Coming of Age in Mississippi is a historical account written by Anne Moody on her life experiences from her childhood times till her twenties. Ann Moody’s life experiences are based at her rural home in Mississippi during the twentieth century. At the age of four years old, Anne together with her family stay on a plantation in a two room hut. On the plantation, not a single shack of the workers is connected to electricity neither plumbing inside, but the Carter family has access to both plumbing within the house as well as electricity.
The Carter family is the owners of the plantation where Anne and her family work. Diddly leaves her family despite the concern of the family over money, fire as well as the unexpected death of his best friend. After leaving his family Diddly engages in an affair with Florence, the widow of his best friend abandoning his family. Toosweet has no option, but to struggle to make ends meet for her family. She secures a job as a waitress at café owned by the blacks and later works as a maid for the white households. The family often stays hungry and only manages to have leftovers of beans and bread from the wait families where Ann’s mother works. Anne performs excellent in her studies.
During her fourth grade, she steps in to clean houses for the whites to help her mother feed the family. Anne works under racism condition under Mrs. Burke. She is attractive and becomes popular among the boys in her school where she is elected the homecoming queen. Later on Emmett Till, a black boy is murdered for whistling at a white lady. I her childhood years, Anne works to get an understanding of inequality and this issues grows deep within her as she matures. The created differences between the blacks and whites worry her. She later joins the National Association for the Advanced of Colored people (NAACP), an illegal association in Mississippi. It is from this organization that she is able to fight for the racial inequalities. Anne is really concerned of getting over racism for the blacks.
The blacks are not united in the face of the inequality they receive from the whites. The blacks fail to group together for the purpose of improving their lives. Throughout the story, the author has displayed the blacks being frustrating her for their unwillingness to rise up against injustices of oppression from the white. Instead they accept so that they can be able to sustain their lives. Anne’s family works for the white employers despite inequality injustice. In fact the light skinned blacks form a distinction against the darker blacks this too serves as form of the inequality widespread in the U.S. against the black.
The blacks also suffer the prejudice that the whites formed against them as well the prejudice of the lighter skinned blacks hard towards the dark skinned. The wealthier people also created destructive prejudice against the poorer people. Anne herself is a victim of preconceived opinion and this got her really pissed off. Anne is unwilling to became part of the civil rights movement while at Tougaloo college because she the movement is made up of majority of its as members as the light skinned. Anne seems not to trust any of her professors since they are all whites who have prejudice towards the blacks. Even thought, she later interacts with the white and light skinned black students. This comes to her surprise that it is not all the whites and the black skinned people who oppress the dark Africans. Preconceived opinions by the other members of the American society towards the blacks are costly to Anne who almost looses very crucial chances of her life as well as demoralizing her.
The story of Anne’s experience with inequality out of racism as child enables one to understand why she opts to become an activist. Despite living the harsh conditions in her rural Mississippi, Anne is transformed into an activist for a civil rights movement that works to end racism against the blacks. The author, Anne, presents a compelling story of her life. The people live under very hard conditions of racism, but with determination and remaining tied to strong values they end up successful.
References
Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968) | Anne Moody. (2011). Retrieved July 1, 2013, from http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/moodyagemiss.html
Dorenkamp, A. G. (2005). Images of women in American popular culture. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
King, K., & King, M. (2012). Y'all twins? : coming of age in Oxford, Mississippi in the 1950's. Marietta, GA: Deeds Publishing.
Moody, A. (2004). Coming of age in Mississippi. New York: Dell Pub.
Wells, D. F. (2011). Every day by the sun: A memoir of the Faulkners of Mississippi. New York: Crown Books.
