Sixo's Love and Death

Follows the wild man Sixo through his courtship of the Thirty-Mile Woman, his defiance of schoolteacher, and his laughing death.

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The Wild Man of Sweet Home

The Wild Man of Sweet Home A Man Apart Sixo is the wild one among the Sweet Home men, indigo-dark with a flame-red tongue. He experiments with night-cooked potatoes, sleeps in the woods, and speaks English when he feels like it. Under Mr. Garner's rule, his strangeness is tolerated and even enjoyed. Night Dancing When the others are asleep, Sixo goes among the trees to dance, saying he does it to keep his bloodlines open. He tells stories that make the men cry-laugh, and his laughter is the one thing the others love about him. The Stirring of Need After the Thirty-Mile Woman appears in his life, Sixo stops being paralyzed by yearning for Sethe. He has found something worth singing about, and that makes him both more and less dangerous to the new order.

The Thirty-Mile Woman

The Thirty-Mile Woman A Long Courtship Sixo arranges an elaborate rendezvous with the Thirty-Mile Woman, a fourteen-year-old girl already promised to somebody's arms. He teaches her the route, the whistles, and the signals. When she does not arrive on time, he finds her crying in the wrong place and they drop where they are. The Wound and the Excuse He punctures her calf to simulate a snakebite, so she has an excuse for being late to her tobacco work. The story becomes legend among the Sweet Home men, and Sixo's love is revealed as serious business. A Reason to Run His love for the Thirty-Mile Woman gives Sixo a stake in the escape plan. He will not run alone; he will carry his future with him.

The Shoat and the Definition

The Shoat and the Definition The Shoat on the Plate Schoolteacher accuses Sixo of stealing a shoat. Sixo admits he killed it, butchered it, cooked it, and ate it, yet denies that he stole it. He explains that he was "improving your property": he ate the shoat to gain strength to do more work, thus giving schoolteacher more crop. The Definer's Law Schoolteacher beats Sixo anyway, to teach him that definitions belong to the definers, not the defined. The incident marks a turning point: under schoolteacher, everything the men touch becomes theft, and they begin pilfering in earnest. The Lesson for Sethe Sethe remembers Sixo's argument when she herself is tempted to take small things from Sawyer's Restaurant. She laughs, but she also understands that the law is written by the powerful, and that truth has no defense.

The Last Song

The Last Song The escape plan falls apart: Paul A is missing, Halle has disappeared, and schoolteacher's men surround Sixo, Paul D, and the Thirty-Mile Woman. Sixo grabs a rifle and begins to sing, a song so powerful that schoolteacher decides he will never be suitable. Seven-O! They tie Sixo to a tree and build a fire. As his feet begin to burn, Sixo laughs and shouts "Seven-O!"—the seed he has planted in the Thirty-Mile Woman, who has run away. The fire of his laughter is so full of glee it puts out the actual fire. The Price of Joy The white men shoot him to stop the singing and the laughter. For Paul D, Sixo's death becomes the measure of what a man can be: not the manhood Garner gave, but a defiant joy that no fire can extinguish.

The Seed That Blooms

The Seed That Blooms A Legacy of Laughter Sixo's "Seven-O!" is remembered by Paul D as proof that a man could choose his own meaning. The word outlives the fire and becomes part of the story Paul carries through prison and wandering. The Thirty-Mile Woman's Child Because the Thirty-Mile Woman escaped, Sixo's seed survives somewhere. His laughter at "Seven-O!" is a shout of procreation and victory, not despair—a declaration that the future belongs to the one who laughs. The Model of Manhood For Paul D, Sixo is one of the two men who were men whether Garner said so or not. His death and laughter shape Paul D's own long, difficult search for what it means to be a man.

the early years at Sweet Home, before schoolteacher

the months before the escape attempt

during schoolteacher's regime

the night of the failed escape

after Sixo's death, in Paul D's memory