

The day is subdued: Jojo’s grandmother (Mam) is dying of cancer, and his mother ( Leonie) is addicted to drugs. GradeSaver, 16 April 2021 Web.In the fictional southern Mississippi town of Bois Sauvage, a biracial boy named Jojo celebrates his 13th birthday. Next Section Land and Regionality in Sing Unburied Sing Previous Section Irony Buy Study Guide How To Cite in MLA Format Samsa, B. This scene is riddled with powerful visual imagery, and it emphasizes that drug addiction breeds destruction. He swings his arms "like a windmill" and punches the television until it is smashed to pieces. At the home where the meth is cooked, Jojo meets a child who has violent tendencies. When Leonie takes Jojo to pick up meth with Misty, Jojo meets some eccentric characters. Her scalp shows the vulnerabilities of the human body, and Jojo realizes that her time left on earth is limited. He observes that her scalp is "pale and blue-veined, hollowed and dimpled, imperfect as a potter's bowl." Jojo sees that Mam is weak and her body is succumbing to the pressures of the cancer. Jojo looks at Mam's scalp while she lay sick in bed. At the beginning of the story, Jojo explains that he is scared by being alone in the "too quiet house" when he is confronted by "a man singing, singing in a high voice that sounded all wrong, singing the same words over and over." Although Jojo is slightly unsettled by the tone of the voice, the singing signifies a sense of comfort and interconnectedness. Singing is a motif that recurs throughout the novel.

Killing the goat somewhat scars Jojo, and it foreshadows that he will be forced to confront other grisly events as the story proceeds.

He must "pull the skin down the animal's leg to the foot, but can't get it off like Pop, so he cuts and snaps." This scene uses tactile imagery in order to convey the difficulty and brutality involved in taking the goat's life. When Jojo helps Pop kill the goat, he must perform some gruesome butchering tasks. Buy Study Guide Killing the Goat (Tactile Imagery)
