39 pages • 1 hour read
Anne MoodyComing Of Age In Mississippi
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1968A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 18-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary
Moody returns to New Orleans for the summer to work at Maple Hill. Business is bad, and Moody wonders how she can save money for college. She writes to her basketball coach, who recommends Moody for a basketball scholarship. Moody receives a scholarship to Natchez College. When Moody arrives on campus, the look of the place disappoints her, and then things get worse. The food tastes bad, and the basketball coach’s rules make her feel like she is in prison.
When Moody was asleep in bed due to illness, she didn’t know that another girl was in her room. Miss Adams is convinced that Moody broke the rules by having company in her room during the study hour. As punishment, Miss Adams assigns Moody the public task of washing the library windows. Angered by the injustice, Moody goes to the college president and eventually proves her point: “A few days later, I found out that the President had scratched out all Miss Adams’s rules” (224). Miss Adams retaliates by giving her a less prominent place on the basketball team. Moody wishes she could go to a different school but knows she cannot afford it.
Chapter 19 Summary
Moody dates a young man named Keemp during her second year at Natchez. Her first kiss occurs on a college bus with many spectators. One morning Natchez students discover maggots in their grits. Moody is furious and goes into the kitchen, where she observes a leak: “The water was seeping right down onto the shelves” (235) where the grits are stored. She shouts that the students should not eat in the college dining room until the college president fixes the leak and fires the cook. She and other students pool their money and buy food to last a few days. The president fixes the leak, and although he does not fire the cook, the food improves.
Other students return to the dining room, but Moody does not, even though she is hungry. She writes to Mama and Junior, who drive up and bring her enough food to last the semester. Moody takes a test for entrance to other senior colleges. She receives a full-tuition scholarship to Tougaloo College, the best senior college for Negroes in Mississippi.
Chapter 20 Summary
Moody has doubts about entering Tougaloo when she hears rumors that the college is for light-skinned, rich Negroes. She enrolls anyway and is impressed by the nice campus, although she is nervous about having white teachers. She shares her feelings with Trotter, a roommate, who informs her that none of the white professors is from the South. After Moody breaks up with Dave, a boyfriend who wants sex, Trotter invites Moody to a NAACP meeting. Moody feels frightened about what joining the NAACP might mean for her or her family: “But I knew I was going to join. I had wanted to for a long time” (248).
Chapter 21 Summary
Moody becomes deeply involved in NAACP work to the detriment of her grades, but she is not the only one: “Other students who had gotten involved with the NAACP were actually flunking” (250). She enrolls in summer school and meets Joan Trumpauer, a white student involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Moody canvasses neighborhoods with the SNCC workers to encourage black people to register to vote. She and a student named Rose attempt to integrate a bus station, but they attract a mob. A Negro taxi driver (who is also a minister) rescues them and warns the girls against doing an action own their own, without the endorsement of an organization.
Chapters 18-21 Analysis
Moody enters college with an unwillingness to endure unfairness, and injustices move her to action. The president tells her: “I’m getting pretty tired of you upsetting everybody around here” (236). When Moody transfers to Tougaloo College, she feels compelled toward a different kind of action: She joins the NAACP and SNCC. Being part of larger organizations working toward fair treatment of black people provides an outlet for her strong desire for justice. Moody’s actions become increasingly directed toward the larger society.
Although the narrator’s voice remains straightforward, Moody’s language becomes stronger, especially to (black) authority figures. She uses coarse language to address the cook: “Yes, but I am a student here and I do have to eat this shit!” (234). She also speaks disrespectfully to the dean: “You do what you gotta do” (223).
