Bluebird, Bluebird

The Blues is a musical genre that was created in the American South in the 1860s by Black Americans. It was birthed out of enslaved persons’ work songs and spirituals, and echoes those songs in tone and style with sad, often mournful dirge-like themes featuring repetition and call and response elements. The influence of the Blues has made its way into almost all forms of modern music including jazz, rock and roll, and hip hop. The narrative is infused with the sounds and emotions of the Blues from the epigraph to the end, as well as making the musical genre a crucial part of the plot. It becomes the soundtrack of a tale of love and sadness in a community torn apart by racial hatred. In the music’s lyrics and forlorn bass notes, the characters find comfort and a safe place to grieve what has been lost.

The soulful music of the blues informs the title as it comes from the lyrics of a song by John Lee Hooker, “Bluebird, bluebird, take this letter down South for me […]” (129).