Ward's characters in Sing, Unburied, Sing are a perfect reflection of real people with real life experiences. They are brought together by their circumstances, but their experiences and how they are shaped by them makes them each very different characters. Still, the biggest thing that separates these characters is the idea of home.
Leonie doesn't have a clear or healthy idea of home. She finds home in both her addiction to drugs and especially in her addiction to Michael. She finds home in her addiction to drugs because it is the only way she can see her brother, who is the person she most likely finds a healthy home in the most before he dies. Even more so, she finds home in her addiction to drugs, because it is what connects her to her addiction to Michael even when he isn't there. This only feeds her addiction to Michael, so he becomes the only person she can really find home in. “I could lie like this forever… my kids silenced, not even there… him writing his name one me, claiming me…. I’m already home” (153). For Jojo, home is the place he lives. Since he is still young, he doesn't understand the idea of finding home in someone else, and he doesn't recognize the fact that in a way he finds home in Mam, Pop, and Kayla. This is clear when he says, "I wanted to tell Pop I didn't want to go, that I wanted me and Kayla to stay home" (60). It is also clear in the fact that Richie feels the need to tell him, “There’s things you think you know that you don’t…. Home ain’t always about a place” (182). Richie is the character that truly carries the idea of home throughout the novel. After he says it in to Riv in a flashback, he continues to repeat the phrase to Jojo, “I’m going home” (126). He relates Riv to home as Riv was his only real father figure and when he finds Jojo he believes that finding Riv will bring him home as he repeats, “I’m going home” (131). He also relates home to water as he always talks to Riv about seeing the water, and the reader discovers that it is a river that carries souls over to the other side when Mam passes. Finally, as a lost spirit Riv also relates home to a song. “Home is about the earth. Whether the earth open up to you. Whether it pull you so close the space between you and it melt and y’all one and it beats like your heart…. A song. The place is the song and I’m going to be part of the song.” This doesn’t make much sense at first, but in the end when Kayla leads the spirits with her song, it is clear that the song she knows is the one that can set them free and lead them home as Jojo hears them say, “Home” (285).
Leonie doesn't have a clear or healthy idea of home. She finds home in both her addiction to drugs and especially in her addiction to Michael. She finds home in her addiction to drugs because it is the only way she can see her brother, who is the person she most likely finds a healthy home in the most before he dies. Even more so, she finds home in her addiction to drugs, because it is what connects her to her addiction to Michael even when he isn't there. This only feeds her addiction to Michael, so he becomes the only person she can really find home in. “I could lie like this forever… my kids silenced, not even there… him writing his name one me, claiming me…. I’m already home” (153). For Jojo, home is the place he lives. Since he is still young, he doesn't understand the idea of finding home in someone else, and he doesn't recognize the fact that in a way he finds home in Mam, Pop, and Kayla. This is clear when he says, "I wanted to tell Pop I didn't want to go, that I wanted me and Kayla to stay home" (60). It is also clear in the fact that Richie feels the need to tell him, “There’s things you think you know that you don’t…. Home ain’t always about a place” (182). Richie is the character that truly carries the idea of home throughout the novel. After he says it in to Riv in a flashback, he continues to repeat the phrase to Jojo, “I’m going home” (126). He relates Riv to home as Riv was his only real father figure and when he finds Jojo he believes that finding Riv will bring him home as he repeats, “I’m going home” (131). He also relates home to water as he always talks to Riv about seeing the water, and the reader discovers that it is a river that carries souls over to the other side when Mam passes. Finally, as a lost spirit Riv also relates home to a song. “Home is about the earth. Whether the earth open up to you. Whether it pull you so close the space between you and it melt and y’all one and it beats like your heart…. A song. The place is the song and I’m going to be part of the song.” This doesn’t make much sense at first, but in the end when Kayla leads the spirits with her song, it is clear that the song she knows is the one that can set them free and lead them home as Jojo hears them say, “Home” (285).
I think the way you differentiate between characters through the idea of home is very interesting and also spot on. Throughout the novel there have been many references to home as not a physical place but rather a state of belonging. I think the best instance of this can be seen in Michael and Leonie's relationship. "I know what he is saying, like the birds I hear honking and flying south in the winter, like any other animal. I'm coming home." (Ward, 30). The main journey that takes place in the novel is centered around bringing Michael home from prison. It is not until Leonie, Misty, Jojo, Michaela and Michael return from prison when we learn that the idea of home is not, "...always about a place." (182). When Michael and Leonie do make it to their physical home of Mam and Pop's, they end up spending more time away from the house for the majority of days in the week and instead regularly use drugs and stay together. Leonie is constantly dreaming of an apartment or home where she and Michael can live in luxury. She believes home is a physical place and it is this misconception of home that leads to her neglecting the people around her who represent what home really is.
ReplyDeleteA little disagreement with the post is that I believe for Leonie, home is her mother. When she got high from swallowing a bag of crack and lied on Michael's lap in the car, she "wish it was Mama's lap" (167). When her mom said the word baby while she was dying, Leonie felt that "it's the word baby that makes me jump off the bed. Because I hear her say it now and I'm her baby again, soft gummed and wet-eyed and fat, and she is whole and sweet milked." (267) Leonie was never prepared to be a mother, nor a wife. She was a baby that need to be loved and petted. That is why she was so angry after her mother die. Her home could also be Given, as she did drugs just to see him. Both of them went away when Mama died. Since then Leonie became "homeless" - she would only do drugs and not come home.
ReplyDeleteI agree that people's ideas of home are different. Even though the livings might found their home, thousands of dead do not know where their home was. I believe the figure of the home is not only a place where they belong but a place to find justice for these people's death and let them rest in peace.