More Subjects
Name of Student
Name of Professor
Name of Class
Day Month Year
Coming of Age in Mississippi
“Coming of Age in Mississippi" is one of the most emotional and appealing novels. It is autobiographic work of Anne Moody, a black girl who used to live with her family when racial discrimination was at its peak and this discriminatory attitude was taken for granted. This book is a memoir of the Civil Rights Activist Anne Moody. In this book, she has tried to picture all the hardships and hurdles that she had faced throughout her life. Anne and her family’s life become more difficult when her father “Diddly” left them. A pain portrayal of life has been presented by Anne Moody. This book shows that her focus was on the miseries of the Negroes who were living in the rural South. A reader could feel that the author wrote this book in order to motivate people that hardships are the part of life and one must not accept defeat. One must fight back for their rights and equality. Themes that overshadowed this book include absurdity of racial distinctions and oppression of the blacks by the whites. Prejudice of the whites against blacks is one of the central themes as Anne belonged to a black family and is destined to bear the prejudice of the lighter-skinned whites who were plundering them. This book is all about one person’s ability to affect the change. After reading Anne's autobiography, it won’t be wrong to say that she was a passionate and strong headed person who encouraged millions of the blacks to raise their voice. It seems that Anne has successfully achieved her purpose of helping people to understand the continuous discrimination. Hardships were looked upon as the usual part of black’s life during the time of racism. A central view represented by Anne in this book is that when blacks accept hate and injustice, they perpetuate their own oppression.
Anne Moody was the daughter of a poor black sharecropper who got her early education in South after which she moved to Tougaloo College and it was the place where she started her work as an activist. She became one of the most active members of the Civil Rights Movement and put so much effort in organizing Congress of Racial Equality. For long she has been participating in various movements for claiming equality for the blacks. Along with the participation in the movements, she also started writing books through which she shared her own life for motivating people, how they could learn to fight for their rights. Being a member of the black community she went through the same torture and trauma that other blacks faced. She wrote other books as well that includes “Mr. Death: Four Stories” and “Famous people stories”. She wrote on topics like equality, revolt against oppression, prejudice and skin color. This book “Coming of Age in Mississippi” is mostly based on the primary sources as it is an autobiography in which Anne Moody has described her miseries and difficulties that she faced after the separation of her father. Personal experience is the main source being used by the writer and by blending emotions with these experiences she incorporated a dark and depressed tone in the beginning of the book (Tell). No specific references (interviews, books, and artwork) have been incorporated in this book. In the autobiography, personal experiences are the main resources and Anne has included all the major incidents and events of her life. So it won’t be wrong to say that she does not omit any of the important detail.
In each of the chapters, something special has been pointed by Anne Moody as it’s an autobiography so he has listed important life events and experiences in each of the chapters. For example, in part 4, chapter 28, Anne Moody communicates a lesson to his readers that one must not be afraid of any threat. In this chapter, one of Anne's relatives (Clift) is killed and Clift is not the only relative who is killed rather there are other beloved of Anne who are being killed by whites. Even she was threatened that she would be killed but despite stepping back, she courageously fought against all the unjust acts, brutality against blacks and killing of innocent Africans Americans. 28th is the same chapter in which Anne realizes a need to return to the movement so that she could raise her voice for protecting the rights of blacks from the oppression of the whites. Likewise in part 2, chapter 11, it could be observed that blacks are treated so badly that unconsciously they start hating whites as in childhood when Anne becomes 15 years olds she also started hating Southern whites. This chapter also spots a light on Anne’s childhood when she starts hating Negroes in her childhood for not standing against injustice and inequality. She hates the Negroes for not standing for themselves. From the analysis of this book, it could be felt that Anne believes Negroes were cowards who despite their oppression and cruel behavior of the whites respect them (white)
It could be concluded that this book motivates the reader to struggle against the inequalities. It gives a message of hope even in the hardest times one must not lose hope and must continue his/her struggle as Anne did. This book has all the elements that inculcate in the readers a sense that fighting back for one's rights is the only way of reforming this world (Abel). Especially in this book, she is motivating the blacks to revolt against racial discrimination. She encourages black community not to be afraid of their dark skins and raise voice against prejudice. Major points of her writings are fight for right, breaking racial discrimination despite taking in considering what one would be losing. The main topics of this book are destructive power of prejudice, oppression of the blacks by white, bitter realities of life and hardships of life that polishes human personalities, but rarely. This is an inspirational book that inspires that reader to bear all difficulties of life with courage with a hope of change and a better future and left the reader with a brighter side that one must have the courage of facing all the hardships of life bravely. It is one of the most celebrated works of Anne and praise of the audience is proof of the success of this book. Critical evaluation of this book shows that it serves as a source of inspiration for almost all the blacks whose rights are being exploited by the whites. The overall tone of this book is optimist as well as pessimistic though most of the incidents being quoted by Anne are the terrifying and dreadful but still bright side of the picture could be seen as far as this book is considered. Anne has beautifully narrated her personal stories that seem quite painful as well. From a literal point of view, one of the most grasping points is that Anne's worldview expands as she grows and the reality of life becomes evident but still she fights against the miseries along with her family and criticizes those who bear the unjust. Another appealing fact regarding this book is, the story gathers momentum and pace as the surrounding danger increases.
Works Cited
Abel, Elizabeth. "History at a standstill: Agency and gender in the image of civil rights." Polysèmes. Revue d’études intertextuelles et intermédiales 19 (2018).
Tell, Dave. "Remembering Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi." Places Journal (2019).
More Subjects
Join our mailing list
© All Rights Reserved 2024