Analysis of the Book Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody - Essay Example

?Based on your analysis of the book “Coming of Age in Mississippi” by Ann Moody - How did the system of discrimination work, and why was it so hard to dismantle? Anne Moody’s novel Coming of Age in Mississippi contains a large amount of autobiographical material, since she was herself brought up in a poor, African American family which struggled to survive through the middle decades of the twentieth century. As a story, the book works well since it is full of memorable characters, tragic events and courageous acts. It has a deeper relevance and interest for modern readers, however, because it documents what it was like in economic, social and political terms to be discriminated against by the white majority in the years leading up to the Civil Rights Movement. Moody’s particular contribution to this important subject is to bring out the emotional and personal effects of this system of discrimination on the poorest people and spell out the awful consequences that followed any attempts at resistance against the overwhelming power of the white and racist ruling minority in Mississippi. The economic situation of the protagonist Anne’s family is very bad. The passages describing the various successive family homes, for example, detail the very basic conditions in a matter of fact way, showing how absolutely normal it was for African families to share one room, or even on occasion one bed (Moody, 13). Features such as wallpaper fastened on to the walls with tacks (Moody, 3), or a concern for economy in statements such as “Stop using up all that soap!” (Moody, 35) appear extreme to modern readers, because these small luxuries are taken for granted by the vast majority of American citizens today. The fact that an eight year old is left in charge of younger siblings, while both parents work long hours in the fields is evidence also that conditions for share-cropping farmers were not much better than those which were endured by African Americans under the old rules of slavery. Grinding poverty is the daily normality for this group of people, and it saps their strength, taking away the desire and ultimately also the ability to find a better way of life. Anne’s mother, for example, struggles every day of her life to provide even these fundamental necessities for her children and this explains her attitude of dejection and hopelessness throughout the book. Anne, as a young child, longs for a more spirited resistance, but does not appreciate the weight of economic responsibility that keeps a mother tied to a succession of demeaning and low paid jobs. These harsh conditions are described without negative comment in the opening pages of the book, but as the child grows older and encounters the luxurious bedrooms and bathrooms that white people such as the Johnsons have, a note of envy and indignation appears. It is bad enough to suffer deprivation and hunger, but the proximity of a whole other world that is physically nearby but economically out of reach makes the situation even worse. Prejudice and power are certainly factors in the maintenance of a segregated society in Mississippi, but one the most powerful forces that sustained the system of discrimination was widespread and unrelenting poverty. Social differences in the novel are partly defined by the economic factors mentioned above, but also very much influenced by race. The book shows how a child growing up in the segregated South has difficulty in understanding the labels that categorize people into different racial groups. The young Anne cannot figure out, for example, why two of her uncles who look exactly like all the white people, cannot be classified as white. Her mother’s answer “Cause they mama ain’t white” (Moody, 36) appears illogical to the child, who naturally looks for visual signals in the color of skin, eyes and hair that a person has. By adopting the innocent and questioning attitude of a child, the author cleverly points out the inherently illogical and arbitrary nature of the social hierarchy. The reader is forced to think about the issues just as a child thinks, and this highlights the contradictions in everyday experience and raises new questions in the reader’s mind, such as who it is that decided on this definition of whiteness, and how it is that children are socialized into accepting it, despite the evidence of their own eyes and ears. It is interesting to note that later in the book when Anne becomes involved in the famous lunch counter occupation at Woolworths, she notes the difficulty that the NAACP resistance group had in finding volunteers that were prepared to go to jail, but observes “I had nothing to lose one way or the other” (Moody, 286). The practical consequences of having an extremely low status in the social order, is that Anne is more likely to consider risky or even illegal actions. This logic applies also to those African American demonstrators and activists who risked their lives, and even resorted to violent retaliation, to protest against the oppression that blighted their whole existence. From this perspective of despair and deprivation, acts of resistance up to and including terrorism appear as a better alternative than dumb submission with no prospect of things ever changing. Many such acts were unsuccessful, and some had fatal consequences, but the book illustrates why people made the brave decision to become involved in those ways. By the end of the novel, the main character Anne has found her way into a dimension of resistance that is organized and political. It is here at last that she finds fulfilment and a kind of status in society that was denied to her as a poor student. This status is one that is tacitly demonstrated in the hair salon, where Ann goes after being covered in food at the sit-in: “There were three other ladies already waiting, but they seemed glad to let me go ahead of them” (Moody, p. 291). This support from the older generation is not forthcoming from Anne’s mother who, as usual, reacts negatively and fearfully when she hears about Anne’s plans to take part in further political meetings and active demonstrations. Anne’s growing maturity helps her to formulate a realization that the African Americans of Mississippi need to channel their energy into well focused actions which have a political agenda. The older and younger generations need to work together towards resisting the regime, if they are to have any chance of success. Unfortunately, however, the older generation is so often weighed down by their fears and their experiences of cruelty and oppression, that they dare not put at risk even the small benefits that they have managed to scrape together for themselves. Anne identifies the older generation’s religious convictions as another factor which prevents many of them from resisting the regime, since they have a hope of finding a release from their troubles in heaven and prefer to focus on that, rather than get involved in active resistance. There are exceptions, however, such as the eighty-six year old man who was selected to lead a march (Moody, 412), again on the principle that he had less to lose than those who had young children and jobs to think about. One political dimension of the system of discrimination that is highlighted in the book is the role of the government, and of the police. On paper these organizations are supposed to defend the rights of all the citizens but in practice they stand by and watch while privileged white citizens abuse and attack their African American neighbors. The mismatch between declared policies, including all the guarantees that are in the American Constitution, and the actual practices of law enforcement agents is another major obstacle in the path of reformers who take on the might of the system. These institutions failed to guarantee justice for the African American community and this too, is a major reason why it was so hard for Civil Rights activists to effect any change in the status quo. In conclusion, then, it is clear that grinding poverty, strict social segregation and a failure in the political system that was there to protect all citizens were all factors which made resistance to the system of segregation very difficult. Ann Moody’s book illustrates the senselessness of the distinctions that were made about people, and the deprivation suffered by families at the bottom of every hierarchy. It is only in following the gradual education of the young girl through witnessing violence at home, and fighting political battles at college and beyond, that a slow and tentative path towards reform is mapped out. The system is extremely powerful, and the consequences of resisting it could be devastating, even to the point of death. The ultimate answer lies, as Anne found in the book, in all generations coming together and in educating the young about the possibility of another way of living. The economic, social and political hurdles were not, in the end, strong enough to hold back the most determined freedom fighters, and this is the main message of the book. The ending of the book hovers between a reiteration of the old song “We shall overcome,” and a pensive question “I wonder” (Moody, 423-424). This is because America had very definitely embarked on the task of overcoming prejudice and systematic discrimination but at the time of the book’s publication in 1968 there was still much to be done to eradicate these evils completely. References Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi. New York: Dell, 1968. Print. Read More