Coming of Age in Mississippi, is heartbreaking story of Anne Moody's unbreakable spirit throughout the first nineteen years of her life. Anne writes about the unspeakable treatment that was socially imposed on African Americans, otherwise known as the Jim Crowe laws. Through the time of young ages she shares the difficult times and conditions and how she manages to strive to the best in school and provide for family. Contemplating in her own world separate from her family she continuously pondered upon the rules of society and always questions the rules of her elders. In Anne Moody's, Coming of Age in Mississippi she differentiates herself from the rest of African American by questioning the way of life she must undergo due to all the restrictions her family and other African American's that surround her.
Throughout the novel Moody shows discontent with her family and fellow black citizens for simply accepting the circumstances and the position in which they lived. Toosweet, being a single mother of four had to provide a house to live in and provide food, clothing and schooling for her children. Toosweet having a salary of 12 dollars a week "wasn't sufficient no more" (Moody, page 9). The financial status of Anne's family always revolved around a triangle. A triangle between work, the two small children and Anne going to school. Anne enjoyed going to school but sometimes had to stay back and take care of her siblings. But sometimes Toosweet had come in and check up on them time to time from work to ensure that her children were safe as well. Getting help from the neighbors was no use, so Toosweet had to call her Uncle Ed to help with taking care of the kids. One hot summer day Uncle Ed stormed into the house and took the kids to his house, "Ed told us that he didn't live very far from us, but walking barefooted on the rock road in the boiling hot sun, I began to wonder how far was "not very far.