112 pages • 3 hours read
Jesmyn WardThe Fire This Time
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Before You Read 
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Summary
“The Tradition” by Jericho Brown
Introduction by Jesmyn Ward
“Homegoing, AD” by Kima Jones
“The Weight” by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah
“Lonely in America” by Wendy S. Walters
“Where Do We Go from Here?” by Isabel Wilkerson
“‘The Dear Pledges of Our Love’: A Defense of Phillis Wheatley’s Husband” by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
“White Rage” by Carol Anderson
“Cracking the Code” by Jesmyn Ward
“Queries of Unrest” by Clint Smith
“Blacker Than Thou” by Kevin Young
“Da Art of Storytellin’ (a Prequel)” by Kiese Laymon
“Black and Blue” by Garnette Cadogan
“The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning” by Claudia Rankine
“Know Your Rights!” by Emily Raboteau
“Composite Pops” by Mitchell S. Jackson
“Theories of Time and Space” by Natasha Trethewey
“This Far: Notes on Love and Revolution” by Daniel José Older
“Message to My Daughters” by Edwidge Danticat
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
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“Homegoing, AD” by Kima JonesChapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Legacy”
Poem Summary: “Homegoing, AD”
Jones’s hybrid poem, which begins as prose, describes a family funeral. The speaker, an unnamed figure who uses the third-person plural, sits in a car while Jack drives quickly toward the funeral, sixteen hours through North Carolina. The speaker witnesses Grandaddy’s body and her mourning Grandmama in a home full of people and food.
The speaker, with her cousin and a girl named Toya, goes to the woods to drink and smoke. In the hot night, they discuss Grandaddy’s death in his bed, and the speaker keeps accepting drinks from her cousin. Her cousin leans toward her, and they embrace. Toya warns them of copperheads. Wary of alligators, they see one and run “cuz gator made for water / but children born for land” (17).
Poem Analysis
Jones’s poem bridges poetry and prose. Rich in setting and rhythmic language, the text largely resembles a short story until the final moments, when Jones places abundant white space between her words. This effect slows down the reader and mimics the tension the characters feel as the alligator approaches. This alligator functions as a symbol of danger. Throughout the anthology, writers describe the constant fear of peril for African Americans, particularly in the wake of racially motivated shootings.
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By Jesmyn Ward
