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Chapters 1-4
The novel opens up with the main character and narrator Maryse Boudreaux describing the Klan's march she is witnessing, Women children, and men gather to light fireworks on July 4th, 1922 in Macon Georgia. Maryse is on top of an old Macon warehouse with her fellow klan hunters Sadie and Corty(Chef) watching the march take place. Because of the loud fireworks and skyrockets Maryse, Sadie, and Cordy take the opportunity to catch and hunt Ku Kluxes so that they aren't as likely to get caught. In this altered historical reality, not everyone can distinguish Ku Kluxes from regular Klan members but those who can have a gift called "the sight". Those with "the sight" can see their true monstrous forms, the Ku Kluxes stand 9ft tall, have sharp claws, long snouts, and despite having 6 terrifying red eyes they can't see well and rely on smell. In the ally below the warehouse, Sadie and Chef have placed bait and they are able to hunt down 3 Kluxes and successfully bring back their dismembered parts to Nana Jeans Farm for Molly's research.
Maryse reveals in the chapters that the Ku Kluxes are a part of the second klan, the first klan was defeated by Robert Smalls but returned when they were summoned by witches on November 25th, 1915. With the use of dark magic, the movie Birth of a Nation is used to make white Americans believe that the Ku Klux Klan are saviors and black Americans are evil. Maryse, Sadie, and Chef were all called upon by Nana Jean who leads the women and has them deliver "Mama's Water" throughout Georgia to help ward off evil.
Once they return to Nana Jean's farm they discover from Molly's research that the Kluxes are evolving and they discover that the movie Birth of a Nation will be shown again at Stone Mountain, Nana Jean warns them that bad weather is coming.
Maryse, Sadie, and Chef go to the juke joint Frenchy's to enjoy themselves and momentarily escape from their worries. While at Frenchy's Maryse sees Micheal George her love interest and the owner of the juke joint and she spends the night with him. When Maryse goes to sleep, she has an encounter with dark forces that have entered her mind. Maryse meets a monstrous creature named Butcher Clyde who at first appears as a normal man with red hair but reveals himself as a creature covered in tiny mouths that talk all at once.
The next day Maryse decides to go to visit downtown Macon to find Butcher Clyde. Maryse comes across a Butcher shop with a sign that says "Butcher Clydes Choice Cuts and Grillery" where she meets Clyde and he reveals that he is the Ku Kluxes "management" and that he has come to carry out a grand plan of bringing the Grand Cyclopes to the world and that Maryse will play a part in his plan when he offers her a deal he will later reveal to her at Stone Mountain. Although there is no altercation or fight at the shop Clyde shows Maryse a piece of the gruesome and alive meat that the human people in the shop are eating and reveals his monstrous form. Before Maryse leaves the shop Butcher Clyde tells her that he will see her again soon.
Maryse returns to Nana Jean's farm where Maryse tells Sadie, Chef, Nana Jean, and a few other resistance fighters of Butcher Clydes Grand plan. They all stay awake making a plan to stop the grand plan at Stone Mountain, and they uneasily wait for Butcher Clyde to attack Nana Jean's farm because he said he'd be seeing them soon. As they wait for a possible attack the door suddenly opens but it isn't Butcher Clyde it is Sethe a resistance fighter and a small boy who reveals to them that Frenchy's has been attacked by the Ku Kluxes.
Chapters 1-5
Maryse, Chef, and Sadie go to Frenchy's to help save anyone who may be inside, once they arrive, they see that Frenchy's is on fire. Outside of Frenchy’s is Butcher Clyde preaching hate and saying that the reason they had to burn down Frenchy's was because of Prohibition laws and Frenchy's is a place that served alcohol illegally but of course, that is an excuse. Maryse, Sadie, and Chef rush inside where they help those inside escape and fight the Ku Kluxes. Maryse brings a couple safely outside and then re-enters Frenchy's to look for Sadie when she discovers that Sadie is badly wounded. Sadie tells Maryse to leave her and save herself, Maryse refuses but Sadie dies from her wounds and so Maryse leaves. Outside she is met by Butcher Clyde. Maryse wields a magical and powerful sword that she can call too at any moment, the sword was given to her by the otherworld beings called the Aunties and it carries the strength of her ancestors. While confronting Clyde, Maryse's sword breaks, and she is forced to run away. Back at Nana Jean's farm, Maryse is transported to the Aunties world when they call upon her, there Maryse asks them to come to her world and help them fight, the Aunties reveal that they cannot but tell Maryse that she can find the Night Doctors and try to get them to help. In order to find the Night Doctors, Maryse must enter a forest and think of the Angel Oak Tree where the Night Doctors reside for them to appear to her.
In Macon there aren’t many forests, so Nana Jean helps Maryse and conjures a mystical forest behind the farm. Maryse finds the oak tree and goes into it where she meets Dr.Bisset who is being held for eternity by the Night Doctors who are also monsters/giants who have no faces and feed on misery and hate and, they want to eat Maryse but she tells them that if they come to her world they can help her and eat those who are filled with a lot of hate(Grand Cyclops, Clyde and the Ku Kluxes who are monsters and not human). They can see that Maryse has a deep pain that she has suppressed and in an attempt to reveal that pain, and determine if they want to eat her, the Night Doctors send Dr.Bisset into Maryse's mind where she revisits the painful memory of her family being killed and when she overcomes her fear to face the memory and can start a path to healing, her sword appears to hear fixed and is stronger than before. She escapes the Night Doctors and asks Dr. Bisset to talk to them about helping her.
Maryse returns to Nana Jean's farm and on Sunday night Maryse, Nana Jean, the shouters, Chef, and other resistance fighters make their way up to Stone Mountain to stop the Grand Cyclops from entering their world. On the mountain human Klan members, Ku Kluxes and Butcher Clyde are on top and the movie "Birth of a Nation" plays on a screen behind them, the human members are all under the spell of the movie. Maryse and Chef tell the other resistance fighters to wait for a signal to help and they go to meet Clyde on a wooden platform. Maryse tells Clyde that she doesn't want what he has to offer her and that she knows he is going to offer to bring her family back. Clyde reveals that that is not his offer and that the offer is to give Maryse power over the life and death of herself and those who are oppressed and marginalized as well as those of her enemies. Clyde tells Maryse that he wanted to build up the hate in her so that she would be powerful enough to be their champion. Maryse does not take the offer and realizes that they (the enemies) take the places people hurt and use it against them. Maryse also realizes that she is not filled with hate, and neither are those who have been oppressed specifically black people in America because they are filled with righteous anger (anger at the things that oppose good such as evil, sin impurity) and cries for justice. The Grand Cyclops forms but not in the way Maryse thought she would, the Grand Cyclops is made up of the Ku Kluxes and the human Klan members. The Night Doctors and Dr. Bisset appear with the Angel Oak Tree and they drag the Grand Cyclops and a few Ku Kluxes into the tree before disappearing and Maryse defeats Butcher Clyde who Dr.Bisset takes back with him. Some Ku Kluxes and human Klan members are still there and the Ku Kluxes attempt to attack Maryse all at once when the resistance fighters join Maryse and the spirits of Sadie, her brother, and those who have been killed by Ku Kluxes they help Nana Jean as she and the shouters sing Gullah songs (Ring Shout) and the all the Ku Kluxes on Stone Mountain turn to ash. Although they stopped the Grand Cyclops there is still hate that lives in the human Klan members and there are still Ku Kluxes in America. As they leave Stone Mountain Nana Jean.
Epilogue
In the Epilogue the Aunties tell Maryse that there is a mission for her in Rhode Island and that the evil is still prevalent and much worse than the Grand Cyclopes must be stopped. They also hint at the fact that there are other swords like the Maryse's. Before Maryse leaves the Aunties world to return to hers she reveals that herself and Chef plan to honor Sadie by setting a smoke bomb in theater screening a Birth of a Nation.
A Deeper Look into the Chapters: An Analysis
Examples of Literary/Rhetorical Devices:
Foreshadowing: In Chapter 2 Nana Jean warns of figurative bad weather, Maryse is unsure of what Nana Jean means. In chapter 3 after a long night at Frenchy's, Maryse falls asleep and is taken into a dark place. There Maryse sees a man who introduces himself as Butcher Clyde. Clyde tells Maryse that he is the storm on the horizon. Maryse says to herself "Storm. Nana Jean's words play in my head"(67) Nana Jean's words foreshadowed Maryse meeting the storm aka Butcher Clyde.
Imagery/Tone: Because the novel also fits into the horror genre Clark uses intense and vivid imagery as well as tone to help appeal to the readers sense of fear. The imagery and tone are defining aspects that determine the genre/s of the novel. When describing the Ku Kluxes in chapter one or Maryse's dream in chapter 3, Clark uses detail to help paint a picture/image for the readers.
Allusion: Clark uses witchery and magic to allude to systemic racism. Those in positions of power who have a lot of hate-fueled racism use their magic as tools to gain power and profit. Maryse talks about those who have used their magic to gain power and lists D.W Griffith (creator of Birth of a Nation) as one of these people.
Setting: This novel takes place in Macon, Georgia during the 1920's Jim Crow era.
Point of View: Ring Shout is written is written in the first-person point of view. The story is told through Maryse Boudreaux's perspective which means that she is telling the story from how she experienced the events. We know this because the "I" pronoun is used. We are unable to know what the other characters are feeling or experiencing unless they voice it to Maryse
Historical Context:
Ku Klux Klan: The Klan was founded in 1865 after the Civil War. The Klan was made up of Confederate veterans and it rapidly grew into a white supremacist terrorist organization that employed violence in an effort to push back the Reconstruction effort.
Prohibition and the Klan: The 1920's sparked the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, before this this time Klan activity was suppressed during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant when the Ku Klux Klan act of 1871 was passed, the act designated certain crimes committed by these individuals as a federal offense. In 1915 after the release of the movie "Birth of a Nation" the Klan began to resurge. The movie painted the Ku Klux Klan as heroes, and it romanticized the organization. In chapter 2 of Ring Shout Maryse describes the birth of the second Klan as D-Day or Devils Night, Maryse also talks about the first Klan that came to be after the Civil War, however we see the historical alterations in the way that Clark uses the idea that dark magic was used to make people like and celebrate the Klan to keep anyone from discovering the true intentions behind the dark forces.
During the 1920's the Klan also resurged during the Prohibition Era. The 18th Amendment made transporting, manufacturing and selling liquor illegal. The Klan targeted Catholic immigrants and African Americans because they saw them as threat to the U.S because of their stereotyped "drinking habits". The Klan saw Prohibition as a way to promote their ideas of "cleaning up and purifying the county" more specifically immigrant and black communities. In chapter 5 of the novel after the Klan sets Frenchy's on fire, Maryse sees Butcher Clyde talking about "correcting the waywardness"(96. Clark) Butcher Clyde also talks about how the Klan must "Stamp out the vices"(96. Clark) of those who drink, Although the novel is historically altered Clark uses the historical truths to develop his story.
"Orange County Sheriff's Department disposing of illegal alcohol, circa 1932." Wikimedia Commons/Orange County Archives
Eschner, Kate Smithsonian Magazine Retrieved 3. March 2022 Why the Ku Klux Klan Flourished Under Prohibition | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine
Theme Analysis:
There are different kinds of hate and anger with different roots
Clark uses this theme throughout the novel to develop the plot and character growth of Maryse. Clark does not turn the serious matter of oppression into a story that blames the atrocities solely on evil and the dark forces, we see this and know this because not all the Klan members in the story are Ku Kluxes, there are also human Klansmen. The hate we see that comes from the human Klansmen is the hate that fuels the dark forces in fact one of the main antagonists Butcher Clyde says "Oh, we might point them in a direction we need, but that hate they got in them is their own doing"(Clark). This reveals that the hate fueled racism was not put into them by the forces of dark magic because it was already there. But where does this hate stem from?
In Chapter 8 Maryse says “You see, the hate they give is senseless. They already got power. Yet they hate those over who they got control, who don’t really pose a threat to them. Their fears aren’t real—just insecurities and inadequacies. Deep down they know that. Makes their hate like … watered-down whiskey..."(147. Clark) Clark shares the idea that hate fueled racism's roots lie in insecurity and inadequacies.
Maryse has a moment of realization that helps her growth as a character, and it also helps her make the hard decision of wither or not to accept Butcher Clyde's offer to gain power. We see Maryse's growth because after her visit with Dr.Bisset and the Night Doctors she realizes that hate for hate is not justified and does not heal, this is big for Maryse as a character because in the first few chapters Maryse is set on seeking vengeance. Maryse also recognizes that she and her ancestors, carry a righteous anger that stems from different roots of the Klans hatred.
"The roots of the anger carried by those who are oppressed and marginalized stems from as Maryse describes the places where they hurt. Maryse says “The words of the girl, my other self from the dream place, strikes with sudden understanding. The places where we hurt. Where we hurt. Not just me, all of us, colored folk everywhere, who carry our wounds with us, sometimes open for all to see, but always so much more buried and hidden deep. I remember the songs that come with all those visions. Songs full of hurt. Songs of sadness and tears. Songs pulsing with pain. A righteous anger and cry for justice. But not hate." (8. Clark)
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