Throughout the novel, much of Jojo’s characterization and growth is framed around his desire to become a man. The novel opens with him claiming that “he knows what death is” (page 1), as he attempts to help Pop slaughter a goat for his birthday. Although he enters the barn with the intention of remaining composed, the smells, sounds, and graphic nature of the task at hand overwhelms him and he runs out, throwing up into the grass. He is not a man yet.
Later, when Leonie decides to take the children with her to retrieve Michael, Pops tasks Jojo with watching over them, leaving Jojo with this reassurance, saying, “You a man, you hear?” (page 61). Throughout the car trip Jojo does his best to emulate Pops, comforting Kayla when Leonie is neglectful or rageful, putting her needs before his own by feeding her before himself, and advocating for her needs when she is not able to herself or when Leonie is not listening. These are all signs of his unfaltering love and devotion for his sister, but it is not enough to make him a man. This is demonstrated when the group is pulled over by the policeman. When confronted by the officer, Jojo reaches for the sack Pop gifted to him. This small action signifies grand implications. It shows that Jojo, as of yet, does not fully understand the world he, a young black boy, finds himself. He does not know that such a small movement as this, reaching into his pocket, could have severe repercussions like the taking of his life. Jojo’s child-like instinct to reach for these objects of comfort demonstrates his naivete and thus sustained boyhood. Leonie’s perspective illustrates this, as she looks on at her son, noting that “when he starts reaching in his pocket and the officer draws his gun on him, points it at his face, Jojo ain’t nothing but a fat-kneed, bowlegged toddler” (page 165). He is not a man yet.
In the final scenes, the audience is able to watch Jojo metamorphosize at last. It comes as Pop reveals the ending of Richie’s life, and the role Pops played in it. With his confession, Pop can no longer hide from all of the pent-up grief and guilt he feels about the past. In these moments, the audience sees Pops, the unwavering model of manhood, falter. So too is the true nature of the world revealed to Jojo, unfiltered. This loss of innocence, as well as the desire of Jojo to care for Pops in all of the ways that he has over the years, catapults Jojo into his newfound manhood. This is illustrated in the moments after Mama’s passing when Pop still has “a curve there at the top of his back: his shoulders a bowl,” while Jojo “gains what Pop’s lost of his bearing. First, a brace across his thighs, all the bowlegged softness of his preadolescence dissolved to a granite stance.” (page 270). Jojo, finally, is a man, one of tenderness, strength, and responsibility, prepared to carry out the task of raising his sister.
Sing, Unburied, Sing begins with the quote from Jojo, “I like to think I know what death is. I like to think that it’s something I could look at straight” (Ward 1). This is the start of Jojo’s “quest for manhood,” as you put it. However, in the moments after this he is unable to handle the death of the goat, and Pop sends him inside. Even if Jojo is not yet a man, by these standards, he still has the instincts to care and protect Kayla in the same way that Pop cares for them both and Mam when they are at home. This need to become a man is a thread throughout the entire book, and Jojo is constantly acting on his “man-” or “Pop-like” instincts by looking out for Kayla and protecting her from Michael and Leonie.
ReplyDeleteJojo becomes a man in the moment where Pop tells him what happens at the end of Richie’s story. Jojo takes on the role of Pop, here, and is comforting and protecting him – a reversal of the normal. However, this is not truly solidified until Jojo faces death “straight on,” like he wanted to be able to do at the very beginning of the book. Jojo “gains what Pop’s lost..” when Mam passes so suddenly and violently (Ward 270). Jojo holds it together, when Pop, Kayla, and Leonie do not. Finally, Richie sees, too, Jojo’s transformation into a man, when he says “now you understand…life. Now you know. Death” (Ward 282). Jojo now knows what death is, and has looked at it straight on, bringing the book full circle in a sad, yet beautiful closing.
Sing, Unburied, Sing is certainly a novel that is not set out to urge you in the direction of one interpretation or another. I could find evidence to support that Jojo is not a man by the end of the story, but merely a young adult that represents hope for the future.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I followed an interpretation similar to yours throughout the novel. To me, Sing, Unburied, Sing is well-read as a coming-of-age novel. At the start of the novel, Jojo is still very guided and protected by Mam and Pop. He has paternal, caring qualities, yet he still has much to learn about adulthood and relying on himself as an individual for love and care. The journey with Leonie is especially pertinent to the coming-of-age story. During the journey, Jojo faces realities concerning his parents' addiction. Jojo is faced with the realities of police brutality. Additionally, he is faced with one of the most challenging realities to contend with– the reality of death. When Kayla comes close with death, Jojo is forced to watch and contend with her problems the entire time.
When Jojo arrives home, he faces the death of his beloved Mam. He loses his innocence concerning Pop as he learns that Pop himself killed a boy. Not only does he face these difficulties, but he does so with the pressures of Richie looming over him. However, I don’t think that we see Jojo fully become a man by the end of the novel, and I don’t think that he has a full metamorphosis. Rather, I think that Jojo fully loses his innocence concerning death. “‘Now you understand.’ He closes his eyes. Lets go a bullfrog’s croak. ‘Now you understand life. Now you know. Death’” (282). Jojo now knows death and he knows that the past will continue to follow him into the present. He is prepared to contend with that. Yet Jojo has not fully become a man. “Kayla hums over my shoulder, says ‘shhh’ like I am the baby and she is the big brother, says ‘shhh’ like she remembers the sound of the water in Leonie’s womb,” (285). Jojo is not a man; rather, Jojo has experienced an immense amount of growth during his journey and his arrival home. Jojo has met death. Yet, in a beautiful way, Jojo is allowed to still remain the young adult and the child he never got to be. He has come of age, but he is not fully man.