Departure

At this point in the book we are seeing the departure of the central characters from their southern homes.  This is very interesting to me, because although their specific reasons for departure defer they are all shrouded in both despair and hope.  Mortified by the brutal beating of her relative Ida Mae finds it necessary to flee the south in order to escape the inhumane societal conditions that would allow such an atrocity to occur. In fleeing the South, Ida Mae is tacitly acknowledging that she has more faith in the unknown of the North than in the ability of Mississippi to change.  The amount of blind faith demonstrated by Ida Mae and her husband led me to question what it would take to get me to leave my home, and i came to the realization that i already have.  I left California to attend Howard University in hopes of procuring a better future.  I had only been to DC once or twice and my experience with the city was limited to the tourist brochures and illustrated maps handed out at the hotel. Now of course my situation is much different from that of Ida Maes and the other people depicted in the book, but to a degree we are all motivated by a desire to do better.  These past few chapters have really highlighted that for me.  Sometimes delving in to the unknown for a better reality is a necessity, and we will see if it pays off for Ida Mae in the next few chapters and for me in the next few years.