somehow inferior to, or dirtier than, the white children.