Water usually represents life and vitality, as it functions as an indispensable source for the survival of human civilization. Jasmyn Ward, the author of the Southern Gothic novel Sing, Unburied, Sing uses water as a symbol for the cycle of life and death because death does not terminate life. Southern Gothics usually include storytelling of eccentric characters who become flawed and irrational and emphasize the idea of death and decay. Because Jasmyn Ward challenges the traditional understanding of life and death by blurring the lines between the two concepts, she emphasizes the relevance of the living and the dead, using symbolic elements such as water flow and supernaturals. 

Usually, people tend to believe that death is the end of one’s life, but in Sing, Unburied, Sing, death serves as a new beginning and a form of release. Dead people return, and specific people can see them in real life and even communicate with them, such as Richie and Jojo or Given and Leonie. Supernaturals serve as a connection between life and death in many ways. Leonie mentions, “Last night, he smiled at me, this Given-not-Given, this Given that’s been dead fifteen years now, this Given that came to me every time I snorted a line, every time I popped a pill. He sat in one of the two empty chairs at the table with us and leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. He was watching me, like always. He had Mama’s face (Ward 34).” After the boundary between life and death begins to blur, memories actually become living things. Given’s return reminds Leonie of the past whenever she takes drugs even though he passed away many years ago. His brother stands beside her, watching her as if he comes to life and guides her. The relationship between Jojo and Richie presents another example of a supernatural relationship in this book. Jojo hears about Richie’s story from Pop but never hears the ending because Pop does not want to remind himself of how he killed Richie. When the policeman approaches the car and tells Leonie to step out, he also asks Jojo to step out. Richie predicts what will happen by telling Jojo, "They going to chain you (Ward 169)." When Jojo leaves the car, the policeman tells Jojo to get down on the grass and cuffs him (170). Jojo reaches for his pocket, and the policeman assumes that he reached for a gun. Even though Jojo never met Richie and only got to know him through Pop’s stories, Richie impacted him hugely, allowing him to understand the world around him, which Leonie failed to do as a mother. Richie and Given’s death allow them to return to this world and guide their next generations as if they still live in the real world. 

Life, on the other hand, maintains as a precious thing that most people struggle to obtain, including Michael’s return from Parchman, Richie’s attempting to escape Parchman, and Mam suffering from Cancer. The family tries to escape the pain of their past and struggles to “stay afloat.”  “We are all sinking, and there are manta rays gliding beneath us and sharks jostling us. I am trying to keep everyone above water, even as I struggle to stay afloat (Ward 195).” Leonie says she supports the family and tries to keep everyone safe from the manta rays and sharks. However, in that same monologue she says, “I’am failing them, we are all drowning.” The manta rays and sharks represent death, pain, and suffering. Leonie thinks that she never achieved her goal of pushing her family above water, especially when Mam dies at the end of the book and Leonie has the sense of inability to support Mam any further. Leonie thinks that most people should attempt to keep themselves above water, but life might not always bring joy to the ones alive. At the end of the book, Mam suffers severely from cancer and wishes to die, “This pain.” She blinks as if to grimace but doesn’t. “If I lay in this bed for much longer, it’s going to burn the heart out of me (Ward 214).” She wants to be released from her current stage, but Leonie refuses to let her go, even though staying alive makes her painful now. Mam asks Leonie to prepare the last mystére but Leonie declines until Mam says, “Baby, please (Ward 216).” Mam wants to sink herself and no longer wishes to stay alive, just like what Leonie said before, “but they won’t stay up: they want to sink like stones (Ward 195).” The cycle of life and death in Sing, Unburied, Sing equates to Parchman prison. Everyone wants to escape, such as Richie. Some might succeed, and some cease before reaching the exit. The family wants to escape from past pain. Mam never forgets about Given’s death, while Pop never forgives himself for the death of Richie. The exit represents either life or death for each character, it represents whatever they strive for. 

Supernaturals and water play an essential role in the book to connect the living and the dead. The novel explores the complex relationship between the two worlds, using water as a medium for communication and supernatural elements as a conduit for the spirits of the dead. The ghosts of the past haunt the family, and the supernatural elements serve to confront and reconcile with their own histories. Pop struggles to renew himself from Richie’s death, “I washed my hands every day, Jojo. But that damn blood ain’t never come out (Ward 256).” Pop attempts to use water to take away past pain that he suffers from such as Parchman prison and Richie’s death but couldn’t. The use of supernaturals further highlights the connection between the living and the dead and how they link inextricably. “I didn't understand time, either, when I was young. How could I know that after I died, Parchman would pull me from the sky? How could I imagine Parchman would pull me to it and refuse to let go? And how could I conceive that Parchman was past, present, and future all at once? That the history and sentiment that carved the place out of the wilderness would show me that time is a vast ocean, and that everything is happening at once (Ward 186)?” Richie comments on how Parchman does not let him go even after death and pulls him down as a supernatural ghost. This is a metaphor for the book’s larger theme, where he must confront his own past and the death of himself. Richie refers time to a “vast ocean” and because water never has a form, Richie could communicate with Jojo even though he died, as if the past, present, and future happen all at once. The novel creates a haunting and unforgettable portrait of the human experience and how the world around them connects. Water, as a symbol of life and death, can both sustain and overwhelm us, as it brings dead people back and takes living people away.

Death is not the destination of one’s life. Jasmyn Ward complicates the idea of living and death using themes of supernaturals to give a sense of “life” for the dead people to return and achieve their own purposes. The dead seem alive because they return as ghosts and exists as living memory. The living, however, also struggles to stay above water to escape the pain. The flow of water serves as a medium to connect the living and the dead and blur the boundary between them. It can also carry people across the boundary. When characters finally confront themselves, the water will carry them, whether living or dead.