Anne Moody - Blissful Ignorance

World Literature

March 1, 2010

English 203

Blissful Ignorance

Anne Moody, a young adolescent, deserving of an ordinary childhood, was unable to sustain a childhood like most. She was a well-mannered, intelligent, goal-oriented, girl that upheld characteristics that one could only dream. Yet, Moody’s success was impeded merely by the color of her skin. She was forced at an early age to accept inferiority, provide for her family, and defend herself. Because Moody understood prosperity wouldn’t be handed to her like others, she obtained a job working for Mrs. Burke, one in which she would never forget. It was at this job where she learned of the severity of the racial discrimination. It wasn’t until the murder of Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old African American boy, that opened Anne Moody’s eyes to the fact that she could be killed simply due to the color of her skin. As she discusses the murder with her white employer, she begins to understand that she too could be the target for such an undeserving act of violence. This realization was a significant moment that triggered her transformation into adulthood.

Anne Moody was walking home after school with her friends, when she first heard of Emmett Till’s murder. She noticed a few boys walking in front of her quietly discussing the details of the tragedy. Out of nowhere, they started yelling at each other, “That boy wasn’t but fourteen years old and they killed him. Now what kin a fourteen-year-old boy do with a white woman? What if he did whistle at her, he might have thought the whore was pretty” (Moody 402). Moody then asked the boys who they were talking about. They were shocked she didn’t already know. One of the boys looked at her and said, “Moody, where have you been? Everybody talking about that fourteen-year-old boy who was killed in Greenwood by some white men. You don’t know nothing that’s going on besides whats in them books of yours, huh?” This was the first moment in her life that Anne Moody realized she never had time growing up, to spend with people her own age. Ever since she was nine years old, she had to work after school and do her lessons on her lunch hour (Moody 403).

Moody decided to stop off at her mother’s on the way to Mrs. Burke’s that evening to grab some dinner. When she asked her mother if she had heard about the murder of Emmett Till, she angrily affirmed, and began to inquire about who Moody had heard it from. Moody explained to her that “Eddie and them” were talking about it on the way home from school. Her mother stated, “Eddie them better watch how they go around here talking. These white folks git a hold of it they gonna be in trouble.” Her mother made it

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