Chapter 52 and the origin of Jes Grew
Both Chapter 52 and Chapter 52 are some of the most unique chapters in Mumbo Jumbo . Serving as an expositional backstory to the mysterious phenomenon of Jes Grew, Reed intersects mythology and historical fiction in a distinctive manner, and utilizes the ideas of historical fiction to shape the mythology of Jes Grew. Mythology and religion commonly have some basis in reality or history - think of Jesus, who was a real person, many kings who were worshipped after presumably going through deification, and others. Reed extends this ideology to Egyptian mythology and deities, and presumes that the central figures Osiris and Set were real people. In fact, Reed focuses more on Osiris and Set as characters in a historical narrative, and only alludes to the mythological significance of their actions and existence occasionally. At the start, we see that "Osiris was so adept at ... agriculture that people began to circulate stories that his mother was the sky Nut and the earth his f...