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Writing Class I
Charity Liu
493206017
2004/9/30
Analysis of Robert Hayden’s “Night, Death, Mississippi”
From the point of view of a family of lychers, “Night, Death, Mississippi,” a
poem written by Robert Hayden in 1950s, illustrates the terrifying way of life in
Southern society in the United States. “Lynching is the illegal execution of an accused
person by a mob. It was originally a system of punishment used by whites against
African American slaves”(Spartacus). Provoked by “A quavering cry.
Screech-owl”(1), the atmosphere of thrill with the setting at the night is created and
foreshadows the sequent lines of the poem. The cry leads out the terror of the human’s
heart of the lychers, or all lynch practitioners universally. The tone is wicked and
horrified when the grandfather enjoys his memories of practicing lynching and the
father delightfully comes home to his wife and children telling them his great work of
mutilating Black men. The poet’s concerns for racial amity and humanity are also
conveyed through the plight of the victims. Furthermore, with rich physical and
psychological responses, imagery, irony, and so on, the poet creates the stirring and
striking atmospheres and themes of terror and dehumanization.
The lynching practice is almost a ritual handed down to the next generation. The
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evil is inherited and continued from the grandfather, the father and the children. The
grandfather, after hearing the cry, knows it’s “one of them”(2), one of the Black men
who is tortured. He regards it as a normal, gleeful and proud work that he laughs. He
not only enjoys it by “limping to the porch to listen”(7) but feels pitiful not able to
join them with his son as he did in the past. Though he already has no strength and is
old, weak, crippled, and “in his reek and gauntness”(3), his cruel and evil heart never
changes. As for his son, the Boy or the Father, he acts just like what the grandfather
did. The father boasts how they mutilate the Black men to his wife and his children.
The dehumanized attitude is especially told when he is proud of saying he “beat(s)
them till our arms was tired / and the big old chains / messy and red”(26-28) and says,
“Christ, it was better / than hunting bear”(30-31). Besides, the family also prepares a
celebration for the father when he comes back. It says, “have us a bottle, / Boy and
me— / he’s earned him a bottle”(21-23). Even the mother asks the children to
welcome their father as a hero by saying “You kids fetch Paw / some water now so’s
he / can wash that blood / off him”(35~38). The inherited evil then be justified,
honored and learned by children. Their deeds also show the inhumanity and the
dehumanization are deeply rooted in white lychers’ hearts.
Robert Hayden doesn’t have to use lot of descriptions of the victims but, with
characters’ physical and psychological responses, the atmosphere of terror is created
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excellently. He writes the grandfather laughs even when he hears the sorrowful
screaming and he wishes to do and see the terror in person. The lychers “beat,”
“hawks and spits” the Blacks. They don’t have any sense of sorrow, regret or
sympathy for those victims but feel pleasant, exciting and honored. However, the
victims, without names in the poem, are relatively silent and invisible with only the
sound of crying for God’s sympathy, strength and help. Lychers’ terrified and
dehumanized responses and victims’ helpless crying all portray the extreme horror
and plight.
The use of repetition in “Night, Death, Mississippi” conveys the idea of
repeating and continuity. One of them is “Time was”(11) that suggests the grandfather
cherishes the memory of practicing lynching on the Black men, and also suggests this
horrible historical fact is everlasting repeated. The word, “cry” is also repeated
suggesting the tragedy happens often and victims are many. Besides, the frequent use
of dash at the end of the line gives readers a perfect sound of effect for continuity that
corresponds to the idea of inheritance and continuous evil.
The major colors presented in the poem are black and red signifying the black
men and the blood. The dark and black color is emphasized several times. For
example, the title, “Night,” “turn(ing) out the kitchen lamp”(6), “sweetgum dark”(13),
and “darkness”(39). These suggest, in one way, the Black men who are
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dark-complexioned, inferior, lowly or even dirty, or, in another way, the darkness of
terror, cruelty and death cover and spread everywhere. The southern area is haunted
by the miserable tragedies of dehumanized lynching. The red color is crucial in the
poem as well, such as “bloody Jesus”(15), “sweetgum”(also named redgum for its red
heartwood and fallen leaves)(13), “groinfire”(20), “old chain / messy and red”(27-28),
“Jesus burning”(29), “rawhead”(34), and “bloodybones”(34). It refers to bleeding
when victims are lynched, the plight and the pain. The red color is interwoven with
the dark color creating an atmosphere of uneasiness, dreadfulness and fear.
Another color in the poem is white referring to the White people, the lychers or
the members of the Ku Klux Klan. As it says, “white robes like moonlight / In the
sweetgum dark” when the grandfather is thinking of his past being a lycher, it
suggests they, the White, are just as beautiful and glorious as moonlight in the world
of the dark. They are superior and try to purify and “light” the world, and that is to
make to Black race extinct.
The images are set forth to have more details on the event of the poem. In the
image of “windowless night”(8), it hints the night is out of the frames. The society is
actually chaos without the organization or the limitation by the government. There are
no effective laws to stop the inhumane behaviors. The situation is out of control and
out of order. Thus, the evildoing is seemingly ignored or tolerant by the majority of
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the people.
The “Sweetgum”(13), or the “redgum,” is a kind of trees planted in Mississippi
and the place elsewhere. The white lychers often hang the Black men on the trees,
which is easily seen as a threat or a warning. Trees, the redgums, hence, are easily
related to the pictures of the hanged victims. The image of “sweetgum dark” here,
then, may suggest the night when lynching or the private execution is prevalent.
Furthermore, the shocking image of “groinfire” refers to the emasculation or the
castration on the Black men as a means of torture. As they “cut it off”(16), the
blood-covered groin is just like as red as fire. The flames image expresses the extreme
pain for the victims as well as the fever and insanity of the lychers.
When both the lychers and the victims cry out for Jesus’ name, it is a
tremendously ironic and vivid contrast. When the father says, “Christ, it was better /
than hunting bear / which don’t know why / you want him dead”(30-33), his attitude
shows he thinks God is his side and gives such a pleasure or recreation for him. The
“bear,” not as a human being as he, deserves to die. This shows the white men’s sense
of racial and religious priory toward the Blacks. On the other hand, when the victim is
crying out, “O Jesus burning on the lily cross”(29), and “squealing bloody Jesus”(15),
the images imply the crucifixion, the death or sacrifice of the Man who is faultless. It
suggests the Black men are faultless as well but were tortured and sentenced to death.
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Moreover, the crucifixion images tell what the victims yearn for is God’s
salvation because the crucifixion brings the salvation and the redemption for all. The
contrast of the evil and the good is presented with strong irony. How come the
evildoers also believe and thank God, the savior of the weak and the poor?
The victims’ names are absent in the poem. This reflects the victims’ situation, just
like their erased and absent names, is actually neglected and suppressed in the society.
The title of the poem, “Night, Death, Mississippi,” points out the horrifying
historical fact with quite short words. It’s like the victim’ short scream or cry
resounding in the darkness. The death quickly seizes the victim in Mississippi’s night.
Besides, three words correspond to the three reclamations by unknown victims as a
parallel effect for Trinity. “Trinity means that at the root of everything there is
movement, an eternal process of life, outward movement, and love” and it means “the
image of the perfect community […] not a hierarchy of power”(Maryknoll). This
implies what the Black men call out here is the humane racial treatment and loving
community.
In “Night, Death, Mississippi,” Hayden uses a family of lychers to present the
morbid and distorted way of life when the Black men’s basic human right and dignity
are totally deprived by the White mobs. His poetic images and irony bring out the
profound bitterness and darkness of the era to call for a racial amity and humanity. By
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the merriment of slaughter in lycher’s home, it’s ironic to see who is the very
non-human “bear,” and who is really resembled with Jesus, the Son of God.
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Work Cited
Maryknoll Org. “Item Description: Holy Trinity, Perfect Community.” 2004. Orbis
Books. 30 Sept. 2004 <http://www.maryknollmall.org>.
Spartacus Educational. “Lynching.” Spartacus Educational. 2002. Spartacus School.
30 Sept. 2004 <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlynching.htm>.