A Torment Within

 Audrey Woolsey \

Ms. Harris 

ENGL 2016 

15 November 2022 




A Torment Within     

This is a visual interpretation of “The Sea is Haunted”. The photograph was taken during  fall break on October 21, 2022 in the Prairie Home Cemetery in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The use  of the monochrome filter is intentional as it relates to M. NourbeSe Philip’s writing technique to  “white out and black out words” (Philip 193). As black men continue to be incarcerated at high  rates, the scene from the picture uses perceptible elements that are symbolic of racial  discrimination and black oppression in today’s prison system. The piece, inspired by In the Wake  and Zong!, is titled A Torment Within. The tree’s presence is sinister, supernatural, and ominous. It towers above the grave  markers which is suggestive of a warden who overshadows its prison and the subprime property  held within its wake or place of disturbance. The tree dominates the landscape with outstretched  limbs and branches just as a warden who takes authoritative ownership over its penitentiary.  “Black Americans are imprisoned at a rate that is roughly five times the rate of white Americans”  according to Ashley Nellis, Ph.D., a senior research analyst. These differences are staggering and  are the epitome of racial injustice. The tree, or the warden, is the equivalent to white supremacy. The graveyard is a place of tranquility and reflection. Yet, it lies in the warden’s trail of  systematic punishment and is prone to “conditions of spacial Black non / being” (Sharpe 14). It  harbors the stagnant spirits of a black premature death. The burial ground represents a massacre acted upon by an influential white culture and the “systems of laws, rules, and regulations that  made it possible” (Philip 199). That which lies beneath these stones, predominantly black males,  is a product of racial bias and endures the physical, psychological, and social effects and after  effects of mass imprisonment at the hands of the criminal justice system. The cemetery, a site  familiar to peace, is a paradox and, instead, remains full of anguish and torment.




Works Cited 

Nellis, Ashley. “The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons”. The  Sentencing Project, www.sentencingproject.org. Accessed 15 November 2022. Philip, M. NourbeSe. “Zong!”. www.moodle.ulm.edu. 24 Aug. 2021. Harris, Jaleesa. African  American Literature. English Dept. Univ of Louisiana Monroe, Aug. 2021. Accessed 15  November 2022. 

Sharpe, Christina. “In the Wake”. www.moodle.ulm.edu. 24 Aug. 2021. Harris, Jaleesa. African  American Literature. English Dept. Univ of Louisiana Monroe, Aug. 2021. Accessed 15  November 2022.

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