Ring Shout

Content Warning: This section discusses anti-Black racism and violence, enslavement, and hate crimes such as lynching.

The leaf-shaped sword is a symbol of hate, psychological fragility, the power of facing trauma, and betrayal. An African chief-turned-enslaved-blacksmith created the sword, forging it out of the anger of all the people who betrayed their fellow people of the African continent by selling them into slavery and the suffering of enslaved people who sought revenge. The sword sings the suffering of these chiefs and other people who endured the horrors of enslavement. Maryse Boudreaux is the wielder of the sword, which feeds off her trauma to encourage her to engage in ever-greater killing and acts of violence. The sword is a tool that reshapes the consciousness of Maryse by making her more prone to violence as the answer in every situation.

When the sword appears to Maryse on the day her family is killed by the Ku Kluxes and Butcher Clyde, it is a symbol of the fear and anger that her trauma leaves her with. When the sword breaks, it is a symbol of how damaging Maryse’s pursuit of vengeance has been to her psyche. When the sword is made whole in the realm of