In “The Undertaker” by Patricia Smith, the portrait of a boy is revealed verse by verse. She is the doctor of a morgue who has the gruesome task of reassembling the dead body of a young black man. The mother of the victim cries to the mortician to “fix my boy” as if somehow expecting a miracle of returning him to his lively manner. The sadness of the story continues as Smith uses extreme detailed in describing his job. The fact of the matter is that this mortician has seen victims like this one all too often. He is sickened by the shear senselessness of it all. The phone rings and he hopes that it is anybody except another mother crying “fix my boy”. It seems to be an endless cycle for this mortician.
Patricia Smith uses the metonymy
Patricia Smith uses the metonymy