Sickness
Moody explains, "After the sit-in, all I could think of was how sick Mississippi whites were. They believed so much in the segregated Southern way of life, they would kill to preserve it. I sat there in the NAACP office and thought of how many times they had killed when this way of life was threatened." Metaphorical sickness denotes the heartrending racism which the whites exhibit. Racism encourages them to perpetuate inhumane actions such as the unwarranted murder of the blacks. Moody reckons that the whites' sickness was so advanced that it necessitated some healing.
Skunks
Moody recounts, “I remember once when I was only seven I heard Mama and one of my aunts talking about some Negro who had been beaten to death. “Just like them lowdown skunks killed him they will do the same to us,” Mama had said. When I asked her who killed the man and why, she said, “An Evil Spirit killed him. You gotta be a good girl or It will kill you too.” ” The "skunks" is a term applied to the whites that unjustifiably murder the blacks. Adding that they are “Evil Spirit” accentuates their maliciousness. The blacks are casualties of the ‘evil spirit’s’ murderous nature.
"Lowest Animal"
Moody recalls, “About a week later, Mrs. Rice had me over for Sunday dinner, and I spent about five hours with her... After Mrs. Rice had told me all this, I felt like the lowest animal on earth. At least when other animals (hogs, cows, etc.) were killed by man, they were used as food.” By equating herself to an animal, Moody underscores the reduction of her self-esteem due to the realization of the dangers which blacks face due to their blackness. Mrs. Rice's explanations result in the wrongheaded conclusion that blacks are inferior beings; hence, are subjected to random murders by the white people. The treatment which the whites subject the blacks to is worse than that of the animals that are hunted and converted to food by humans.
