Moving on from the Past: A Difficult Task

     Grief lingers throughout Sing, Unburied, Sing. The first and most prominent example of this is the death of Given. None of the family properly grieves his death so it festers like an untreated wound for years after his passing. Pop also has a clear issue dealing with what he had to do to Richie and in the conclusion of the book the tree full of ghosts cannot move on until Kayla sings to them. These all are examples of how difficult it is to move on from the past. 

For Leonie, her grief for Given lingers as a physical manifestation every time she gets high. Given stands still and simply stares at Leonie when she chooses to partake in these self-destructive habits. Leonie feels guilty about the path of life she has gone down and feels as if she has let her brother down in some way. In another way, her relationship with Michael is also a constant reminder of the death of her brother. He is the direct cousin of the person who murdered Given, and they only started their relationship because she was grieving and needed support to latch on to. Lastly, her own son Jojo bears a physical resemblance to her brother. All these reminders of her brother make it that much more difficult for her to fully accept his death and move on from it. It’s not until the death of her mother that Leonie can finally stop seeing Given. It is unclear if she has completely cut herself off from her family or has accepted both of their deaths. 

Pop has had to live with the weight of what he did to Richie his entire life. When telling the ending of the story to Jojo, Pop says, “I washed my hands every day, Jojo. But that damn blood ain’t never come out.” Pop thought the death of his son Given was going to drown out the guilt of what he did but it didn’t. Pop tells Jojo that he was the only thing that ever could ease the way he felt. After this, Pop breaks down like a child in Jojo’s arms. A man who is normally a stiff pillar of traditional masculinity can let his grief out in the hands of his grandson. 

At the conclusion of the novel, the tree full of ghosts initially do not want to move on. Jojo looks into their eyes and can see the terrible ways they died. The traumas of raping, beating, and lynching represent a horrifying past that seems impossible to move on from. That is until Kayla sings a melody that puts all the ghosts into ease. It’s almost as if they understand something she’s trying to say, and it reassures them all. The book ends with the line, “Home, they say. Home.” The next generation represents such a strong hope for the future that the traumas of the past can be accepted at the promise of a better tomorrow.