Summary Of Sing Unbured Sing By Jemyn Ward

Discriminatory events within history are reflected through individual struggles. Jesmyn Ward, author of Sing, Unburied, Sing, addresses the ways the American justice system negatively affects those as the reader follows a family on the journey towards Parchman Prison. Ward is an American novelist and professor raised in Mississippi discussing the harsh history of incarceration in Mississippi. In the American South, white people determined the justice system. Therefore, the novel addresses families undergoing economic and cultural conflict, connecting back to points within history in which white people living in the American South established a base for the injustice and discriminatory systems applied in today's society, which date back to slavery.

Through Jojo’s youth, the reader comprehends a level of immaturity, as he actively adapts to his surroundings within society. Ward places emphasis on Jojo's curiosity in Pop’s wisdom to demonstrate the freedom of youth through the impactful influences in his life. Ward parallels Jojo's relationship with Pops through his relationship with his mom, Leonnie, as he describes Leonnie as a mother who has never “grown nothing,”(107). Ward characterizes Jojo as insightful and intuitive, indicating how impactful his mother’s instability is within the shaping of his identity. Although Jojo experiences the circumstances of abuse, he is inclined to resemble Pop, a more stable figure in his life. Which substantiates the future of Jojo through his witted choices to follow certain role-models, providing the readers with the hope of youth to correct a cycle of confined identity stemming from generational trauma. Jojo being presented as a dynamic character through his choices represents a breakthrough in society as a whole, demonstrating the opportunity to move forward from generational trauma through to younger

Jojo singing to his sister is a marker for Jojo breaking the cycle of generational trauma within his family. Through Jojo's responsibility for Kayla, the readers understand that unity is necessary for society's movement away from confinement. Kayla perceives the prisoners in Parchman as “all the birds”(125), but all Jojo sees is the men in the fields. Kayla is intuitive as she is able to see the birds, which symbolize the ghosts and people who have suffered from generational trauma. She is able to recognize the trauma people previously faced in society. Similar to how Jojo sang to her, “Kayla begins to sing,”(284) to the ghosts. Through Jojo’s guiding figure in Kayla’s childhood, she now implements his characteristics in the proceedings of society. Kayla singing to the Ghosts validates her development as a character and her understanding of generational trauma at a young age. Kayla resembles the dynamic characteristics of Jojo paralleling the past generations, in order to provide hope in society's movement away from generational trauma and confinement. On a final note, Jesmyn Ward communicates a cycle of confinement through parallel connections between