Praying for Sheetrock

Sheriff Poppell informally employs spies among the black community, who will report back to Poppell on the activities and whereabouts of various individuals. To boost their egos, Poppell gives the spies badges reserved for sheriff’s deputies, even though the spies are not employees. Alston says, “The sheriff give them a badge. […] They really didn’t have no more authority than a piece of paper, but the sheriff give them some little jobs […] And those guys were ashamed of it, to show the badge, but within themselves they were proud of it” (81). The badges represent Poppell’s coercive hold over the black community and the aspiration to some semblance of power.  

The power that officials like Sheriff Poppell derive in rural Georgia comes largely from the network of courthouse gangs, through which powerful white men rise through the ranks and become politicians, staffing these courthouses with their friends and propping up a nepotistic system in which they exercise control over the judiciary. These courthouse gangs derive their power from Georgia’s county unit system, which gives disproportionate power to rural counties. Greene writes, “The county unit system resembled, in fact, the conversion chart in Razzle Dazzle” (75). The courthouse gangs and county unit system function as another symbol of the “good old boy” network that keeps powerful white men at the top. 

The old Highway 17 cuts clean through the town of Darien. A Savannah attorney tells Greene that “You can’t learn anything riding down I-95 with the Yankees. You’ve got to go the old way, 17, what we call the old way” (9). As many of the businesses along Highway 17 swindle tourists and offer illicit activities like prostitution, Highway 17 serves as a stand-in for the corruption in McIntosh County—specifically, under Poppell’s reign. It’s symbolic, then, that as Poppell dies and the “good old boy” network declines, Highway 17 is replaced by the modern Highway I-95—a vision of the future, whereas Highway 17 is a representation of the past.

Sheriff Poppell forms an organization for black individuals—the McIntosh County Civic League—which he controls and whose members he handpicks. Of the club, Alston says, “Then I started thinking, started realizing that what we had there was just another of Tom Poppell’s symbols” (89)—a symbol of the absolute power that he exercises in McIntosh County.

Razzle dazzle is a form of gambling in which participants exchange money in return for a chance at rolling two dice. Depending on the outcome of the dice roll, the player may receive more or less money. However, the highest-earning rolls are those with the least probability of occurring, and so, the players are tricked into rolling the dice more and losing even more money. Roadside shops in McIntosh set up this game to swindle naïve tourists. This game functions as symbol of the corruption, moral decay, and lawlessness occurring in McIntosh under Sheriff Poppell. 

Shoes figure prominently in two different scenes in the book. The first is the book’s opening scene, in which Sheriff Poppell allows poor black residents to pilfer shoes from a truck crash on Highway 17. The shoes serve as a symbol, or, rather, a lure to distract community members from agitating for the civil rights movement that has yet to reach their rural county: “On that day their minds were otherwise occupied. On that day the people had new shoes to try on” (8). By performing special favors—i.e., the offering of shoes—that offer marginal assistance to extremely poor people, Poppell retains his popularity and keeps people focused on their basic needs instead of clamoring for greater progress.

In the second scene: Instead of buying new shoes, Fanny Palmer’s grandmother would apply moss to Fanny’s feet when she outgrew her shoes as a child. This scenario symbolizes the adversity and tenacity that blacks needed to survive in McIntosh County, and the wisdom that black elders pass on to their descendants so that they may survive in a harsh world. Palmer says, “One time I get new shoes, and I don’t put those shoes on my foot—I leave the moss on my foot; I want the shoes to go to church. Mama say, ‘You going to know how to fight for yourself and how to fend’” (107).