Coming Of Age In Mississippi

Moody returns to New Orleans for the summer to work at Maple Hill. Business is bad, and Moody wonders how she can save money for college. She writes to her basketball coach, who recommends Moody for a basketball scholarship. Moody receives a scholarship to Natchez College. When Moody arrives on campus, the look of the place disappoints her, and then things get worse. The food tastes bad, and the basketball coach’s rules make her feel like she is in prison.

When Moody was asleep in bed due to illness, she didn’t know that another girl was in her room. Miss Adams is convinced that Moody broke the rules by having company in her room during the study hour. As punishment, Miss Adams assigns Moody the public task of washing the library windows. Angered by the injustice, Moody goes to the college president and eventually proves her point: “A few days later, I found out that the President had scratched out all Miss Adams’s rules” (224). Miss Adams retaliates by giving her a less prominent place on the basketball team. Moody wishes she could go to a different school but knows she cannot afford it.