A central idea in the book Mudbound is the idea that racism is a horrible driving force behind hate crimes and cruel acts throughout our world. In Mudbound, there was a group of men in the rural Missippi town of Marietta who are known throughout the town for being outwardly biggoted; especially when it comes to the matter of race. They form a ragtag division of the Ku Klux Klan, and soon have one target in mind; Ronsel Johnson. Ronsel had recently returned from the war, after serving in Germany."Pappy" McAllan once addressed Ronsel rudely, because he had tried to leave the grocery store through the front door, "I don't know what they let you do over there, but you're in Mississippi now," (Jordan 140). If only the cruelty had stopped at that point. During his time overseas however, Ronsel had met and fallen in love with a white single mother. Upon his return to the United States, she sent him a letter with a picture included, that explained that she had again become pregnant and had a baby boy, and that this baby she was holding in the photograph was his son, Franz Ronsel. After finding this letter and photograph, the men in the KKK group were furious and sought out to "teach Ronsel a lesson" for having a child with a white woman. They eventually did find him, and tied him up with a rope, and were at first threatening to hang him. After a brutal beating, they were soon debating on which "piece" of Ronsel's body they were going to cut off, as a constant reminder to what he had done to "deserve" this lesson. Even more cruel, they forced his friend Jamie to chose what part of him to cut off, and he opted for his tongue. He did so, hoping that Ronsel would at least have a chance to live his life well, even with this new disability. This, being an extreme act of cruelty, shows how racism is indeed often a key factor in what causes, and has caused people throughout history to abuse others, destroy or damage their property, or worse even kill them, all on account of them being "different".
Hillary Jordan herself addresses in an article about how some elements in the book were actually based on some of her mother's stories from when she was growing up, and how Laura McAllan was actually based on her own grandmother. She also goes on to talk about how her story kept growing, from the original idea of a short story told from Laura's point of view, to the novel it became, that was told through six very different characters, who each had their own unique perspective on life in rural Mississippi, 1946.
