Cinnamon Hill Summary and Analysis

The story opens from Johnny Cash's home in Jamaica where he is when he begins writing this autobiography. He says that his family originated in Scotland where the motto of their coat of arms was, "Better Times Will Come." The family settled in America in 1667 and his ancestors moved on to the south with some fighting the Confederate War and eventually settling in Arkansas. Johnny's grandfather was a traveling preacher and his youngest son, Ray Cash, was the last child at home after his father's death. Ray continued to care for Johnny's mother until her death then joined the army, eventually fighting in Mexico. Ray married Carrie Rivers in 1920 and Johnny is their fourth child, born in 1932.

Johnny says that his father, trying to raise a family through the rigors of the Great Depression, does the best he can...