The African American battle for civil rights has been a hard-fought battle that has shaped the United States in a progressive way that proves the point of the importance of equality of opportunity. In Anne Moody’s memoir “Coming of Age in Mississippi,” she details her experience as an African American female in a time of intense discrimination, which has a profound impact on her life. Throughout the book, Moody uses vivid details and explicit experiences to convey her determination to achieve justice and explain her path toward executing commanding leadership to fight for equal rights. The first part of the book goes into detail about Moody’s childhood and goes through her life, with each pivotal moment captured through her eyes as a young, …show more content…
In the theater, Moody and the other African American consumers are required to sit on the higher balcony, which is inherently worse than the seating area in which the white people sat. This train of thought is carried onto her questioning and coming to the realization that her education, housing situation, and overall American experience is explicitly inferior to those whose skin color is white. This realization is one of the core themes of the African American experience during the period of segregation and horrific racial discrimination- one in which black people were subordinate to white people by an unjust, disturbing precedent. This is also representative of the “separate but equal” clause to the fourteenth amendment, which carries the dull ideology that black and white people can be equal in opportunity while still maintaining segregation in society. This was not true because of the inherent nature of black institutions not being as well funded or cared for nearly as much as white …show more content…
When Moody tries to decide which college to attend after graduating from the primarily black school of Natchez Junior College, she knows that her exemplary grades will get her scholarships. However, Moody battles with the idea that her grades will not hold up to her white peers’ in an integrated school, stating, “I didn’t want the white students to act like they were smarter than me just because they had gotten off to a better start” (page 260). This exemplifies how Moody feels about being a second-hand citizen in a world where her white counterparts have had a much easier start in life. While her family came from slaves without any belongings of their own, the white students grew up without that same fear of racial violence and instability in their lives. Moody knows that it will be harder for her as a black woman to get to the same places as white people in life, and that she must put in ten times the effort. In this quote, she is showing the readers her insecurities of how the white students may treat her if she gets lesser grades, even though she knows that it would be much more difficult for her to
The novel I Know why the Caged Bird Sings written by Maya Angelou is an autobiographical story about her life and the struggles she faced up to age 16. Angelou’s struggles with trying to find her true identity, coming to terms with being raped, and dealing with racism growing up in the south, which influences in her novel by forcing her to open to the audience and share her struggles with the world. Maya Angelou born as Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. She grew up in
1. Summary of the Novel Mark Twain’s 1884 novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is the story of a young boy, Huckleberry Finn, who lives in St. Petersburg, Missouri, along the banks of the Mississippi River, and essentially desires to become his own person and live the way he wants. In the beginning of the story, Huck is being “sivilised” (Twain 1) by a widow named Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. Huck feels restricted by the manners, schooling, and overall “righteousness” he is being
She has Grierson that lived in Jefferson, Mississippi. So after her death they made a funeral and the townspeople people would just come to her home to pay their every last respects, but then they later discovered what really happened to homer, the men she fell in love with. Tobe her servant was never seen again just at the day of her funeral. When that was over you just walked out the back of the house and never seen to appear back at Jefferson, Mississippi. My guess about this is that Tobe was frighten
The American Dream is often thought of as the key to happiness, usually defined as the thing that one wants to achieve in their lifetime. However, it does not always end the way one may wish. When one attempts to achieve it, he risks the possibility of failure. In many fictional novels, this theme is displayed. In novels and in real life, there are continuous interruptions with one’s dreams. Although the American Dream, however one may define it, promises hope for people and characters from