Symbolism In Sing, Unburied, Sing By Jesmyn Ward

In the book, we follow the mind of a 13-year-old boy named Jojo, a drug addict mother named Leonie, and a ghost of a child named Richie. Throughout the book, we learn about the many characters and their pasts. Jojo, his little sister Kayla, Leonie, and her friend Misty go to Parchman jail to pick up Micheal, Leonie’s boyfriend. Parchman is known for their harsh treatment towards prisoners and this is where Richie died. During this ride from the prison to back home, we learn about the secrets the family keeps from each other and about past events that connect to current events. In the book “Sing, Unburied, Sing” by Jesmyn Ward, symbolism is used to portray unresolved trauma to emphasize how it influences the characters.

Leonie has faced traumatic

Blood was a symbol used a lot when talking about Pop. When Pop finnaly opens up about Richies death to Jojo he tries to reason his actions to why he killed Richie. He says, “(255) “They was going to come for that boy and cut him piece from piece till he was just some bloody, soft, screaming thing, and then they was going to string him up from a tree” Pop looks at me. Every piece of him aquiver. He wasn’t nothing but a boy, Jojo. They kill animals better than that.” This shows how opening up an unhealed wound makes a character vulnerable because Pop was introduced as a very tough and brave character but is now being shown as emotional. Then Pop talks about after Richies death and about the pang of guilt and trauma that followed him afterwards. The symbolicness of blood is that it represents how guilt followed Pop as time moved on and he tried to wash of the blood, in other words forget about what happended, but can’t seem to forget. Pop says, “(256) “...Smelled it when the warden told me I’d done good. Smelled it the day they let me out on account I’d led the dogs that caught and killed Richie.” ” This show how Pop actually benefited from killing Richie, it may have even been part of his plan to kill him so he could escape the prison. This is a wound that never heals for Pop and turns him into a strong character that doesn’t get emotional infront of others, like he is afraid that those around him would find out about Richie and would turn away from Pop. The imense guilt Pop feels from this traumatic event shaped his character making him a reserved person, never presenting himself as emotional and