The Importance of 3 Narrators in Sing, Unburied, Sing

In Ward's novel Sing, Unburied, Sing there are three narrators who share with us their feelings on the road trip to pick up Micheal after his three year sentence at Parchman. These three narrators differ in gender, age, and emotional stability, but are able to give the reader insight as to how they handle grief, stress, and trauma. 

We first hear the perspective of Jojo, a 13 year old biracial child who acts as the primary caregiver to his toddler sister Kayla. By hearing Jojo's thoughts through a first person narrative, the reader is able to grasp how Jojo exudes maturity despite his young age. It is through Jojo that we first learn of how heinous of a character his mother Leonie truly is. Jojo and Leonie's relationship is not like most mother-son relationships. We learn from Jojo that he actually doesn't even refer to his mother as mom, but simply calls her Leonie. Through this action the reader can understand Jojo's emotional maturity that he can realize that his mother does not deserve to be called mother, and she should just be addressed by her name. Without the first person account of the first time that Jojo called his mother Leonie, the reader may not fully take in the strain of the relationship between the two. 

After Jojo introduces us briefly to the horrors of Leonie, we are introduced to her perspective. We soon find out that Leonie is consumed with grief over the loss of her brother Given, and she has never fully recovered or healed from his death. Leonie, an avid druggie, recalls how she can see Given at certain points in time (its unclear whether his entrance is drug induced, but I personally don't believe his presence is affected by her drug use). It can be debated that Leonie's monstrous personality can be explained by the fact that she has never healed from Given's murder, but her own words show how she is just an evil, self centered, awful human being. For example, after body shamming Jojo, Leonie exclaims, "It feels good to be mean, to speak past the baby I can't hit and let that anger touch another" (147). Leonie has an awful mindset about how to be a mother, and constantly disappoints the reader with her attitude towards her children. 

It is clearly evident that the only important part of Leonie's life is her boyfriend Micheal (the father of her children), and everyone else she treats with no respect. But then we are introduced to a new narrator, Richie, who was a prisoner at Parchman when Pop was an inmate, a long long time ago. At first I wondered why Richie was included as a narrator in this story. We knew that Pop had been telling Jojo the story of Richie, and has explained that Richie died during his time at Parchman, but I thought the choice to include Richie's perspective in the novel was interesting. We soon learn that as a ghost Richie does not remember his death, and is unable to rest not knowing what happened to him. Richie believes that finding Pop will allow him to finally be able to rest and return home. Richie's connection to Jojo lies in Richie's relationship with Pop. Throughout the novel, Pop and Jojo bond while Pop recalls the stories of Richie in parchman. When we find out that Pop was actually the person who killed Richie, his choice of narration in the novel makes perfect sense. By allowing the reader to analyze the perspective of three characters, Ward helps the audience understand how multiple individuals deal with grief and pain, and how they handle grave moments in their lives. We can grasp the complexity of each character while being from the same background despite differences in gender, age, and mental state.