What is the role of justice in this novel? Perhaps more aptly put, what is the role of injustice in this novel? From Parchman to the murder of Given to Jojo's home to Michael's family home to the weird lawyer to the traffic stop... This novel is characterized by injustice in the legal system and racism as well as wrongdoings ignored.
In southern Mississippi, systemic racism is obviously rampant. Near the beginning of the novel, we learn both River and Richie were sent to Parchman prison for hard labor at a young age. This labor camp is a cruel callback to slavery where prisoners work cotton fields in grueling heat. Richie was poor and starving. He was destined to backbreaking labor for being caught stealing food, a disproportionate punishment for petty theft. On page 23, River is telling Jojo about 12-year-old Richie's first day in the labor prison, how "he walked into that camp crying, but crying with no sound, no sobbing. Just tears leaking down his face, glazing it with water." Richie is a child prisoner facing a terribly unjust punishment. His imprisonment near the start of the novel outlines the systemic racism present in the environment, and his eventual necessary euthanasia acts as a shocking alarm to the reader to the backwards state of the South. That people are willing to torture and lynch a boy with no evidence of crime is jarring.
Similarly, Jojo faces injustice when Leonie and Michael are pulled over. The southern cop, naturally, is harassing the mixed family. When Jojo reaches into his pocket to touch the package his Pop left for him, he quickly finds himself at the wrong end of the cop's gun. The terror of this scene is seen through Leonie's eyes. In a rare moment of a mother's protective sight, Leonie blinks and foresees "the bullet cleaving the soft butter of [Jojo]. I shake" (164). For this mixed family, a routine traffic stop becomes a scene of the family in handcuffs, the son held at gunpoint, and a car search. The irony of this scene, however, is that the family is transporting drugs. For the transport of meth, Leonie and Michael should be punished, but instead, we see Jojo take the heat of the cop's anger.
In contrast at home, we see wrongdoings go unpunished. The starkest continuing example of this throughout the book is Leonie. Leonie is an abusive and neglecting mother towards Jojo and Kayla both with emotional manipulation and physical abuse. Leonie, however, does not answer for the pain she causes. Arguably, Leonie's role in her mother's death near the end of the novel can be seen as her answering to her mother for her failure as a daughter. This says nothing for her abuse towards her children to whom she beats and abandons afterwards. Does Leonie deserve sympathy for being raised poor and black in southern Mississippi? Does this absolve her of being an abusive addict? Michael was raised wealthier and white, but he is also an abusive addict and an enabler. Does he deserve a break? Misty is white and poor, but she enables Leonie's addictions. Does she deserve a break? Al is wealthy and profits off of people's imprisonment in Parchman while partaking in the meth trade. Does this addict deserve sympathy?
The question asking who actually deserves punishment throughout the novel does not yield a satisfying answer. While injustice is easy to spot, an action to take on injustice is difficult to formulate. Unfortunately, nothing changes in the hot, stagnant, southern Mississippi bayou. According to Sing, Unburied, Sing, nothing has changed in 200 years. This environment is one marked by cruelty, where abuse breeds abuse, and true justice is nowhere to be found.
No comments:
Post a Comment