Coming home to DeLisle as an adult has been harder for this reason [Hurricane Katrina], a concrete one. And then there are abstract reasons, too. As Joshua said when we were kids hunting down ghosts: Somebody died here.
-- Jesmyn Ward (Prologue paragraph 20-21)

Importance: This quote sets the tone of the book. Ward talks about the way that she finds it difficult to go back to her hometown as an adult. In part, the return home is difficult because so many of the people of DeLisle have been scattered as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the government offering them the chance to relocate rather than providing them with tools to rebuild. However, after Joshua and her four friends die, though Ward continues to feel the pull toward home, it becomes more and more difficult to go back because DeLisle is a reminder of the people she has lost.

I wonder why silence is the sound...
-- Jesmyn Ward (Prologue paragraph 22)