Coming Of Age In Mississippi Analysis

Bernice Johnson Reagon (1981) wrote, “…that to be Black women is to move forward the struggle for the kind of space in this society that will make sense for our people.” (p. 82). Anne Moody seems not only to relate to this quote, but embody it. Throughout Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968), Moody is empowered by the adversity she faces which is thrust at her simply because who she was: a poor, black, female living in Mississippi in the mid-twentieth century. It is because of these intersections of race, class, gender, and even sexuality, that Moody became such a powerful and effective civil rights activist. One disadvantage that is especially clear in the first sections of the biography is that of class. Though there is contextually little to compare it to at the beginning, we can tell that Moody’s first home is not one of affluence through the description she gives. She describes the home as a “rotten two-room shack” with “dull colored wallpaper” that sagged off the walls. (p. 2) This theme of poverty continues throughout Moody’s life. Although poverty seems like an isolated disadvantage, the state of being impoverished throughout much of her life can be contributed to Moody’s mother’s …show more content…
In her childhood, Moody would not drink the milk she brought home for her family because she had seen the kittens drink out of it but she continued to bring it home because her mother insisted that they needed it. (p. 40). In her senior year, she finally could take no more of Raymond treated her and her mother, and looked at her, so she refused to live at his house anymore. (p. 205). This standard serves her well in her first protest in college, against her subpar dining hall where the students are served maggots in her grits. (p.). She refused to go back to that dining hall even after the school met her demands.