When Lieutenant Cecil Stone speaks, readers remember that Lincoln in the Bardo takes place during the Civil War, a conflict that largely centered around the abolition of slavery. As Stone rants and raves in this racist manner, it becomes clear that his preoccupation with life—the reason he won’t move on from the Bardo—has to do with championing the bigotry he so fully embodied while existing in the living world. Since he’s a lieutenant, it’s reasonable to assume that he fought for the Confederacy in an effort to save slavery from abolition. If this is the case, then his racist vitriol in the Bardo logically represents his life’s project to oppress black people—and it’s worth noting, of course, that this vile project has impeded his ability to successfully transition into the afterlife. Whereas other people find themselves confined to the Bardo for more wholesome and understandable reasons, Lieutenant Stone remains in this realm because he’s utterly incapable of letting go of the antagonistic ideas he tried to force upon the world while he was still alive.