Coming of Age in Mississippi

This study will examine Anne Moody's autobiography Coming of Age in Mississippi in order to determine how the author's experiences transformed her faith in the civil rights movement's ability to extend democracy to all Americans. Comparing the consciousness of the author at the beginning of the book and at the end certainly reveals to the reader a radical transformation with respect to her hope about changing her own life and/or the life of the nation in terms of race relations.

Although the book takes place in the 1940s through the 1960s, the first line of the book reflects conditions which resemble outright slavery: "I'm still haunted by dreams of the time we lived on Mr. Carter's plantation" (11). By the end of the book, Moody has come to a realistic optimism. She can hardly be said to be a starry-eyed idealist, but certainly she has found hope where once she felt only despair. She has experienced enough bigotry and rage and disappointment and fear that she is no longer capable of the kind of innocent hopefulness expressed by Gene at the end of the book, but her "wonder" about their possible success in changing society still remains: "I wonder. I wonder. 'We shall overcome, We shall overcome/ We shall overcome some day.' I wonder. I really wonder" (384).

Certainly part of Moody's "wondering" about the future of the movement and its likely success is a calculated effort to not give the reader a sense of complacency. She is likely more exhausted than on the verge of givin

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lessness to a place of hope and strength: Soon Mrs. Burke decided to let me do things my way. I would have quit had she not. And I think she knew it. She really had no complaints about my work so she let me be. In a way, working for her was a challenge for me. She was the first one of her type I had run into (117). Moody's willingness and ability to face such obstacles head-on continue through her maturation process. The murder of Emmett Till is an awakening experience for her, her first introduction to the bigger world outside her narrow life to that time. Instead of letting the incident pass, Moody determinedly takes it to heart and it awakens a part of her which had previously lain dormant. For the first time, she is made aware of larger racial and social injustices: . . . . I felt so stupid. It was then that I realized I really didn't know what was going on all around me. It wasn't that I was dumb. It was just that ever since I was nine, I'd had to work after school and do my lessons on lunch hour. I never had time to learn anything, to hang around with people my own age. And you were never told anything by adults (122). Moody, however, learns fast. She had experienced much fear before---of "hunger, hell, and the Devil.

Category: Literature - C