77 pages • 2 hours read
James McBrideSong Yet Sung
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Code
The code that the old Woman with No Name first introduces to Liz is part of a complex network of visual clues, passwords, and enigmatic phrases. As Liz moves along her journey, the meaning of each part of the code is revealed.
The code’s fragmented and confusing phrases are divided into two parts. Some are clues about how to stay safe while evading slave catchers and how to find help from those connected to the gospel train. For example, the instruction “You got to speak low” (8) turns out to be about the blacksmith: When Liz meets the blacksmith, she must speak in a whisper. Similar instructions explain how to find likeminded code-followers by drawing a crooked line in the dirt, how to find safe hiding places, how to navigate in circular paths to avoid detection, and how to find a gospel train operator.
Other code pieces direct its followers in moral quandaries. For instance, obeying the guideline “If you see wickedness and snares, you got to be a watchman to the good” (8) allows Liz to protect Amber when she knows that he is in trouble. These code segments also spell out the code’s determinism, urging its followers to accept that “Chance is an instrument of God” (10), meaning everything happens in accordance with God’s plan, so one should not despair over troubling events and situations.
The final and key part of the code is specifically intended for Liz, the “two-headed” woman who dreams prophetically. The phrase that unlocks the meaning of her visions is “And don’t mind the song, mind the singer of it. Especially the singer of the second part. Don’t nobody know that part yet” (8). The singer is revealed at the end to be Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who will incorporate the song that the old Woman sings into his famous speech before the Lincoln Memorial, during which he will complete the second part of the song and show that the future is one of hope.
The code symbolizes the community of slaves and freedmen, their commitment to keeping each other safe and aiding each other in times of need. It also represents the promise of freedom and hope for the future.
Groups of Five
Five is always the starting point of a coded message, many of which are secretly communicated throughout the novel. What is the symbolism of five? Because most people are born with five fingers on each hand, people often count in fives. In developing a code that can be understood quickly and visually, it makes sense that the starting point would be five.
Often, incomplete sets of five indicate that people are on the run or missing. The quilt Mary sets out has the pattern of a five-pointed star on it, but only three of the stars are completed. When the mail boat hands need to silently send a message to Clarence under the watchful eye of a white captain, they stack barrels of goods five high and then reduce the pile to three. They then tie two knots tie down the barrels, then add a third knot, and a fourth. Clarence eyes the stack, then adds a fifth knot. One hand looks it over, then undoes two knots, as if he has decided that only three were needed. Clarence brings this message to the blacksmith, by arranging ax handles in groups of five, then taking two away. The blacksmith hammers in a pattern of five rings, then five more, then two, then two more. When Liz rubs her fingers across the five knots that the Woolman tied into the rope on the sack her gave her, she feels the premonition that two people are missing as she touches the fifth knot.
The Wild Eastern Shore of Maryland
The novel’s inhospitable setting symbolizes the challenges faced by the characters. It is an isolated place with extreme weather, which can produce deprivation. The swamps, forests, and thickets are complex and difficult, making it a place that does not welcome outsiders. The Chesapeake River and Blackwater Creek are challenging to navigate. As a result, the watermen in the story, including Denwood, are hardened, tough people.
The weather itself appears hostile at many points in the story, symbolizing adversity and danger. Heavy rain impedes characters as they are attempting to travel from place to place. When Tolley comes to Denwood to ask him to search for Liz, Tolley sees the storm approaching as a sign of Liz’s witchcraft. Kathleen sees the wind rising from the northwest as a sign of trouble coming. As Denwood rides to the Indian burial ground with Amber, he notices animals hurrying to complete a last-minute forage, indicating to him that a severe storm is approaching.
Indian Burial Ground
The Indian burial ground symbolizes a place of uncertainty and potential danger, despite the fact that characters use it as a safe place. Amber hides Liz in a hollow tree there, arguing that it is a good hiding spot because no one goes there. However, this reasoning alludes to the place’s unsettling nature: The Indians who lived there built a wall to keep out evil spirits, which means they feared otherworldly attacks, and no one settles the land because there is a constant threat of flooding. Liz never feels safe there, even though Amber tries to reassure her, and eventually Patty Cannon discovers them.
The burial ground also ties into the symbolism of the song that the old Woman with No Name sings to Liz—the key to understanding Liz’s journey, and the actual “song yet sung” of the novel’s title. Lyrics from the spiritual “Free at Last” contain the lines, “Way down yonder in the graveyard walk/Me and my Jesus going to meet and talk.” The Indian burial ground symbolizes that “graveyard walk” that Liz must pass through to find her salvation as she makes her dangerous journey.
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By James McBride
