Like Jesmyn Ward and much of our AP English IV class, I've grown up in the Deep South. While reading Ward's novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing, I consistently questioned how the plot, characters, and overall vibe of the novel could be different if it was, in fact, not set in Mississippi. I decided that the story would not be as developed and well-written if it did not imitate the economically shot, rural surroundings in which Ward's characters exist: those of the Deep South.
One significant parallel I drew between my growing up in New Orleans and Ward's novel was that of supernatural intervention. I remember being around 10 years- old when my grandmother brought me to see the infamous Marie Laveau's tomb in St. Louis I cemetery. There were marks all around it with fresh paint, where people had just asked for some sort of voodoo salvation. That, among the seemingly thousands of ghost tours held in the city I'd learned about soon after, evoked an eerie feeling in me. Therefore, since my childhood, I've come to understand that New Orleans and therefore, the South surrounding it, has an eerie tone unlike anywhere else. This strangeness and uniqueness is deeply rooted in its (our) history, just as Jesmyn Ward reflects throughout her novel.
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I wholeheartedly agree that the characters would be vastly different if the story hadn't been set in the South. I also think that the entire novel--its plot, characters, and themes--would have gone in an entirely different direction had Jesmyn Ward not been from Mississippi herself. Without her firsthand experience with the topics she addresses, such as poverty, racism, and bad parenting, her characters would not as seem so deeply realistic and complex.
For example, Gabby mentioned her experience with voodoo in New Orleans. Many characters in the novel experience the supernatural or are at least somewhat superstitious. Pop gives Jojo a gris-gris bag before he goes on the road trip for good luck. Mam knows traditional (or supernatural) herbal remedies and voodoo rituals. Leonie, Jojo, and Kayla see ghosts when no one else can. These supernatural elements are not entirely foreign to me, a person who has been exposed to the culture of New Orleans since the day I was born. The characters seem familiar to me, and they must be that way to Jesmyn Ward as well--otherwise she would not have succeeded in writing them so realistically. I imagine that a person from a different area of the country would have a more difficult time relating to the supernatural elements of the novel--nowhere has the same feel as the Gulf Coast.
I think Gabby brings up a very interesting and important point about how the novel would not work if it was not set in the deep south. Overall, I believe it shows how even today there is a major divide between what we consider the North and the South. The North tends to move at a much faster pace, tending to live in the present and focus more on the future, while having relatively loose ties to the past. Meanwhile, the South tends to hold on to their traditions and value their heritage much more, and the past effects us to a much larger degree, for better or for worse. As Gabby and Lainey brought up, this sense of mysticism and the supernatural is still especially prevalent and is a constant part of our lives. Whether it be voodoo, ghosts, spirits, or gathering herbs to concoct home made medicines, the supernatural is much more common place in the culture of the South than it every could be in the North. On the other hand, its difficult for the South to let go of the past, including their ancestors racists views. Both of these things come through strongly in "Sing, Unburied, Sing", and it would be impossible for these qualities to exist if the story wasn't set in the deep south.
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