*REQUIREMENTS:*
1) Choose a Quote from Coming of Age in Mississippi
—Quote: Your quote should consist of 3-5 sentences. A quote longer than 3-5 sentences should be condensed to include only the most pertinent sections. Please remember: the length of your quotation does not count toward your word count. Place the quote at the top of your postbefore you begin your discussion and analysis.
2) Discuss and analyze the topic according to the above directions (350-400 words)
— Discuss and analyze: After introducing your quote, you must then discuss and analyze an experience you had that somehow relates to your quote. Your discussion should focus on your own experience, and how it allowed you to gain insight into society. You should explain how your chosen passage from Moody relates to your experience at some point in your analysis of your experience. Your critical discussion must be 350-400 words.
*DIRECTIONS:*
Your task in this Discussion Board assignment is to take inspiration from Moody and reflect on and analyze one event from your own pastthe distant past (your early childhood), recent past, or somewhere in betweenthat changed you in some way and allowed you to gain insight into some aspect of society that you hadnt fully understood before. Whats most important is that you analyze a single experience that allowed you to gain insight into the way that the world works.
In Coming of Age in Mississippi, Anne Moody describes several events in her childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood that were key to her growth as an individualmoments when she came to understand things like racism and violence, moments that shaped who she became. Some of these events were only important to Moody, and sometimes her family, such as the moment when she mistakenly walked into the White Only section of the movie theater. Some of the events are historically important, such as the Woolworths lunch counter sit-in. Yet others combine the personal and the historical, such as Moodys recounting of speaking to her mother about Emmett Tills murder. But in all instances, Moody recounts these events as an individual who learned and grew through them. These are the events that led to her coming of age in Mississippi.
The insight you gained through your experience can be about some aspect of social roles and expectations (e.g. what women are expected to do, what barriers disabled people face); it can be about the nature of certain kinds of relationships (mother / daughter, employer / employee); it can be about the ways that some individuals interpret others based on stereotypes related to gender, race, sexual orientation, and other identity factors; it can be about the unspoken rules or manners that people, or certain groups of people, are expected to adhere to. And those are just a few examples. Your overarching goal should be to chooseand then analyzean event that provoked you to realize something that extends beyond you and relates to how the society in which you grew up is structured.
For your quote, you should quote a passage in which Moody describes an event from her past that in some way inspired your choice of an event from your own past, and/or allows you to reflect in meaningful ways on your own experience. At some point in your post, you should refer to your chosen quote from Moody, and briefly explain how it relates to your experience. This discussion shouldnt be too lengthy, and you should think of it as a part of your analysis of your own experience.
