The Trees

Is the book a crime novel, or a parody of a crime novel?

Granny C is based on Carolyn Bryant, the woman who was partly responsible for the real-life lynching of Emmett Till in 1955. ‘Well, it’s all done and past history now, Granny C,’ her daughter-in-law tells her. ‘So you just relax. Ain’t nothing can change what happened. You cain’t bring the boy back’ (p. 16). Everett uses foreshadowing in this early scene to show that you can’t outrun your past and how trauma is inescapable even though it is now ‘history’. Discuss the flippant attitude of Granny C’s daughter-in-law and why Granny C is revisiting her actions at this point in time.

At one point, two Black officers investigating the murders are asked why they joined the police force, to which they reply: ‘So Whitey wouldn’t be the only one in the room with a gun’ (p. 148). Discuss the significance of this statement with regard to the novel, but also real-life, modern police violence in the US.

In one of the more affecting parts of the novel, Damon Thruf hand writes the name of every lynching victim in the US in pencil. He says he will later erase them to ‘set them free’ (p. 211). The novel ends with him determinedly typing more names out on a typewriter. Why has he not - as he said he would - erased them? What is the meaning of this final scene, and Mama Z’s final line?

Ed and Jim stop at The Bluegum restaurant for some food, where the clientele is almost exclusively Black (p 246). The song Strange Fruit, made famous by Billie Holiday, starts playing. What is the significance of this song and how does it intertwine with Everett’s narrative?

The Guardian said of The Trees, ‘As with the films of Jordan Peele, the paranormal is used to depict the African American experience in extremis, and here supernatural horror and historical reality collide in dreadful revelation.’ Is it fair to describe Everett’s novel as conventional horror? How does it blur the line between the realities of real-life horror and the more fantastical?

Everybody talks about genocides around the world, but when the killing is slow and spread over a hundred years, no one notices. Where there are no mass graves, no one notices. American outrage is always for show. It has a shelf life. (p. 318). Discuss this quote in relation to Black history in America and how racism has allowed lynchings and killings of Black people to continue to happen.

‘And they used to have cross burnin’s a lot more and family picnics and softball games and all such,’ said Donald. ‘I remember eatin’ cake next to that glowing cross. I loved my mama’s cake.’ ‘Yeah,’ several voiced their agreement. ‘We don’t do nothin’ now,’ a man complained. ‘I don’t even know where my hood is. I don’t even own a rope.’ (p. 110). Everett often makes a pointed display of the rose-tinted nostalgia of white supremacy through caricatures of the white community in Money, Mississippi. Donald Trump even features in the novel. Is it fair to say The Trees is a novel of the Trump era?

The author uses humour throughout the text, from wordplay to punchlines and even slapstick gags. How does this use of humour within harrowing subject matter help readers navigate this material?

The Trees has extremely short but impactful chapters (sometimes less than a page long in length) that constantly shift in perspective. Discuss the benefits of a narrative structure like this - does it allow the reader to experience a breadth of viewpoints?