Addiction is a disease and a powerful one at that. It comes with a feeling of need for whatever the person is addicted to which is oftentimes damaging to the addict’s loved ones. This is shown in Leonie’s character in Sing, Unburied, Sing as readers see how her two addictions, drugs and Micheal, affect her children throughout the novel.
One of the earliest examples of Leonie’s drug addiction affecting others is seen on page 51 when she does cocaine while she is pregnant with Kayla. She even states that she knows she should not do the drugs but does it anyway. She goes on to state, “I couldn’t help wanting to feel the coke go up my nose, shoot straight to my brain, and burn up all the sorrow and despair I felt of Micheal being gone” (Ward, 51). The quote makes it evident Leonie is using drugs as a coping method when something goes wrong in her life and that she is prioritizing the feeling they bring her over the health of her child. She is aware she should not do it because she is pregnant but does it anyway because of this compulsion she feels towards doing drugs to forget.
We also see her have a similar compulsion towards Micheal. At the end of page 148 Leonie says she and Micheal are high then on the top of 149 says, “It’s the drugs but then it’s not the drugs.” This implies that they are high off of each other. Leonie continues throughout the book to put the children in traumatic situations for Micheal, such as when the two take the kids to see Micheal’s parents. Leonie in the beginning clearly knows this is not a good idea but gives in anyway because she wishes to please Micheal. Things do not go well and the kids end up hearing their grandpa make very racist comments and even watch their father get in a physical fight with his father. Leonie knows that she should leave and yet she does not. Eventually, she does take the kids out of the house and they wait in the car (Ward, 198-211). By the time the kids are taken out of the house the damage is already done and Leonie does not check in with them to see how they are. The moment is through her point of view and she spends most of it concerned for Micheal. It is inevitable for this to have an effect on these young children and Leonie yet again puts her addiction over her kids.
Leonie’s addiction depiction seems to be accurate throughout the novel. Many who have an addiction will find the thing they are addicted to more important than the people around them. This is seen in how addicts interact with their loved ones just like how we see Leonie act with her children.
I believe this is a great start to a discussion on addiction presented by Jesmyn Ward in Sing, Unburied, Sing using the character, Leonie. As we see, this discussion highlights Leonie, a character who portrays a mother, as someone presenting characteristics mothers are discouraged from portraying in society such as prioritizing her love life, Michael, and material objects such as her drugs over their children. I’d like to add that we should also consider the point of view the author gives the reader through Leonie’s first-person narrative which constructs this idea; which I believe: Ward’s commentary on addiction in Sing, Unburied, Sing is not about addiction but about being parched. In other words, the novel highlights Leonie’s addiction as a means to discuss the characters as lacking an essential to living. Leonie; and there are other characters, who grow thirsty (literal and figurative) for something they lack. Primarily, I’d like to look at the allusions to the supernatural, and Leonie’s own comments and feelings while intoxicated by drugs.
ReplyDeleteWhen Leonie’s perspective is introduced for the first time in the novel, Ward gives us the information that Leonie sees her dead older brother, Given, whenever she inhales a drug (34). Which after reading Richie’s perspective (another spiritual character) on Chapter 6, I am convinced, was written to express the relationship and closeness between the thirst for the unattainable and death.
This analogy is presented more thoroughly in Leonie’s pursuit for a “perfect” relationship with Michael, as she even dreams of the two of them together with their kids on a raft. Only they are all drowning, presenting her image of the four of them being unattainable. Leonie’s intimate interactions with Michael are also presented with juxtaposition. Leonie declares that she felt like a “dich dusty dry” and the next moment how with Michael it is like “heavy spring rain” (149). However, this becomes closer to the description of death and is related to an analogy of death because she describes it is like “a flood” and that she is “drowned” (149) which continues to demonstrate the relationship between the thirst for the unattainable and death.