Richie Character Analysis in Sing, Unburied, Sing

Richie is a 12-year-old boy who was imprisoned in Parchman with Pop. Richie had nine siblings and would steal food to feed them, which is why he was sent to prison. Small and weak, he struggled to work and relied on Pop to help protect him at the prison. Richie eventually tried to escape Parchman along with Blue, but was caught by the guards. After the guards skinned Blue alive, Pop killed Richie in order to spare him any further suffering. Richie’s ghost comes back to haunt Jojo, as without knowing how he died, Richie’s soul cannot rest. Eventually, Richie learns the truth and is able to find peace in the afterlife.

Richie Quotes in Sing, Unburied, Sing

The Sing, Unburied, Sing quotes below are all either spoken by Richie or refer to Richie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

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There had always been bad blood between dogs and Black people: they were bred adversaries––slaves running from the slobbering hounds, and then the convict man dodging them.

Related Characters: Richie (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 138

Explanation and Analysis:

Richie has just found Jojo, who he immediately knows is Pop’s grandson. Richie recalls his time in Parchman, noting that the white people there didn’t like the fact that Pop was put in charge of the dogs. On the other hand, the arrangement was also not ideal from Richie and Pop’s perspective either, as there has historically been “bad blood” between black people and dogs. This passage is another example of the way in which slavery haunts the present world of the novel. Although slavery may have been abolished, its legacy is still a very real part of society, emphasized Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Inc

Sometimes I think it done changed. And then I sleep and wake up, and it ain't changed none.

Related Characters: Richie (speaker)

Related Symbols: Parchman

Page Number and Citation: 171

Explanation and Analysis:

When the family gets pulled over by the police, Richie warns Jojo that “they going to chain you.” After they are let go, Richie and Jojo talk about Pop and Parchman. In this passage, Richie explains that sometimes it seems as if Parchman (or the racist American justice system in general) has changed, but that in reality it hasn’t actually changed. Life at Parchman may be slightly different in the present than it was in Richie’s time, but the principle of arbitrary, unjust, and violent incarceration remains the same. This in turn connects Parchman and mass incarceration to the legacy Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaec

I know Jojo is innocent because I can read it in the unmarked swell of him: his smooth face, ripe with baby fat; his round, full stomach; his hands and feet soft as his younger sister's. He looks even younger when he falls asleep. His baby sister has flung herself across him, and both of them slumber like young feral cats: open mouths, splayed arms and legs, exposed throats. When I was thirteen, I knew much more than him. I knew that metal shackles could grow into the skin. I knew that leather could split flesh like butter. I knew that hunger could hurt, could scoop me hollow as a gourd, and that seeing my siblings starving could hollow out a different part of me, too.

Related Characters: Richie (speaker), Jojo , Kayla (Michaela)

Related Literary Devices:

Page Number and Citation: 185

Explanation and Analysis:

Richie has told Jojo that he doesn’t yet understand love, and that he doesn’t know anything about time. At the beginning of the next chapter, Richie watches Jojo sleep and concludes that Jojo is far more innocent than Richie himself had been at the age of 13. Although both Richie and Jojo face challenges that force them to be mature beyond their years, in this passage Richie identifies the key differences between them, which are that Jojo’s life is full of love, and also that Jojo has not faced the direct racist violence and starvation that Richie has. While it’s Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo min

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?

Related Characters: Richie (speaker), Jojo , Kayla (Michaela)

Related Literary Devices:

Page Number and Citation: 186

Explanation and Analysis:

Watching Jojo sleep, Richie has reflected that Jojo is far more innocent than he himself was at 13. Yet despite this lack of innocence, there were still many things Richie did not understand about the world, such as the true nature of time. This passage explains the conception of time at work in the novel. The idea that Parchman is “past, present, and future” might seem very hopeless and dark. Most people would like to think that brutal institutions like prisons are not permanent. However, another way to interpret this statement is as an acknowledgment that suffering and injustice can Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi.

He ran so fast. Sometimes I had to follow him by sound. Him talking to hisself the whole time. Not hisself. His mama. Telling her he was coming home. That he wanted her to sing for him. Sing for your son, he said. Sing.

Related Characters: Richie (speaker), Blue

Related Symbols: Singing

Page Number and Citation: 252

Explanation and Analysis:

At Richie’s insistence, Jojo has asked Pop to tell the story of Richie’s death. As Pop tells the story, Richie chimes in, explaining how he escaped Parchman along with a mentally unstable inmate named Blue. Before fleeing, Blue raped one of the female inmates. In this passage Richie describes running with Blue and hearing Blue speaking aloud to his mother. This detail humanizes Blue, reminding us that while he may be a rapist, he is still a person like any other, with the same fundamental desires to be united with his mother and hear her sing. Indeed, the mention of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eli

I said: It's going to be all right, Richie. He said. I heeled the dogs. Held out my hands to him, right side out. Moved slow. Soothed him. Said: We gone get you out of this. We gone get you away from here. Touched his arm: he was burning up. I'm going home, Riv? he asked. I squatted down next to him, the dogs steady yipping, and I looked at him. He had baby hair on the edge of his scalp, Jojo. Little fine hair he'd had since he sucked at his mama's tit. Yes, Richie. I'm a take you home, I said. And then I took the shank I kept in my boot and I punched it one time into his neck. In the big vein on his right side. Held him till the blood stopped spurting. Him looking at me, mouth open. A child. Tears and snot all over his face. Shocked and scared, until he was still.

Related Characters: Pop (River) (speaker), Richie (speaker), Jojo

Page Number and Citation: 255

Explanation and Analysis:

Pop is telling Jojo the story of what happened when Richie tried to escape Parchman. Pop and the guards from Parchman searched for Blue and Richie and eventually found them, at which point the guards cut off pieces of Blue’s body and skinned him alive. Knowing they would do the same to Richie when given the chance, Pop decided to kill Richie himself so as to spare him any further fear and suffering. This heart-rending passage returns to the idea that sometimes the most loving thing to do for someone can actually be an act of harm. In this sense, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impe

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 came up on us, the dogs yipping and licking blood from they muzzles. They'd torn his throat out, hamstringed 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 dogs 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.

Related Characters: Pop (River) (speaker), Richie, Jojo

Page Number and Citation: 255

Explanation and Analysis:

Pop has told Jojo the story about what happened when Richie escaped Parchman. Eventually Richie and Blue were tracked down, and the guards from Parchman cut off parts of Blue’s body and skinned him alive. In order to spare Richie the same fate, Pop stabbed him. In this passage Pop describes the torment of guilt that has followed him ever since he killed Richie. Even though Pop seems to feel assured that he did the right thing, the visceral memory of stabbing Richie––symbolized by the smell of blood––has haunted him ever since. Pop’s guilt is linked to the fact that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea sus

Richie Character Timeline in Sing, Unburied, Sing

The timeline below shows where the character Richie appears in Sing, Unburied, Sing. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...and drove them to Parchman. Pop recalls that the youngest person at Parchman then was Richie. At this point Kayla wakes up. Jojo gives her some juice and she asks him... (full context)

Pop explains that Richie was 12 years old, and had been sent to Parchman for stealing food, as had... (full context)

...everything” and that gris-gris bags help to achieve “a balance of spirit.” Pop explains that Richie was small and weak, which made it difficult to work the fields, so Pop tried... (full context)

One day while Pop and Richie were doing laundry, Kinnie Wagner rode past. Kinnie was a notorious white man who was... (full context)

...never keep dogs after his time in Parchman. In Parchman, Pop had tried to get Richie put to work on the dogs, too, but it didn’t happen. Richie was once whipped... (full context)

...birds to Jojo. However, Jojo can’t see any. Jojo recalls Pop telling him that after Richie was whipped, he remained feverish, telling Pop that he dreamed of eating dirt. He then... (full context)

...Al’s, and Jojo eats his so fast that he gets the hiccups. He thinks about Richie’s dreams about eating dirt. Kayla still has a fever; Leonie says she looks better and... (full context)

Richie knows immediately that Jojo is River’s (Pop’s) child. He can tell from the way that... (full context)

Richie notes that even though there is a bad history between black people and dogs, River... (full context)

When the police pull them over, Richie (who is sitting on the floor of the car) tells Jojo: “They going to chain... (full context)

Richie asks if Leonie is Jojo’s mother, and Jojo replies “No.” Richie says that he knows... (full context)

Richie can see that Jojo is “innocent.” When Richie was his age, he knew more about... (full context)

Before Richie was sent to Parchman, he and his siblings had once found the remains of a... (full context)

...Kayla to bed, saying “we’ll talk about it tomorrow.” Once Kayla is asleep, Jojo sees Richie looking at Pop, his eyes full of hope. Richie tries to get Pop’s attention, but... (full context)

Outside, Richie asks why Pop can’t hear him, and Jojo admits he doesn’t know. Richie insists that... (full context)

Jojo wants to tell Mam about Richie, but instead he asks her where she will go when she dies. Mam replies that... (full context)

...does not have the ability to see ghosts, even though she inherited other psychic powers. Richie then starts singing and Mam can hear it, though she doesn’t know what it is.... (full context)

Richie watches River make Jojo and Kayla breakfast, and take them outside to pick berries. Richie... (full context)

Richie sees Leonie tell Michael that she has something to do, and for a second he... (full context)

Jojo could hear Richie when he was lying in the dirt and singing. In the morning, Jojo helps Pop... (full context)

Pop was sent to track the runaways, he says. Richie adds that while they were running, Blue talked aloud to his mother, telling her he... (full context)

Richie begins to scream. Pop explains that it wasn’t long before the dogs smelled blood and... (full context)

...he got what he came for, and Given joins in: “You heard my nephew. Go, Richie.” Leonie cannot see Richie, only Given. Jojo and Given see each other, and they nod,... (full context)

...during the day. Jojo can hear animals and plants speaking, and sometimes he still sees Richie. Richie says he thought he would be able to cross over and go home once... (full context)

Richie Character Analysis

Richie Quotes in Sing, Unburied, Sing

Chapter 6: Richie Quotes

Chapter 7: Leonie Quotes

Chapter 9: Richie Quotes

Chapter 13: Jojo Quotes

Richie Character Timeline in Sing, Unburied, Sing