The Trees

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses the use of racial slurs, racial violence, racial hatred, lynchings, and other forms of racist behavior.

Money, Mississippi, is both a setting and a symbol. Money is a real place and still exists today. The town is famous for the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955. Money symbolizes rural white America, where Black people are still oppressed by the flagrant racism of their white townspeople. Everett stresses the impoverished nature of Money, highlighting the irony of the town’s name in its lack of wealth. The socioeconomics of the town inform the character of its racism. Damon represents the scholarly elite of America. Damon is a foil to the white people of Money, whose racism is tied to their ignorance and impoverishment, which they lean into as a source of pride as poor white people. Degrading terms like “redneck” and “hick” are used to describe the white people in Money which the people of Money use to self-describe and embrace all the stereotypes that accompany these terms, including racism. These ideas are then passed onto the next generation in Money as families struggle with generational impoverishment, exacerbating the tendency to cling to whiteness as a source of power. Money is caught in a vicious cycle of racist institutions perpetuating racist ideas and symbolizes the Endemic and Institutionalized Racism in America.