passion are strong, but her sense of justice, right and wrong, and individual dignity are even stronger. When she discovers that a white woman has been giving her (Essie's) family leftover milk which cats have been drinking, her sense of self-esteem is stronger than her desire to drink that milk. She tells her mother, who refuses to believe her. Moody thinks, "I will still bring the milk home. Y'all can eat it but not me" (44).
Everywhere she sees hypocrisy, such as the failure of blacks to live the Christian life which they preach (65-66), but all the hypocrisy and all the incidents of bigotry in both the white and black communities do not stop Moody from evolving in terms of personal determination to cut through the wrongs with her own sense of what is right: "Courage was growing in me. . . . Little by little it was getting harder and harder for me not to speak out" (152).
What is it that made Moody strong despite---or because of---the racial oppression and led her to fight against injustice in her own life and in society? There is obviously somethin
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