Coming Of Age In Mississippi

Raymond and his brothers build a house with five rooms for Moody’s family. Moody is disappointed there is no indoor toilet, especially because Miss Pearl has one. Moody and Mama buy furniture for the new house, but when Moody wants a four-poster bed with a canopy, the store clerk treats them coldly. Mama asks why Moody wants things that white people have.

Moody does well in school, but Adline and Junior do not. A competition develops between Moody and Darlene, Raymond’s sister, who is in her class, to outdo each other academically. Moody joins the basketball team. She plays well among her peers but freezes up when playing a team from another school. Her team loses, and then she quits.

Mama goes into labor, and Moody observes and hears the pain her mother is in. She wonders why her mother has so many children if birth is so painful. The baby is a girl, and Mama names her Virginia but calls her Jennie Ann. Miss Pearl comes to see the baby but does not acknowledge Mama. Moody resents Raymond because he too afraid to demand that his family treat Mama better: “Raymond is just fool […] He could easily put a stop to this.