I like to think I know what death is. I like to think that it’s something I could look at straight.
These are the opening sentences of Sing, Unburied, Sing. This excerpt immediately establishes the theme of death and its ubiquity throughout the novel. In the story, characters suffer in the face of death and their loved ones are left to pick up the pieces. Although Jojo thinks he understands death and other painful aspects of the human experience, he is still an innocent boy of just thirteen years old. While Jojo aims to impress Pop with his maturity, the scene that follows this shows that Jojo becomes overwhelmed when slaying a goat. This demonstrates Jojo's innocence.
There had always been bad blood between dogs and Black people: they were bred adversaries—slaves running from the slobbering hounds, and then the convict man dodging them.
Richie's quote provides additional commentary on Pop's role within the prison ecosystem. Throughout the story, Blackness is depicted as threatening and "savage." These choices in diction equate Blackness to something that must be tamed or controlled.
While imprisoned at Parchman, Pop was "promoted" to train and manage the hounds used to hunt down escaped convicts. However, this "promotion" came with additional scrutiny and suspicion on the part of the wardens. In another excerpt in the story, a white prison official expresses his hesitation towards Pop's new role, saying, "it ain't natural for a colored man to master dogs. A colored man doesn't know how to master because it ain't in him to master. The only thing [he] knows how to do is slave." Ultimately, Pop is able to protect himself amidst the violent prison system by taking on a leadership position in which he reprimands his fellow inmates.
Additionally, this quote foreshadows Richie's own death at the hands of Pop. After Richie is stabbed, he is "torn apart and eaten" by the dogs that Pop trains. Richie's quote further establishes him as an omniscient, "all-knowing" character who is able to view history from his detached perspective as a ghost. The dogs at Parchman parallel the dogs that hunted Black runaway slaves in the 19th century. In this way, Sing, Unburied, Sing traces intergenerational trauma and the continuing effects of racism. While slavery was abolished before the story's events took place, the novel shows how racism continues to shape American society.
There is a light coming through slits in one of the windows, which have been blacked out with aluminum foil. Someone is listening to country music inside, and when I put my eye to the slit, I see a shirtless man with a beard. He is tattooed, like Michael, but has shaved his head. There are tables with glass beakers and tubes and five-gallon buckets on the ground and empty cold-drink liter bottles, and I know I’ve seen this before, know that smell because when Michael built his lean-to in the woods behind Mam and Pop’s house, it looked and smelled like this.
In this excerpt, Jojo describes watching a man cook meth. The details reveal the socioeconomic conditions that often go along with meth addiction in Jojo's rural, Southern community. In addition, Jojo's tone and style of narration reflect the intergenerational consequences of addiction. Jojo witnesses his parents' drug abuse firsthand, and he learns how substances can destroy livelihoods. Both Leonie and Michael are too caught up in their addictions to pay attention to the needs of their children. Jojo's recognition of his parents' negligence prompts him to try to establish a sense of separation between himself and his parents, and he refers to them both by their first names.
I had to follow him by sound. Him talking to hisself the whole time. Not hisself. His mama. Telling her he was coming home. That he wanted her to sing for him. Sing for your son, he said. Sing.
This quote highlights the interconnectedness of the narrative. Jojo retells this memory, which is a story Pop learned from Richie. Richie originally heard these events from Blue, one of his fellow inmates at Parchman. The story travels far from its original teller, through the community and across generations. This timelessness drives the motif of singing and its recurrence throughout the novel. Ghosts sing to the living in order to process their traumas and move into different parts of the afterlife.
"That," I want to say to Misty, 'is your pretty courthouse."
While Misty and Leonie are driving, Misty expresses her eagerness to visit a beautiful courthouse in Mississippi. Leonie's comment reflects how the two characters have opposing perspectives on the criminal justice system because of their different racial backgrounds. Leonie has been failed by the system—her brother's murder was covered up by local officials, and her father was wrongfully imprisoned. While Leonie and Misty are tied together by poverty, drug addiction, and imprisonment, Misty's white privilege means that her existence is not jeopardized in the same way as Leonie's.
Sometimes I think it done changed ... and then I wake up, and it ain't changed.
When the family is pulled over by a police officer outside of Parchman, Richie warns Jojo that the officer may treat Jojo roughly or even shoot him. During Richie's existence as a ghost over the last seventy years, he has observed how race relations in the United States have ostensibly improved: children are no longer sent to Parchman, and public schools are more integrated. However, racism remains deeply rooted in the American system, and Black men are continually perceived as "threatening" in the face of legal authority. In this way, not much has changed since Richie's childhood—Jojo's life is immediately endangered when he encounters the police.
"The first thing you ever done right by your mama ... to let her go."
Leonie is able to begin processing the impending loss of her mother only when Mam is on her deathbed. As Mam lays dying, Leonie reflects on her own behavior as a daughter. She realizes that she was never particularly responsive to her parents, and she regrets how her drug addiction has caused her to neglect those she loves. One of the only times Leonie truly listens to Mam is when she collects the altar offerings. However, Jojo is unable to see the strength required in Leonie's acceptance of Mam's death.
"I washed my hands every day, Jojo. But that damn blood ain't never come out. Hold my hands up to my face, I can smell it under my skin."
Pop finally tells Jojo the details about Richie's death. When he reveals that he stabbed Richie in order to prevent him from being violently lynched, Pop vulnerably expresses the pain this decision continues to cause in him. The quote is a literary allusion to Shakespeare's Macbeth, in which Lady Macbeth compulsively washes her hands out of guilt for her murders. Despite the passage of time, Pop, like Lady Macbeth, carries an irreversible sense of guilt for the murder he committed.
As Mam talks to Jojo, she explains some wisdom shared by Pop. By the end of the story, it is clear that Jojo has learned from this lesson. Jojo exercises his autonomy and cares for himself and Kayla. However, he learns to develop compassion for Leonie instead of harboring feelings of resentment.
“I hope I fed you enough. While I'm here. So you carry it with you. Like a camel." I can hear the smile in her voice, faint. A baring of teeth. "Maybe that ain't a good way of putting it. Like a well, Jojo. Pull that water up when you need it.”
As she lays dying, Mam explains her wishes for Jojo. While she knows that Leonie hasn't been the most attentive mother, Mam hopes that she has given Jojo enough love to allow him to feel supported throughout his life. Mam's quote highlights the motif of death and its presence throughout the novel. Those who have passed on continue to exist among the living, both in their supernatural presence and in the lessons they've taught their loved ones. Although Mam is experiencing an earthly departure, her affection for Jojo is eternal.
