Coming Of Age In Mississippi Analysis

Coming of Age in Mississippi and Moody
Coming of Age in Mississippi covers a span of nineteen years, from when Anne is four to twenty-three years old. Moody’s own personal evolution parallels and betokens the development of the civil rights kineticism. Anne Moody was born Essie May Moody in 1940. She grew up in Wilkerson County, a rural county marked by extreme penuriousness and racism. Her family spent time working on plantations until her father deserted the family. Her mother worked as a maid for sundry white families, as did Anne, in order to supplement her family’s meager income. Just as the civil rights kineticism was maturing in the early 1950s, Anne withal was maturing as an adolescent woman. She was additionally becoming increasingly
One of Moody’s first experience to racial vigilance transpired when she was four years old. As a child, Moody’s family lived in a cabin on a plantation. Both of her parents worked as field hands and were coerced to leave Anne and her little brother at home. One day Anne’s uncle endeavored to scare her with fire and he accidently lit the house on fire. This event had a deplorable effect on the family. Anne’s father Diddly left for an adolescent fair-skinned mulatto woman designated Florence. Anne shared her mother’s execration for the other woman in terms of race. She recollected the woman described as “yellow,” followed by strings of colorful expletives. This event points out how early Moody’s perspective on race commenced composing. It was ostensible that Moody’s mother had vigorous feelings toward others who were not of the same race as herself. Anne recollects her mother’s utilization of racial labels despite her very adolescent age. In some ways, Anne’s advent of age as a teenage girl led to her advent of age racially. Additionally Moody never showed much trepidation as a little girl. She became more resolute and determined to do what she desired and that resolution would reveal itself during college and beyond. Anne became even firmer in her notions than afore when she attended college. When the students were victualing their grits for breakfast they found maggots in them. Moody endeavored to go back into the kitchen to verbalize with them about it when Miss Harris ceased her and injunctive authorized her to sit back down. She relucted, and told her it was her business because she too had “to victual this shit!” Thus commenced the students’ heated boycott, largely led my Moody. The boycott at Natchez was one of Moody’s first denotements of political activism. Up to this point in her memoir, Anne had been inclined to stand up for her notions, but not in a political