Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi is a memoir scathing in its portrayal of the treatment of blacks at the hands of the white majority in the mid-century American South. Although condemning much of the white majority, Moody refuses to play the victim and also does not let her fellow African Americans off the hook; throughout the novel she decries the disunity and seeming willingness of African Americans to bear the burdens of racial segregation and discrimination. Moody’s inner dialogues and characterizations of the people she meets on her life journey help to convey her message that the Civil Rights Movement was not the monolithic uprising that many now consider it to be; fear, internal division, uncertainty and hopelessness meant that the Movement often wanted for participants, lacked direction, and was by no means certain to accomplish its goals of mass inclusion and the betterment of life for African American across the nation.
Many of the people that Anne Moody encounters in her first twenty-three years challenge her assumptions and ideas, aggravating her as they conform to roles that she sees as destructive and contrary to the social progress she and the Civil Rights Movement seek.
One of the characters whose acceptance of the status quo most aggravates Anne is her mother Toosweet. Toosweet is representative of the older generation of African Americans who were “too scared and suspicious…[and who] had been conditioned to Mr. Charlie’s do’s and don’ts [to the point at which] it was almost hopeless to try and educate [them]” (Moody 364). Toosweet grudgingly accepts her place in American society and tries repeatedly to force Anne into the same acquiescence. Instead of pushing Anne to try her best and make a life for herself, Toosweet tries to guide Anne’s life as she sees fit, going so far at one point as to begin “hoping [Anne] would marry Hicks” the basketball coach in her misguided belief that this represents the best opportunity that will be presented to Anne ( 200).
Toosweet’s frequent letters to Anne also symbolize the range of emotions felt by African Americans as their fellow citizens tried to upset the ‘natural balance.’ These letters are marked with “dried up tears” and the word choice as Anne recalls it conveys the complex emotions—such as dread and anger—felt by many African Americans, as when Toosweet “[forbids Anne from going] to the convention…[and threatens] to kill [Anne] herself,” but also tells her of the fear she feels for her (285). When Anne gets “so mad after her [letters],” the reader also experiences a sense of frustration towards Toosweet (286). Moody describes the letters and her reactions so that the reader gets a better sense of the division that plagued African Americans and in doing so recognizes the often precarious standing of the Civil Rights Movement.
On the many occasions that Anne asks her mother about race dynamics in American, Toosweet inevitably gives a curt answer and gets “so mad that [Anne gets] scared…she might hit [her]” (26). Through these frequent dialogues between mother and daughter, Moody shows the unwillingness of many African Americans to confront the social inequities they experienced, and how this inertia threatened to stop the Civil Rights Movement. Through these examples, Anne shows the reader that open dialogue was key to moving forward on Civil Rights.
Through the characterization of numerous minor characters, Moody also shows the divisiveness of the many ideas in the Movement. The militancy of her sister Adline, who suggests that African Americans “need to blow Woodville and Centreville off the map and kill all of them bastards” (393), is in agreement with other nameless characters who push for the SNCC and CORE to “[become] more militant” (310). However, Moody portrays other characters, such as fellow activist George, as opposing a militant stand. Although he never outright voices opposition to violence and militancy, in interacting with Moody he expresses shock at her sudden outburst against religion and nonviolence, incredulously asking, “hold it—is that…the Nonviolent Miss Woolworth?” (350). The interactions that Moody describes throughout her memoir reveal the many differing opinions that African Americans held, and how the sometimes bitter arguments that arose from these differences threatened to stall and reverse the gains brought on by the Civil Rights Movement.
Through these characterizations, Anne Moody shows that the Civil Rights Movement was threatened by inactivity and fear in the African American community, and also by divisions amongst African Americans and other activists with regards to the direction of the movement. However, the conflicts were not limited to the various groups involved in the Movement; Anne Moody’s inner dialogues are frequent, contradictory, and thus provide numerous examples of the many varied internal conflicts many African Americans experienced.
Throughout her life, Anne holds many different views regarding the methods and goals of the Civil Rights Movement, moving from complete ignorance of the various rights organizations to active membership. The rapid evolution of Anne’s goals and ideal means reflect the various positions held by different African Americans involved in the Movement and show the reader how varied those involved in the Civil Rights Movement were and how such confusion and lack of consensus threatened the Movement.
Upon originally joining various Civil Rights organizations, Anne, like many others, sees “voter registration [as] number one on the agenda” (310); many African Americans, and according to Anne especially the older generation, believed that this in turn would lead to the social change so many sought. However, as Anne perceives a lack of progress, she begins to change her ideas on how best to empower blacks; at one point she “[opposes] the freedom election…[only eventually] reluctantly [agreeing] to try to get votes” (364). At times, Anne struggles with the belief that “nonviolence is through,” and expresses a desire to move beyond the peaceful protests and sit-ins and into a phase of large-scale demonstrations and violence (350). Anne at times also expresses the belief that groups such as the NAACP must be “able to replace the crumbs that Mr. Charlie is giving…[and have African Americans] work hard and stand up to be [men]” (376). Anne’s varied ideas, shown to the reader through her inner dialogues, are reflective of the numerous directions activists wanted to take the Civil Rights Movement; these various ideas and resultant conflicts are all examples of the discord that threatened to tear apart the Civil Rights Movement.
Anne Moody’s memoir at its most basic core is a story of one group’s attempt at inclusion, acceptance, and understanding in mainstream American society. Moody uses Coming of Age in Mississippi to argue that the common conception of the Civil Rights Movement as a unified, monolithic front is wrong and that the desperation of different segments of African American society to gain inclusion almost paralyzed and destroyed the Movement. Different ideas of what it meant to be ‘included’ in American society meant that much of the older generation was fine with de jure inclusion and de facto discrimination. As Moody shows through characters such as those that promote violent demonstrations, inclusion was considered to be worth any cost by some; others looked to peaceful demonstrations and sit-ins to gain inclusion in mainstream America. Regardless of who held what belief, Moody shows that the varying ideas about whether or not to seek inclusion, and how to go about doing so threatened the Civil Rights Movement and is today largely ignored by Americans who view the Movement as one unified front fighting for specific, commonly accepted goals when in fact this was not the case.
Coming of Age in Mississippi is a highly critical memoir that author Anne Moody uses to look inside American society in the 1940’s, -50’s, and -60’s. Although Anne Moody skewers white America, she also directs her condemnation to African Americans. Throughout the novel, Moody gives the reader access to the internal struggles that plague her and cause so much anguish. These internal struggles are characteristic of the various positions held by activists in the Civil Rights, and just as these struggles leave Anne feeling as if there is “a heavy weight on [her] heart…[and that she is] unable to move,” these divisions within the Movement threatened to paralyze and reverse any gains activists made (394). Outside of the Movement, Moody characterizes such people as Toosweet as being sadly accepting of their lot in life, unwilling to upset the status quo, and anxious when others try do so. Through these techniques, Moody shows her readers that the different approaches to inclusion meant that the Civil Rights Movement was rarely, if ever, a cohesive group with common means and ends.
It's like 5 and 1/3 pages, and possibly a bit too heavy on summarization of the memoir and too light on analysis, but it's just a rough draft that hopefully gives you an idea of what it is I'm trying to say in this essay.
