Allensworth Mississippi Analysis

Allensworth explains that she grew up in a somewhat standard, middle class, white family and lived a suburban lifestyle for most of her life. She explains that Christianity was the most accepted form of religion in Arkansas and in certain circumstances, drifting away from typical Christian values is condemned. For example, even her Pentecostal grandparents are depicted as strange and eccentric for their beliefs because they are not part of the understood and accepted Christian community. Growing up in such a predominantly Christian society probably affected her somewhat negatively in this way because it caused her to have a bias towards Christianity and Christian people later in life. She explains that most people that she grew up with congregated towards …show more content…
She also refers to the difference between the importance of heritage in Arkansas and Mississippi and that Mississippi has a much stronger sense of heritage than Arkansas. This is interesting because even though Arkansas is as much a part of the south as Mississippi, the two states are vastly different in these ways. This proves that even though two states are part of the same region, they can be extremely different from one another. On the other hand, the two states proved to be similar in religious values and in socioeconomic status. Allensworth explains that both states seem to consist of mostly conservative Christians and both states exemplified polarizing of social groups. This seems to be a typical occurrence in southern culture in that people tend to gather in groups in which they are comfortable. In general, people do not like to move out of their comfort zones to socialize with another societal group. This causes the polarization of groups, which is likely the reason why the African American community in Arkansas flocks to one area and the white community flocks to