Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Coming of Age in Mississippi, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Intersection of Racism and Poverty
Loss of Innocence
The Importance of Community
Gender and Racism
Religion and Hypocrisy
Summary
Analysis
A week before Anne starts high school, Emmett Till is murdered. Anne finds out about his death by overhearing a group of high school boys on the way home from school. She has heard of Black people turning up beaten or dead before, but Mama told her that it was the work of an “Evil Spirit.” She reflects that, years later, she had finally learned what the true nature of that Evil Spirit is: racism. After she hears about Emmett Till’s death, she realizes that, because she is always studying or working, she has been unaware of what is happening in the world around her. She also realizes that the adults in her life have kept things from her.
Emmett Till’s death is a climax in Anne’s political awakening. Her realization that she has been sheltered from the harsh realities of the world due to constant studying and working highlights the idea that, when survival itself is a struggle, the struggle for liberation often takes a back seat. Her childhood belief that the violence against Black people was the work of an Evil Spirit serves to show how deeply ingrained in society this racist violence truly is. This moment prompts her to look critically at the world around her.
Themes
When she arrives home from school, Anne asks Mama about Emmett Till. Mama refuses to discuss the murder, and she advises Annie to “just do your work like you don’t know nothing.” At work that afternoon, Annie Mae’s anxiety distracts her, causing her to drop and break dishware.
Though Mama’s refusal to discuss Till’s murder is an attempt to shield Anne from the evils of the world, it does not help Anne’s anxiety. Mama’s advice to Anne to proceed as though she doesn’t know anything reveals information about how Mama and countless other Black people have coped and survived in the racist American South of the 20th century.
Themes
Later that night, Mrs. Burke asks Anne if she has heard about the murder. Mrs. Burke, much to Anne’s shock, says that Emmett Till “got out of his place with a white woman” and that “a boy from Mississippi would have known better.” For the first time, Mrs. Burke has made her feel like “garbage.” Anne develops a new fear: being killed just because she is Black.
Whereas Mrs. Burke was previously just a challenge for Anne, the revelation of Mrs. Burke’s true feelings about Emmett Till (and by extension about violence against Black people) causes Anne to realize the serious consequences that Mrs. Burke’s racism could have. Because Anne is in such proximity to Mrs. Burke’s violent racism, the danger of violence now feels more real.
Themes
A few days after the murder, Mrs. Burke has eight women over for tea. She tells Anne that this is a “guild meeting.” During the meeting, Anne overhears the women talk about an organization called the “NAACP,” which she has never heard of. Later that night, she asks Mama about the organization. Mama does not tell her what the NAACP is, but she warns her to never mention it around a white person.
Mrs. Burke’s guild, which is later revealed to be associated with the Ku Klux Klan, shows the racism embedded into the white community of Centreville. When Anne accidentally hears about the NAACP at that meeting, it shows that the racist system functions by keeping the Black community in the dark about tools for their own liberation. Even Mama believes that the knowledge is too dangerous for Anne to carry, continuing with the trend of adults in Anne’s life believing that ignorance is safer than knowledge.
Themes
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At school, Anne asks her homeroom teacher, Mrs. Rice, about the NAACP. Mrs. Rice tells her that the NAACP is an organization that was established to help Black people gain basic rights and that it is currently trying to get a conviction in the Emmett Till murder case. She tells Anne that she could lose her job if anyone found out that she was giving out this information. Mrs. Rice invites Anne for Sunday dinner the next week and educates her about the history of racism in the South. At the end of the school year, Mrs. Rice gets fired.
Anne’s curiosity and discussion with Mrs. Rice is a turning point in her awareness of and commitment to civil rights issues. Mrs. Rice’s willingness to educate Anne on the subject despite the dangers of getting fired demonstrates for Anne an admirable willingness to put social causes before one’s own needs. When Mrs. Rice gets fired, Anne sees the dangers of a commitment to social change that Mama had warned her about.
Themes
