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Analysis Of Coming Of Age In Mississippi By Anne Moody

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It has been nearly fifty years since Anne Moody published her memoir entitled Coming of Age in Mississippi. Though the tension is not nearly as present now as it was in the 1960s, both media and politics revolve around the many issues of civil rights and racial divides. At the end of her book, Moody tells the audience that she “I WONDER…” (Moody 289). It is assumed that she is wondering whether or not society will overcome the large amount of racial issues. Within the memoir, Moody touches on several severe oppressive incidents that occurred to people in her life such as her class mate Jerry, her fellow Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee members, and her friend Rose. Given the many extreme circumstances that she underwent during her young adulthood, at the end of the book Moody’s opinion on what the future holds likely contains more despair than hope. …show more content…

Found in chapter eleven is a detailed description of a time when Jerry, one of Moody’s class mates, was brutally beaten while tied against a tree. Moody writes, “They pushed jerry out of the car onto the ground. He got up and dashed into the woods but they caught up with him and dragged him farther into the woods. Then they tied him to a tree and beat him with a big thick leather strap and a piece of hose pipe.” (Moody 225). The writing style of this excerpt much resembles that of something found in a thriller or horror book. Moody does a really well job of conveying an evil scene with the phrase, “…dragged him farther into the woods.”. After hearing such a gruesome story that involved her classmate, Moody likely had a sense of fear for her own

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