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Kim JohnsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Time is an important motif throughout the text. Tracy states in the opening line of the text: “Time runs my life. A constant measuring of what’s gone and what’s to come” (3). This preoccupation with time began with the wrongful conviction of her father, and increases the closer time draws to her father’s execution date. Tracy’s concerns about time and its implications for her father’s death directly affects her life. She has trouble focusing on what she wants in her life beyond her father’s release. Tracy finds herself unable to focus on her own future goals or plans because she feels suspended in liminality since Daddy’s conviction and sentencing. Tracy remains hyper-present because each day that passes is one day closer to her father’s execution date. It is not until the end of the text that the binds of time release Tracy and her family: “It’s over. The clock has stopped. We can stop living our life counting the days, counting the time between Saturday and Monday visits” (384). With her father’s freedom secured, Tracy and her family are free as well.
After Daddy’s incarceration, the Beaumont family kept his beloved Buick as a symbol of hope for his release. As the years of his imprisonment progressed, the car remained “hitched under a tree and tarped away with layers of filth—seven years deep” (39). The seven years’ worth of filth symbolizes not only the amount of time that has passed, but also the difficulty of holding onto hope.
When Tracy suggests selling the Buick, she realizes the gravity of what she has just said: “The words come out before I can stop them. I know we’d never sell the Bu. Even when money’s tight. Because selling it means giving up on Daddy ever coming home. And if he ever does, Mama wants one thing that hasn’t changed, so he won’t have a constant reminder of the years taken away from him” (40). This, too, is symbolic of the effects of incarceration—how time continues to pass and that upon re-entry to the outside world one confronts the way things have changed. When Daddy is released, his family presents him with the Buick “polished clean, parked on the side of the courthouse in a private spot” (386). No longer encrusted in grime, the Buick’s shine symbolizes the hope of freedom coming to fruition.
The burning cross put on the Beaumont’s front lawn is a well-known symbol of hate employed by the Ku Klux Klan to threaten and intimidate Black Americans. When The Brotherhood erect the cross Beaumont family’s front lawn, that legacy of racism is evoked, and indicates, as Mr. Evans states that, “Klan was here” (266). The use of this hate symbol in the attack against the Beaumonts illustrates the unsettling truth that not only is racism alive and well in their community, but that it poses a very real threat of bodily harm towards Black community members.
When Jamal finds Angela’s body at the Pike after her murder, he covers her body with his varsity jacket. The jacket and act are symbols of Jamal’s love for Angela, as well as a symbol of his character. Tracy questions Jamal about leaving the jacket behind. Knowing it would indicate his presence at the crime scene, Jamal explains his rationale: “I was out of my mind, not thinking about my jacket. Just knowing I didn’t want to leave her like that” (297). Even though Jamal flees the scene, knowing that he would be blamed for her murder, he puts aside his own well-being by leaving the jacket on Angela, showing the extent of care and thought for others that is central to Jamal’s character.
Jamal leaves notes for Corinne in her lunch box each day. The notes symbolize his love for Corinne and the paternal role that Jamal has played in Corinne’s life since she was born. When Jamal is in hiding from the police, Tracy takes over the task of leaving notes for Corinne, as an attempt to try to keep her life grounded amidst unbelievable hardship.
Jamal and Tracy share a sense of protection over Corinne and a desire to shield her from the traumas that they have endured. For Jamal, this sense of wanting to protect Corinne began as soon as it became apparent that he would need to be the man of the family. For Tracy, she realizes the depths of how their family’s struggles affect Corinne once Jamal is on the run: “Guilt sizzles through me because I didn’t think how things have been affecting Corinne […] Corinne might be young, but she notices how when she enters a room it sucks our conversation dry about what’s happening. Jamal used to be the one to smooth things over” (282-283). Now that Jamal is hiding from the police, Tracy takes over the ownership of caring for Corinne and looking out for her.
Tracy recalls a moment from her past when she had to return to school after her father’s conviction. Her mother told her and Jamal the story of Ruby Bridges, who attended a white school despite the racist protestations of white parents. Returning to school after Angela’s murder and Jamal’s disappearance, she recalls the story of Ruby Bridges and how “I need to be there so they don’t forget that we’re real people” (137). Ruby Bridges is a real historical example of the harmful effects of racism on Black people in America, but also a symbol of strength in the face of that racism. Beyond being a symbol, though, Ruby Bridges is a real person affected by the hatred of those in her community. In the text, Ruby Bridges acts as a symbol of the fact that racism has implications for real harm against real people.
By Kim Johnson
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