A Universal Language

    In Jesmyn Ward’s novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing, Ward weaves an intricate narrative of young Jojo and his family in the Deep South of Mississippi. With a volatile drug addict of a mother, an incarcerated biological father, and a three-year-old sister to look after, Jojo’s parental guides become both his grandparents and his own empathy. One pillar that makes Ward’s novel stick out in particular, is the incorporation of both the natural and supernatural world to progress the plot and allude to systemic patterns within society. One such way she does this is through Jojo’s ability to understand animals. The reader is quickly clued into Jojo’s communicative ability at the beginning of the book as Jojo tags along to help his grandfather, Pop, slaughter a goat. As the two make their way to the goat pen, Jojo can understand the horse Pop keeps and the pigs in their sty. However, this ability does not take lightly to Jojo and Jojo is not the only character to possess it, “It scared me to understand them, to hear them. Because Stag did that, too,” (14-15). Stag is the brother of Pop who does not get much mention within the novel. The only information the reader knows about Stag is that he was mentally altered by his time at Parchman prison in his youth. This ability, possessed by Stag as well, projects the larger idea that animals are a universal language that all humans speak. Although the voices are not in the heads of all characters, animals resemble the quiet, steady, innocent strength of an individual life. 

    Additionally, Jojo’s ability to understand animals extends his sense of empathy. He is the primary caretaker of Kayla, and despite her limited ability of communication, Jojo can understand her as if she spoke to him in her head. Similarly, before Jojo departs to get his father, Michael, from prison, he gives Pop a hug and then when looking at Pop thinks, “The only animal I saw in front of me was Pop, … his pleading eyes the only thing that spoke to me in that moment and told me what he said without words: I love you boy, I love you,” (61). Ward not only connects humans and animals through Jojo’s ability to understand them directly but relates that in our core we are animals too. This overlap of animal and human life becomes a powerful statement by Ward. Piecing together the innocence of animal life and the relation of humans as animals prompts the reader to consider the cruelties done by one human onto another, especially regarding race in Sing, Unburied, Sing. The reader is left to sift through generations of a history focused on domestication. If one can silence the bark, and muzzle the bite, then what can rise above?