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Chapter 13
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
Anne arrives and searches for a waitressing job in New Orleans. However, with no experience, nobody will hire her. She and her aunt Sis go to work at the chicken factory, at a job that several workers recently walked off. Though they are initially excited about the job, they soon learn that they are crossing the picket line of workers on strike. When she gets inside, she is surprised to see that all the workers are Black—before, she thought that white and Black workers work side by side in factories.
Anne’s accidental experience of strikebreaking highlights the vast economic differences between white workers and Black workers at the time. While white workers were also mistreated, the lack of opportunity for Black workers largely prevents them from joining in the strike. This fact highlights the complexity of labor issues, which are influenced by multiple systemic factors that draw on deeply entrenched societal forms of prejudice .
Themes
The factory work turns out to be brutal labor. Anne’s body aches, and she is forever disgusted by boxed chicken. She works at the factory for a month before going back to Centreville.
The brutality and repulsiveness of the work contrasts Anne’s former idealization of city and factory work and shows her a dark side of the food industry. This disappointment strengthens Essie Mae’s understanding of intersectional economic issues.
Themes
