Coming of Age in Mississippi Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Coming of Age in Mississippi - Essay Example Through Anne’s development of virtues and faults, one gets to visualise a real picture of discrimination based on colour and gender. A reader has to fight with what the author believes in throughout the book, and gets drawn into her deeds that one can cheer when the actions are justified or shy away when someone is treated unfairly. Using her memories, the author invites the reader to imagine a young girl growing up in Mississippi. During her entire life, Moody dealt with hardships that most people could not imagine, but due to her experiences, Anne gains the heroin qualities. How Moody deals with the questions of gender in her life and in her book As Moody grows up, she notes that there are different roles and misconceptions associated with each gender and race. She realizes the way women are treated and she struggles to make sure that they do not hinder her from achieving the best she could be. In the book, she depicts her everyday life in detail as a teenage lady being brou ght up in the pre-civil rights times in the South. Her maturity and experience become tools that she utilizes to cope up with gender inequality within her society and the family to develop into a woman she desired. Through most of her youthful experiences, Moody manages the question of gender by learning its social importance on her own since her mother avoids dealing with the issue as she feels that nothing regarding the societal believes about women can be changed. The insufficiency of information on society that Moody received from her mother made her to explore even further on life issues on her own and critique the standard of that era, rather than incorporating herself into a society that seemed so unfair and disgracing. Anne Moody proudly and confidently uses her observations of the various social aspects to determine her individual identity as a tough black woman who is ready and willing to stand up for what she considers right with hopes of future success and progress for A frican Americans (Moody 280). How white supremacy affect gender related experiences among and between the black and white communities According to Moody, white supremacy restrains black women to take up certain roles in the working environments and acts as a hindrance to equal rights in terms of wages. Quality education is also given to white women at the expense of the blacks. For instance, the author argues that the only option that was availed to her uneducated mother was working as a house help for a worthless pay. This forced Anne to take the burden of working to support her family while still at school (Moody 300). It is further depicted that white women were given more respect and their rights protected more than the blacks of both genders. Meddling with the life of a white woman meant that the black person associated with the action would face serious consequences. For example, Moody says that a 14-year old black man from Chicago was murdered merely for allegedly whistling a t a young white woman. This made Moody to conclude that white supremacy was too stern that any black person could be killed simply for his or her colour. At some point in time, Moody tries to depict that whites were always superior and that their wrong deeds were not treated with serious consequences as did for male blacks. This is illustrated in the book when Moody gives a picture of her life in high school when a white police administrator was caught having a love affair with a black teenage girl. It is quite obvious in this context that the act brought them