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
As time goes on, Raymond starts to dream of making money as a farmer. He buys a mule and rents a plot of land. However, he is soon disillusioned by the hand grenades that he finds buried in his land. He guesses that the land was a practice ground for the Confederate army during the civil war.
Raymond’s dreams about being a farmer show his determination to escape the cycle of working unfair hours and wages for white people. Meanwhile, the discovery of grenades on his land symbolically shows that Essie Mae and her family live with the country’s troubled history every day.
Themes
Essie Mae dreads school letting out for the summer because she knows that she will have to work on Raymond’s land. She prays that it will not rain so that there will not be any cotton for her to pick. However, the cotton does grow, and Essie Mae, much to her disappointment, must leave her job at the Claibornes’ earlier than expected. Raymond buys supplies for the family and prepares them to work in the field, the first step in the process. On their first day of work, Essie Mae, Adline, Alberta, Junior, James, Cherie, and Darlene go out to the land plot. Essie Mae’s competitive streak against Darlene kicks in, and she begins to chop very quickly. However, she then faints due to the heat. After a rest, she gets back to work, and she soon becomes very skilled at chopping cotton and begins to work on other people’s farms. However, she dislikes the work.
Raymond’s involvement of the whole family in his cotton farm demonstrates the family’s determination to improve their circumstances together. Furthermore, this family business shows a contrast with the farms that Essie Mae’s parents had previously worked on for white people, who had been able to hire Black workers rather than do the work themselves. Though Essie Mae quickly learns how to work on the farm, her distaste of the work highlights her determination to define herself separately from her family, circumstances, and history.
Themes
