Death is unpredictable, and can affect people in different ways. In Sing, Unburied, Sing, death played a key role in how the characters developed throughout the course of the novel. Ward described how Jojo, Kayla, Leonie, Pop, and Mam had their own experiences with death, and this is why their relationships with one another were tense.
Anyone who reads this novel could tell that Jojo and his family struggle in connecting with one another. Jojo tries hard to be like Pop, and hides his emotions so that Pop is not ashamed of him. Leonie does not have a good relationship with her children nor her parents. For the most part, Mam seems to have good relationships with everyone in the family. Pop normally keeps to himself, but he is hiding a lot of grief. All of these problems lead back to one thing, death.
Pop, Mam, and Leonie have actually experienced losing a loved one. Given, who was Pop and Mam’s son, was shot and killed by Michael’s cousin. Leonie mentioned how “A year after Given died, Mama planted a tree for him” (Ward 50). This was the way that Mam grieved over him. Leonie on the other hand, grieved in a different way. Leonie had a drug problem, and the text states, “Three years ago, I did a line and saw Given for the first time.” (Ward 51). Being able to see Given’s ghost, made Leonie want to do cocaine and get high even more. This affected her relationship with her children, since she was always leaving and getting high. Pop not only experienced Given’s death, but he also had to deal with the death of one of his friends, Richie. When Pop was younger, he met Richie in Parchman, and Pop looked after him. One day, Pop was no longer able to protect Richie, and he had to kill him before the crowd could lynch him. Pop always carried this grief with him, until the day he told Jojo.
Jojo and Kayla could also see ghosts. Richie was the first ghost they had seen, and all Richie wanted was to figure out how he died. Jojo and Kayla ended up saving Mam from Richie before she died, and that made Jojo more mature. Jojo now understood how Leonie has felt all of these years. “I feel it in me too. An itching in my hands. A kicking in my feet.” (Ward 279). Kayla is only three years old, but she is able to help ghosts find peace. The text mentions, “Kayla sings, and the multitude of ghosts lean forward, nodding.” (Ward 284). Kayla was able to send the ghosts home, and help them find happiness again. Jojo and Kayla learned about death at a young age, and this impacted their character.
This novel was mainly about death, and how the characters dealt with it. There was a lot of bickering between Jojo and his family, and I think it was mainly because of death and ghosts. Each person in the family was not sure on how to deal with death in their own way, and that is why it was hard for them to have good relationships.
Jesmyn Ward approached the subject of death in this novel in an interesting way. The book begins with death, as Jojo and Pop kill and skin a goat. Jojo’s connection with animals and his young age cause him to be sick, illustrating an aversion to death. Though the reader begins the novel violently, the book continually plays with our perception of the thin veil between life and death. All the deaths that occur in this novel are violent in nature; Given is shot, Richie is stabbed, and Mam certainly doesn’t go without a fight. Despite these dark plot points, Ward’s use of poetic language pulls the reader into these events.
ReplyDeleteDescriptions of death are usually portrayed as gruesome, but Ward flips this trope on its head. On page 255, while Pop is sharing the details of Richie’s death with Jojo, he points out Richie’s baby hair. To the reader, this might be a questionable, out-of-place detail. Ward’s writing, however, is meant to allow the reader to read between the lines. Pop’s comment on Richie’s baby hair is to show us that Richie was a child, and Pop had an overwhelming urge to protect him. Though this is stated throughout the novel, Ward’s language reinforces these ideas. Like the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, Sing, Unburied, Sing uses a connection to the spiritual world. However, Ward does something unique by having two children be the facilitators of these spirits. We see the contrast and, more importantly, the connection between the dead and the living. Death is certainly a theme in this novel, and Ward’s way of writing about it is what makes this novel so compelling.