ESSAY CEMETERY

Themes and recurring elements ·        Making fun of each other's mothers ·        Singing about food ·        Singing about freedom ·        Big boy is shrewd ·        Fighting techniques ·        Segregation ·        White prejudice against blacks ·        Whites have swimming pools and blacks don't ·        Children playing ·        Automatic suspicion of young black boys ·        Killing ·        Lynching ·        Mutual help within the black community ·        Corn pone Style and Devices ·        Reported speech of blacks is phonetic "Whut it say?" "NO TRESPASSIN," read Lester. "Know whut the mean?" "Mean ain no dogs n niggers erllowed," said Buck. "Waal, wes here now," said Big Boy. "Ef he ketched us even like this thered be trouble, so we just as waal go on in." ·        Trains recurring ·        Repetition “Nobody but the good Lawd could hep now. They wuz

I Four black boys, Buck, Bobo, Lester and Big Boy are walking in the woods making up dirty songs. They lie down and bask in the warm sun. They hear a train and sing a song about it. Someone farts and they tease each other. They want to go swimming in the creek but Big Boy warns that they could get lynched. They want to go anyway so Big Boy distracts them by jumping on them and telling them he is hungry. They sing a song about food. To retaliate, the three boys maul Big Boy. He catches Bobo hard, and tells the other boys to let go of him or Bobo suffers. They back off to save Bobo. They keep walking. Big Boy explains the technique behind his defense: pick on one member of a gang to make the others let off. II The boys arrive at the swimming hole. Everyone but Big Boy is reluctant to go in. Big Boy reasons that they would be in as much trouble swimming as they are near the water, so they might as well go in. Big boy dares them to go in. He begins stripping and the boys fol