The Monsters Within in P. Djèlí Clark’s “Ring Shout”

As I read and taught P. Djèlí Clark’s Ring Shout, a lot of things stood out, specifically when thinking about the Gothic and the EthnoGothic. The sheer amount of themes that Clark packs into the novella is, at times, overwhelming, but it all adds to the rich and layered narrative that weaves its way throughout Ring Shout. While I could focus on any number of aspects in the novella from Nana Jean and her Gullah roots to the threads of Bruh Rabbit and Bruh Bear to the ancestral and generational connections flowing through Maryse as her and her companions battle the Ku Kluxes, I want to zero in on two very minor characters that appear fleetingly in Ring Shout, the white mother and son who Maryse encounters at Butcher Clyde’s shop and who she encounters again following the battle on Stone Mountain.

Maryse initially confronts Butcher Clyde at his shop, Butcher Clyde’s Choice Cuts & Grillery, a shop that caters to whites and that has the Ku Klux Klan as security. Within Ring Shout, the Klan becomes two entities, the Ku Kluxes and the Klan. Butcher Clyde and the Grand Cyclops infect the Ku Kluxes, turning them into devilish monsters that Maryse, Sadie, Chef, and others can identify. Not everyone can see the monster hiding underneath the human flesh. The Klan, though, are whites who have not turned yet. They still exist as humans, according to Nana Jean, and…