Familiarity and family dynamics in Sing, Unburied, Sing.

 One of the key subjects of the novel Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward is the complexity of family dynamics, especially the idea of a dysfunctional family structure. Here, Jojo and Kayla’s mother Leonie struggles with addiction and severely neglects the responsibility of raising her children. Mam and Pop, Leonie’s parents, take on many of the duties that were required in the upbringing of Jojo, Leonie’s oldest child, however, once Mam becomes bedridden due to cancer, the task of raising Kayla falls on Jojo, Kayla’s brother. Jojo, only thirteen, holds a large amount of responsibility, yet does not take care of his younger sister begrudgingly. The lack of attention and care given to him by Leonie, his mother, leads him to want to provide the opposite for his sister, and he raises her in an extremely protective and loving manner. The contrast between Jojo’s method of parenting his younger sister and his mother’s lack of maternal care is evident in the way they describe Kayla, the baby of the family, and her characteristics. For example, at the beginning of the novel, Jojo recounts a homey familial scene, in which Pop, his father figure, cooks in the kitchen- “as the smell of onions and garlic, bell pepper, and celery cooked in butter clouds the air, Kayla rises and falls, her arms and legs flung out, her eyes shining” (Ward 20). The images of classic comfort ingredients described by Jojo give a sense of comfortability, coziness, and warmth to the scene, and Kayla is present in the middle of it all. The smells of the food are well known to Jojo, common and comforting in the midst of his dysfunctional upbringing, and he is familiar with them, just as he is the most closely connected with Kayla, familiar with her every behavior and characteristic. He is able to latch onto Kayla, to put caring for her at the forefront of his mind, so that he focuses less on what negativity surrounds him. Jojo sees Kayla as the deserving center of all of his attention and familial love. On the other hand, Leonie, Kayla’s mother, has little familiarity with either of her children, but especially Kayla. She calls her daughter Michaela, rather than the nickname given to her, and has essentially no part in caring for her, hence Jojo’s stepping into the parental role. Leonie describes her perspective of Kayla when they’ve gone to visit Michael’s parents, Jojo and Kayla’s paternal grandparents, saying, “she looks at Maggie with her beautiful green eyes, and then I realize those are Maggie’s eyes, too, and I squeeze Michael’s hand, and my children seem strangers” (Ward 205). Maggie is Michael’s mother- essentially, Leonie’s mother in law- however, because of Big Joseph’s extreme racism, the families are estranged and have little to no contact. In comparing Kayla to Maggie through their appearance, Leonie demonstrates her lack of familiarity even with her own daughter. It seems as though she is seeing her daughter for the first time. This is the complete opposite of Jojo’s relationship with Kayla, as he takes note of and attends to her constantly. Here, Jojo versus Leonie’s description of Kayla reflect the disparity between their familiarity with her, resulting from their differing roles in their family structure, one as caretaker, and one neglectful.