The conditions in which the inmates were worked, was as terrifying and brutal as slaves had to endure on plantation farms. Even though slaves in the South were technically freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1861, how did Parchman Prison reflect a re-enslavement of African-American men? The inmates at Parchman were overworked in harsh conditions, many in the fields, some like Pap (Riv) worked with the dogs. Why did Pap feel that it was necessary to mercy kill Richie and then pretend the dogs got him? Pap felt some sort of responsibility over Richie since he is older and larger than him, and he wanted to protect him from being brutally murdered in front of the people in Parchman out of respect for Richie. Describe the relationship between Pap and Richie at Parchman. The ritual with the cemetery stones was necessary for Mam to pass away, along with the singing and release of Given to the other world as well. Kayla then joins all of them in the room where Mam is dying, and Leonie comes in with the stones from the cemetery. Given was in the room with Mam, while Jojo and Pap were outside, where Pap had just explained Richie's story to Jojo. Where were Given, Leonie, Jojo, Pap, and Kayla before, during and after she died? What rituals were necessary for her to let go of the pain of cancer and die? Mam's death was the climax of the story, because this is where everything in the story that seemed to fluctuate and get very dramatic. Didn't nothing come close to easing it until you came along.'Īfter Michael apologized for his cousin's 'hunting accident' (and by extension, his sheriff father's cover up), what was Leonie and Michael's first date? Fishing Describe Mam's death. Drove me blind, made me so crazy I couldn't speak. When Given died, I thought I'd drown in it. Smelled it when I made it home in the middle of the night, smelled it over the sour smell of the bayou and the salt smell of the sea, smelled it years later when I climbed into bed with Philomene, put my nose in your grandmother's neck, and breathed her in like the scent of her could wash the other away. Smelled it when I finally found his mama after weeks of searching, just so I could tell her Richie was dead and she could look at me with a stone face and shut the door on me. Smelled it the day they let me out on account I'd led the dog that caught and killed Richie. Smelled it when the warden told me I'd done good. They'd torn his throat out, hamstrung him. Smelled it when the warden and sergeant cam up on us, the dogs yipping and licking blood from they muzzles. Hold my hands up to my face, I can smell it under my skin.

But that damn blood ain't never come out.

Sing unburied sing