The Ghosts of the Past in Sing, Unburied, Sing
The novel Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, focuses on the struggles of a mixed family in rural Mississippi. Throughout the novel there are supernatural elements, including ghostly presences. One is Richie, a boy who died in the Parchman jail in the mid-1900s, and one is Given, Leoine's brother who died while they were both in high school. Most likely the function of these presences in Ward's novel is to illustrate how the treatment of African-Americans in the past by white people is not so different than the treatment of African-Americans in the present in the United States.
The ghost of the past in this instance is Richie. He was a teenager sent to jail when Pop was, and Pop took him under his wing almost as a son. Both of them were horribly mistreated in Parchman, made to do backbreaking labor that ruined their bodies. It all culminated with Richie's death at the end, after he's forced to run away with another inmate. A huge mob of white villagers gather, eager to hunt down a black fugitive. Pop eventually finds Richie and realizing that the white villages will tear him apart, decides to mercy kill Richie. And for this he was thanked, as it says, "the warden told me I done good" (page 256). He was viewed as righteous for inciting violence against a black person, as the white people wanted to do.
The ghost of the present is Given. He was Leonie's brother, a strong young man who had tried to fit in with the white community at his school through football. One fateful day, he is invited by his friends to go hunting in the woods. Despite the warning from his parents, he goes anyway. He does well, which angers one of the white boys he is with, and "aimed and fired, once the shot ran out" (page 49). No one stands up for him as all the other boys "scattered like roaches in the light" (page 49). He is the newest victim of racial injustice in the South, a needless death caused by white violence.
There are obvious connections between these apparitions: both are young black men, who died horrible deaths due to white violence, directly or indirectly. With Richie it was the bloodlust of a white mob that lead to his death at the hands of Pop. With Given, it was the jealousy of another white peer that led to him being shot. The main thing that separates their cases is time. Richie’s death seems so far away in the stream of time and seems like something that would never occur today and yet, Given’s death mirrors his, and it is in the present. The similarities between the cases reflect the idea that mistreatment of African Americans by the hands of whites in the South never left. It did not stop with Richie, but instead continued to include Given, and will likely never fully cease.
I completely agree with your point that the ghosts of Given and Richie represent how the mistreatment of Black Americans by White Americans continues to haunt members of the Black community, even as racism supposedly becomes “better” over time. Richie is a ghost from Pop/River’s past, representing how his experiences in Parchman traumatize him throughout his life. When Pop tells Jojo about Richie, he talks about everything but Richie’s death. Jojo says, “I’ve heard the beginning at least too many times to count. There are parts in the middle… that I’ve only heard twice. I ain’t never heard the end” (72). Pop’s depiction of Richie’s story shows how he hasn’t fully come to terms with or forgiven himself for Richie’s death. He is not able to let go of his trauma from Parchman, portraying how the cruelty shown towards Black people, even if it was decades in the past, still affects them today. Furthermore, the senseless murder of Given leads to Leonie seeing him as a ghost when she is high, showing how his death changed her and she was never fully able to deal with him being gone. This death was much more recent and is an example of how racism pervades in the U.S., especially in the Deep South, despite people’s attempts to cover it up (50). As you stated, this racism will likely “never fully cease,” which is illustrated through these ghosts that stay with Pop and Leonie.
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