English Test

Jojo

13 year old boy, main caregiver of his sister, Kayla. One of the points of views.

What is the name of the town the family lives in? Where is the story set?

Bois Sauvage, Mississippi.

After 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

Given was a talented ____________ who was being recruited for a scholarship to colleges.

Football Player

Given

Ghost of Leonie's brother. Killed (murdered) in a hunting "accident."

Richie

Ghost of fellow inmate of Pap. Younger boy, about Jojo's age. Managed to escape prison, but was ultimately caught and killed by his friend, Pap, in order to avoid the cruelty of the prison system & its guards.

"Why y'all give me this name? __________? It don't make sense. And Mama squatted down and rubbed his ears, and said: _____ because it rhymes with papa's name: River. And __________ because I was forty when I had you. Your Papa was fifty. We thought we couldn't have no kids ..."

Given

Jojo is a particularly intuitive young person. What are his special gifts?

He can see ghosts and talk to them. Sometimes he helps them crossover to the other side. He also has other gifts as well.

What was ironic about Richie's name?

He wasn't rich and ended up in Parchman Prison for stealing.

How did Riv(Pap) end up in Parchman Prison at age 15?

His older brother Stag got into a bar fight and ended up getting arrested and they took Pop too, who had been home at the time. The law enforcement would take any chance to send people of color to jail.

How does this book present the issue of the opioid crisis in America and how does drug addiction ties into the book?

It presents the issue of drug addiction in America because it's not something that most people seem to think about, even though it's steadily been an issue in society. It shows a different perspective of it in a more personal way than seeing stories on the news, and shows how family members and friends of people who struggle with drug addiction are affected.

Michael

Jojo and Kayla's father, who is in Parchman Prison for producing/making drugs.

When the book begins, why are Pap and Jojo slaughtering a goat?

Jojo is closer to becoming a man, so Pap feels that he needs to show Jojo how to slaughter a goat as well as for using it in his birthday meal.

"Before she was more gone than here. Before she started snorting crushed pills. Before all the little mean things she told me gathered and gathered like grit in a skinned knee." What was life like for Jojo before this time?

Jojo said that he remembered a time before his mother Leonie started to use drugs. She implied to him that flies were disgusting which made Jojo think that there was more good than bad to Leonie back before she took drugs.

"Ony," she says, and sicks on the stick and waves both hands in the air. Jojo looks away from the window, down to her kicking feet, and frowns. "Ony!' she screams.

Kayla says this when she's trying to get Jojo's attention and the lollipop that he's hiding. Who Kayla talking to? She is talking to Leonie. She calls her mother by her first name like Jojo because Leonie has lost the respect and authority a mother should have naturally from her children.

Explain the events that occur when Leonie, Misty, Jojo and Kayla stay at the lawyer's house and Kayla's car sickness throughout the odyssey.

Kayla's car sickness causes them to have to pull over and Jojo has to take care of her. Kayla was trying to get to Jojo, and the officer forced Jojo down in the dirt on his knees. During Kayla's sickness, they also stopped at a gas station so leonie could get something to make tea for Kayla's stomach. After Kayla drinks it at the lawyer's house when Leonie isn't looking, Jojo makes Kayla throw up the concoction. Jojo feels as if Leonie does not know what she is doing with the herbal medicines. Leonie has no idea that Kayla threw the herbal treatment back up, and assumes it continues to work while she gets better.

What happened on the day Michael went to prison?

Leonie found she was pregnant with Kayla. Leonie and Michael had a big fight. Jojo started calling his mother Leonie.

"Sometimes the world don't give you what you need, no matter how hard you look. Sometimes it withholds."

Leonie says this when she was looking for something to help Kayla with her nausea, and thought about what Mam said to her about how the world will always give you what you need, you just have to look for it.

Misty

Leonie's friend from work, who goes with her to parchman; promotes her drug use, and also does drugs with her and is the one that gets the drugs for them on the way to Parchman.

"Growing up out here in the country taught me things. Taught me that after the first fat flush of life, time eats away at things: it rusts machinery, it matures animals to become hairless and featherless, and it withers plants [...] since Mama got sick, I learned pain can do that too. Can eat a person until there's nothing but bone and skin and a thin layer of blood left. How it can eat your insides and swell you in wrong ways."

Leonie.

Kayla

Little baby/toddler sister of Jojo. Shows little affection for her mother. Sees Jojo as her main caregiver/parent figure.

"Ain't no good in using anger just to lash. You pray for it to blow up a storm that's going to flush out the truth."

Mam said this to Leonie when the kids did something thoughtless or stupid. It was a reminder to be patient and bide one's time until the real story emerged.

"I hope I fed you enough. While I'm here. So you carry it with you. Like a camel.' I can hear the smile in her voice, faint. A baring of teeth. 'Maybe that ain't a good way of putting it. Like a well, Jojo. Pull that water up when you need it."

Mam talking to Jojo.

"Some days later, I understood what he was trying to say, that getting grown means learning how to work that current: learning when to hold fast, when to drop anchor, when to let it sweep you up."

Mam to Jojo, she's talking about Pap.

Describe Mam's death. 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 seemed to fluctuate and get very dramatic. Given was in the room with Mam, while Jojo and Pap were outside, where Pap had just explained Richie's story to Jojo. Kayla then joins all of them in the room where Mam is dying, and Leonie comes in with the stones from the cemetery. 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.

"Can't nothing bother me when I got my hands in the dirt, he said. Like I'm talking to God with my fingers."

N/A

Jojo's teacher called home to tell Leonie that he wasn't paying attention. What is the truth about the situation?

N/A

What are some of the ways that people of Pap's era avoided governmental bureaucracy and why?

N/A

"I washed my hands every day, Jojo. But that damn blood ain't never come out. Hold my hands up to my face, I can smell it under my skin. Smelled it when the warden and sergeant cam up on us, the dogs yipping and licking blood from they muzzles. They'd torn his throat out, hamstrung him. Smelled it when the warden told me I'd done good. Smelled it the day they let me out on account I'd led the dog that caught and killed Richie. 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 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. But it didn't. When Given died, I thought I'd drown in it. Drove me blind, made me so crazy I couldn't speak. Didn't nothing come close to easing it until you came along."

Pap (Riv).

Describe the relationship between Pap and Richie at Parchman. 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.

What problem did Richie's family have that was common to people of his era and location?

Richie came from a family with 9 children and they all came from black communities which were considered the most impoverished areas at the time.

"There's so many,' __________ says. His voice is molasses slow. 'So many of us,' he says. 'Hitting. The wrong keys. Wandering against. The song."

Richie refers the concept of "home" which was constantly presented throughout the plot. Souls that are trapped in their body or stuck in the realms of the world seem to crave for home, freedom, comfort, and love.

Know how and why Richie accompanies the family in the car on the way back from Parchman. What does Richie realize about Jojo? What does Richie need from Pap?

Richie wants to make sure Jojo is okay and that their ride would go smoothly. He realizes that Jojo is related to Riv (Pop) and wants to get Riv so that he can explain what happened. He remembers running away from the prison and he knows he's dead but he can't remember what happened.

How did Michael's mother help Leonie?

She gave her a job.

In what kind of place did Misty live?

She has a pink MEMA cottage, a small home just a step up from that of a trailer. They were designed in the wake of hurricane katrina.

How does Leonie notify Michael's parents that she is picking Michael up from Parchman Prison?

She leaves a note in their mailbox

Why do you think Jesmyn Ward wrote this book?

She wants to show another perspective on how families are affected by drug addiction, race and interracial relationships, and poverty in the modern south. In this book, she uses many different perspectives, from children to those who are deceased to exemplify how each of them deals with pressures and challenges of modern life in the south. This was also to show how life was like when she grew up in the same place this book is set in.

On the trip to Parchman Prison, Leonie shows extremely self-absorbed and selfish behavior towards Jojo and Kayla. Describe some of her choices.

She wouldn't let Jojo or Kayla get a drink at the gas station even though they were thirsty. She denied the offer to get food from Misty's friend even though Jojo and Kayla were hungry.

Why does Pap keep his animals in the back of the property?

So no one will find or take them. The animals are their food source and if someone were to steal them, that would cause a huge problem as far as feeding his family. The dogs would bark if someone would try to steal them.

Why was Richie sent to Parchman Prison?

Stealing food.

Pap(Riv)

The father of Leonie and guardian of Jojo & Kayla. He's the sole provider of their family.

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. The conditions in which the inmates were worked, was as terrifying and brutal as slaves had to endure on plantation farms.

Know the horrifying events that transpired at the stop where the little boy hits the TV with a baseball bat and Misty and Leonie pick up drugs.

The little boy breaks the tv with a bat after Grand Theft Auto freezes on his game system. His mom beats him until he can't cry out anymore. Jojo sneaks crackers and juice for him and Kayla and realizes Misty's friends boyfriend is making dope in the shed in the back.

Leonie

The mother of Jojo and Kayla. She struggles with the addiction of drugs and does not succeed well as a mother. Neither of her children look up to her for support, in fact, Leonie looks to Jojo to care for Kayla, which she doesn't want to admit it.

Mam

The mother of Leonie. She's sick with cancer. Eventually dies at the end of the story. She also has healing powers, psychic foresight, and can communicate with the dead.

The theme of singing is important in this novel. Who sings and for what purpose?

The spirits of the dead who aren't able to move on because they were silenced while they were living. They have stories to tell about their lives. Jojo sings "wheels on the bus" to Kayla and Kayla sings at the end of the book

What does Jojo discover about himself on the way to Parchman Prison related to Misty?

There was a part where it seemed as if he was attracted to Misty.

What did Tante Rosalie, Mam, Leonie, and Jojo all have in common?

They could all see and talk to ghosts.

When does Leonie see Given's ghost?

When getting high with Misty