Simile in Sing, Unburied, Sing: Dogs as a Symbol of Innocence and of Racial Hierarchy in the South

    Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward is an immensely poetic literary work, with similes featured on nearly every page. A majority of these similes are animal comparisons, which compare characters to different animals; dogs are one type of animal that characters are frequently compared to. In Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing, through the use of repeated simile and comparison, dogs serve as a symbol of either vulnerability and innocence or as a symbol of the racial hierarchy and power dynamic between races in the south.

    Ward compares a character to a dog or puppy when she is trying to highlight that character's vulnerability or innocence in a situation. For example, when Kayla wakes up Jojo on the couch, Jojo describes, “Kayla laughs, bright and yellow and shiny as a puppy that just got the knack of running without tripping over her own legs” (Ward 223). A puppy learning how to run is the epitome of innocence. Kayla is a similar symbol of innocence throughout the novel. Jojo is always trying to preserve Kayla’s innocence by protecting her from their parents’ abuse and by assuming the nurturing mother role for Kayla. Another example can be found during Mam’s death scene. When describing Richie, Mam says, “Vengeful as a beat dog” (Ward 264). A beat dog is both vulnerable and pitiable. Similarly, Richie is continually pitied throughout the novel, especially by Pop. Richie was robbed of his innocence due to poverty and prejudice. Comparing him to a beat dog conveys both his vulnerability, and the abuse he suffered as a result of racism. 

    When characters are affected by racism and the unbalanced power dynamic in the south, Ward will often compare them to a dog. For example, when Richie postulates why his spirit was trapped at Parchman, he says, “ [Parchman] was a sort of home: terrible and formative as the iron leash that chains dogs” (Ward 191). Here, Richie poses an analogy: himself relating to a dog and Parchamn to an iron leash. Parchman continually reinforces racism and racial power dynamics through different criteria of admittance for black and white offenders, and the disparity in the positions white and black offenders hold. Parchman dehumanized Richie to the likeness of a dog.

    Ultimately, the two symbols that dogs convey in Sing, Unburied, Sing create a link between power dynamics, racism, and innocence. Essentially, experiencing racism causes a loss of innocence for children and a thrusting into the hatefulness of the real world. Being black in the south makes people vulnerable, regardless of age and associated innocence. For example, when Richie and Blue escape Parchman, the white society members brutally murder Blue and intend to inflict the same inhumane death on Richie. Pop recounts, “They was going to do the same to him [...] He wasn’t nothing but a boy, Jojo. They kill animals better than that” (Ward 255). This demonstrates how divisive race was in the south during this time period, and the power white people wielded over black people.