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Despair In Anne Moody's Coming Of Age In Mississippi

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Moody’s Final Despair In the autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi, by Anne Moody (1968) she ends the story with Essie saying “I WONDER. I really WONDER” (289). In doing this, it is left up to the reader to decide whether or not Essie is hopeful or doubtful about what is to come in the future. After reading the book and finding several instances where Essie witnesses the bad in both white and black people and expresses her hate for both races, it is concluded that the prevailing sentiment is despair towards what the future has to hold for African Americans in the state of Mississippi.
It all started when Essie was an innocent little girl, she knew nothing to be wrong and saw everyone as equal, rather than grouping them by color. …show more content…

She was just starting to feel hopeful again about what was to come until one night after a rally she was watching TV with others and a “special news bulletin interrupted the program” (280). The news said, “Jackson NAACP leader Medgar Evans has been shot” (280). In that instance, everything crashed and burned to flames for Moody. It felt like everything they had worked for was all for nothing. On the last page of the book Moody thinks about all the bad things that have taken place, when a little boy interrupts his joyful singing of “We Shall Overcome”, a song Moody once loved to sing, to say, “’Moody, we’re gonna git things straight in Washington, huh’” (289)? Moody then says to herself, “I didn’t answer him. I knew I didn’t have to” (289). In these two sentences, it shows how unsure of everything Essie really was. She was no longer that girl from the very beginning who would do anything and everything to end this fight against racism.
In the beginning of Essie is hopeful and ready to face anything that life throws at her. This quickly fades away as she sees just how horrible the world was. She is faced with many trials and she takes them head on, but one person can only take so many hits before they are broken. By the end of the autobiography, Moody can take no more and the feeling of despair prevails over

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