In the Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan, a young sixteen-year-old boy, Horace, struggles with his sexual identity. This struggle is revealed to the reader through his experience during the last night of his life. Eventually Horace kills himself, and the description of his death suggests parallels between Horace’s death and hog killing that is described by the narrator earlier in the story. Horace is raised by and for the community, and this contributes to why he kills himself. Kenan gives us an in-depth look into Horace’s community by the conjunction of Horace’s story with stories of other members of the community. One prominent character is Jimmy, his nephew, who is also raised with similar expectations from the community, and currently serves as the church minister. Kenan tells the story of these characters in the present as they go on a trip to visit a sick friend in the hospital, and reflect on their lives on the way. Kenan’s …show more content…
“Most importantly the day did not halt in its tracks… Dogs barked. Beauticians gossiped. Old men fished.” The society seems nearly incognizant of Horace’s death just like the hog. While descriptions of the hog killing might have been horrifying and disgusting to the reader, the children are excited, adults are chatting and seem entertained, and even animals seem happy too from the narrator’s description of “mongrels snarling and barking and tugging over a bloody piece of meat.” The young man’s murder of the hog is a sign of pride, maturation from a boy to a man and acceptance into manhood. Joy, pride, maturity and communal living is based ironically on violence, the killing of the hog. The horror the reader might perceive is oblivious to those participating in the ritual, just like no one in the community seems to think that Horace’s death had anything to do with them except perhaps Jimmy. The community was just as stubborn as the ghostly