Cooking (Motif)
Cooking reappears throughout the novel, signifying a desire for love, comfort, and nourishment. Jojo and Kayla are constantly hungry and develop positive associations with anyone that feeds them. Jojo is fond of Pop, who farms and cooks for the family. Jojo is also quick to like Al, Michael's lawyer, because he offers him spaghetti when Jojo first arrives at his house. However, cooking quickly takes on another meaning in the story. Leonie and Michael often cook meth, which signifies how their addiction overrides their parental responsibilities.
Animals (Motif)
The novel opens with Pop instructing Jojo on how to butcher a goat. From this moment, we understand Jojo's loss of innocence—Pop has decided that it is time for Jojo to take on some of the less glamorous household activities and better understand his painful family history. As the story progresses, animals reappear: a hog jumps in front of Michael's car, a serpent-bird guides Richie, and dogs are a part of Pop's past.
Throughout the history of the West, animals have been seen as instruments to be used or dangers to managed—either way as something "Other" than human. This categorization exemplifies how humans have created a hierarchical system in order to validate their own superiority. This hierarchical organization is an integral part of civil society. In order to establish power, certain populations have been oppressed so others can advance. Animalistic language has been used to describe Blackness in order to depict Black people as "subhuman" and justify legal oppression. Ward prompts us to critically consider this hatred. She uses the motif of animals to highlight the interconnectedness and mutual responsibility shared across all life forms.
Gris-gris bag (Symbol)
A gris-gris bag is a voodoo amulet with origins in Africa. The gris-gris bag is believed to protect the wearer from misfortune and bring about good luck. On the way to Parchman, Jojo discovers a gris-gris bag that his grandparents have given him without his prior knowledge. It is significant that Jojo uncovers the gris-gris bag at this moment in the story: as he drives with Leonie, Jojo is outside of his comfort zone and faced with adversity.
In Sing, Unburied, Sing, the gris-gris bag represents the family's cultural and spiritual origins. Mam and Pop are deeply connected to ancestral spiritual tradition, and they transit these rituals to the next generation. The gris-gris bag signifies that even if Mam and Pop are not physically with Jojo, they continue to love and protect him. This foreshadows the message that Mam tells Jojo as she lays dying. Mam vows to continue to care for Jojo even when she is no longer earth-side.
Prison (Symbol)
While Parchman is a physical place, its power transcends its structure. Parchman entraps its prisoners in a powerful psychology that continues to shape prisoners long after they've been freed. Both Richie and Pop are haunted by their experiences at Parchman, and they carry their traumas with them, whether in their life (as for Pop) or in their afterlife (as for Richie). Parchman symbolizes the trauma that is embedded into the Black experience.
Vomiting (Motif)
Numerous characters are shown vomiting throughout the story. On the way to Parchman, Kayla vomits from her fever. Later, Jojo forces Kayla to vomit after she has consumed Leonie's makeshift herbal remedy. On their return from the prison, Leonie is forced to vomit in order to rid herself from the large quantity of meth she swallowed. Later, Pop recounts a memory in which he describes Richie vomiting after he was whipped in the Parchman fields. In all of these examples, vomiting can be interpreted as the characters attempting to purge toxic influences. This toxicity comes as a direct result of the character's racial and socioeconomic status. In this way, Ward highlights the noxious condition of a population abandoned by an unjust sociopolitical system.
