The scene that surrounds this epigraph is the reflection of the year 2008 by Jesmyn Ward as she recounts others from her town who died young and in various ways. She paused here briefly to tell about four additional deaths before explaining how her brother’s passing away affected her. The language she uses to illustrate the theme of death is like that of a fungus, as it claims her family members and friends as its victims. In part, the definition is that fungi are spore-producing organisms that feed on organic matter. As such, racism, poverty, drug addiction, and alcoholism feed and killed (like fungus) on many people that she knew. Similarly, over one hundred-years before Ward, her family, friends, and those of her community were devoured
