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
After Emmett Till’s death, Anne begins to hate people. She hates the white people who murdered Till, but also hates Black people for “not standing up and doing something about the murders.” She begins to see Black men as cowards for treating white men with deference to their faces and cursing them behind their backs.
Anne’s hatred of her community for not standing up for their own rights is indicative of both her natural revolutionary spirit and the generational differences in the Black community regarding attitudes towards liberation. This pattern of thinking mirrors Anne’s struggle with Mama over her desire to discuss the issues around them.
Themes
Mrs. Burke continues to host and attend Guild meetings more and more frequently. She also works hard to recruit people into the Guild until most of the white people in Centreville are members. The guild becomes obsessed with gossiping about white men having sex with Black women. They’re especially obsessed with an affair between the deputy sheriff Mr. Fox and Bess, one of Anne’s classmates who works for the Foxes. When Mr. Fox and Bess are caught in the act, Bess’s reputation is ruined—but Mr. Fox’s remains intact.
Mrs. Burke’s increased involvement in her guild demonstrates the escalating racial tensions in Centreville in the wake of Emmett Till’s murder. Their gossip about relationships between white men and Black women expose not only their racism, but also its intersection with misogyny. The fact that Mr. Fox’s reputation remains intact while Bess’s is ruined exhibits a double standard for both Black people and women, and this unfair standard is compounded on a Black woman.
Themes
The Guild also gossips about Black men who may be having sex with white women. Having seen what happened to Emmett Till, Anne knows that such an act would be punished much more harshly than a white man sleeping with a Black woman. One day, a group of white men, including Sheriff Ed Cassidy, attacks and nearly beats to death Anne’s classmate Jerry, whom they’ve falsely accused of threatening to molest a white woman. Because Jerry’s parents fear the white doctors, Jerry does not go to the hospital.
Though Bess’s reputation is ruined, the threat for a Black man sleeping with a white woman is much more sinister. Jerry’s false accusation demonstrates the deep-seated racism and fear in Centreville and reminds Anne and her community how easily one can be falsely accused. It also explains the Black community’s justified distrust in white authority figures.
Themes
A few months later, an even more egregious crime occurs. Anne wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of screams. When Anne, Mama, and Raymond investigate, they find the house of the Taplin family ablaze with the family inside. Because they can smell gasoline, all the spectators know that it was a murder and not an accident. Anne watches the crowd watching the blaze with “unanimous hopelessness.”
The fire in the Taplin family’s house is the climax of rising racial tensions in Centreville. The hopelessness of the Black community, while emotionally justified, is the tool of the white racists of Centreville to maintain the status quo. The sheer brutality of the act serves to demonstrate the desperation of the racist white people to maintain their status as the ruling class.
Themes
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Unable to escape talk of the crime, Anne becomes depressed. As the town continues to talk about the murder, it comes out that the Taplins’ neighbor, Mr. Banks, was having an affair with a white woman. Anne decides that she will leave Centreville over the summer to live with her Uncle Ed in Baton Rouge.
Anne’s choice to leave Centreville reflects the trauma of growing up as witness to such violence. The decision also demonstrates her determination to preserve her own sanity, which will later play a role in her shifting involvement in the movement.
Themes
