Coming Of Age In Mississippi Critical Analysis

American author and civil rights activist, Anne Moody, was born in 1940 and grew up poor and black in rural Mississippi. In her memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi, Moody tells what is was like to grow up black in the Jim Crow Era. As Anne Moody recounts her childhood, she relays the exact moment in which she realized her blackness made her inferior to her white counterparts. Her realization was a significant part of her childhood, but what came after this point was also crucial. She began questioning what it meant to be black, and searching for explanations. This process of self-discovery is separate and distinct from her previous point of realization in that it involves action and a whole new realm of thinking. The rationalization that Anne had to endure is a part of the burden she carried as a black child. Anne Moody’s point of realization of her blackness greatly differs from the rationalization that followed and the burden associated with seeking out what it meant to be black as a child. Anne Moody’s point of realization happens when her mother tells her she cannot go with her white friends to the top of the theater. She states “I had never …show more content…
The moment when she realized she was less than whites because she was black. Through her description of this point she presents it a concrete and sudden. She suddenly realizes her inferiority to whites, but she then goes on the explain the process she went through afterwards. This process of rationalization is distinct from her realization. She acts upon her thoughts and seeks out answers as to why whites were different. Her need to find out “why” is a burden she carries and becomes an important part of her childhood and alters how she views society, specifically in relation to whites. Moody’s point of realization and her process of rationalization, though they are both important, are