The Men We Reaped Analysis

Jesmyn Ward's "The Men We Reaped", is a heart-wrenching coming of age memoir and a mourning song, as she takes us on a journey through her childhood and upbringing in a poor Mississippi family. We experience the violent, tragic, and premature deaths in, a span of four years of five young men, all of whom she loved and cared for, to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the unfortunate disadvantages that follow many black men who live in severe poverty. Ward, while dealing with the loss of the young men, begins to question why she was able to conquer the obstacles that were predetermined for her while the men and others were not? Why must black Americans suffer? Why did these young men have to die? Why must America continue to dehumanize blacks? But
She first tells the story of her town of Delisle, Mississippi and it's history, as well as tell the story of her community in which she grew up in. Then she revisits the lives and stories of the young men but ironically,she revisits and explains each death backwards in time,starting with the most recent death to the earlier death of her younger brother. This is her story as it is the stories of the young men. By reliving and writing about her story, family ,and community,she will learn more about who she is, as well as learn more about the lives of her community and family. Writing this memoir will allow her to understand the birth of racism,why the men died, and also the "economic inequality and pased public and personal responsibility sour and spread here"(Ward pp.21). Writing this story will allow Ward to come of age by finally understanding why these men, and most importantly her brother died. Writing this memoir will allow her to understand that she survived in order to let others know about the truth of how southern blacks in America live and suffer and how America treats and views them as