Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Jazz, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Romantic Love
Jazz, Improvisation, and Reinvention
Motherhood
Racial Violence and Protest
Gossip vs. Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
It is July of 1917, and Alice Manfred is watching a march on Fifth Avenue. Alice has felt fear all of her life: first in Illinois, then in Massachusetts, and now on Fifth Avenue, “where salesmen touched her […] as though she were part of the goods they had condescended to sell her,” “where she, a woman of fifty and independent means, had no surname.” The silent, unblinking marchers, all of them Black and beating drums, help Alice feel pain and rage instead of fear.
The march Alice is watching here is known as the 1917 NAACP Silent Protest Parade, a response to white violence all over the country: lynchings in Memphis and Waco, and most horrifically, the East St. Louis Massacre. Implicitly, Alice’s memories of the dehumanizing treatment she faces in her everyday, New York City life shows just how intimately the quotidian experience of racism and segregation—even in northern states like Illinois and Massachusetts and New York—is related to the deadly violence the marchers are protesting.
Themes
Watching this march focuses Alice, especially when it comes to the orphaned little girl newly in her care. Alice now teaches her charge not to acknowledge the cruel things white people say, to never show her hair or wear risqué clothes. And when Alice gets jobs sewing and leaves the girl, Dorcas, to be babysat by some religious ladies, she agrees with the babysitters that red lipstick and “lowdown music” (jazz) are signs of society’s “Imminent Demise.”
Now, readers learn that Dorcas winds up in Alice’s care precisely because of this horrific violence. The strict rules Alice enforces onto her niece result from Alice’s fear that any behavior from Dorcas that is not in line with white expectations could lead her niece to meet with emotional or bodily harm. This kind of thinking is often known as “respectability politics,” and the novel is both sympathetic and critical of it.
Themes
Everyone Alice knows is trying to make sense of the East St. Louis riots that killed Dorcas’s mother (Alice’s sister) and father. Some people say the riots were started by disgruntled Black veterans, fed up with violence that’s worse at home than in Europe. Others believe it was white people, terrified by a new wave of Black prosperity. But Alice, whose brother-in-law owned a pool hall and was just on an everyday bus ride home when he was beaten to death, blames the music. “It made you do unwise disorderly things,” she thinks.
The blame Alice places on jazz, a style of music pioneered and popularized by Black artists, suggests that she has internalized some of the prejudice she faces day in and day out. Though there is clearly a barbarism to the violence that killed Alice’s family, she attributes this not to a white desire to retain economic and political power but to the unpredictability of “unwise disorderly” jazz.
Themes
As Dorcas gets older, Alice cherishes the strengthening memory of the march. Alice also tries to dismiss the music she hears, which church pamphlets tell her is “wasn’t real music—just colored folks’ stuff,” but which she thinks might conceal some “appetite,” some “complicated anger.” The narrator reflects that try as she might, Alice will never totally be able to separate the music she claims to loathe from those pounding Fifth Avenue drums.
Alice prefers the order of the march to the “disorder” of the jazz music, with its “appetite” for change and “the future” (in the narrator’s words). But as the story now makes clear, the hunger in jazz is deeply linked to—and inseparable from—the demands implied by the marchers walking down Fifth Avenue.
Themes
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Dorcas, however, never tries to restrain herself from the “life-below-the-sash” her aunt Alice so loathes. The narrator muses that a spark from the fire that burned Dorcas’s house down must have lodged in the girl’s throat, making her bold. At her parents’ funeral, Dorcas thought not of the mother and father she was losing but of the dolls that had burned to a crisp, who would never have a funeral of their own.
In many ways, Dorcas’s life seems to speak to the way that racial violence and the pleasurable wildness of jazz are linked. Haunted by the unbearable tragedy of her parents’ death, Dorcas throws herself into carnal delight, embracing parties, outré clothing, and romantic/sexual relationships.
Themes
Having seen all of this at such a young age, Dorcas is never anything but “bold.” She is fascinated by stories of women who travel hundreds of miles for the men they love; she treasures hearing about a woman who suffered paralysis after her fiancée left her at the altar. The narrator empathizes with Dorcas’s desire for men. By 17, Dorcas spends all her time wondering what it would be like to have sex, hoping her lovers won’t laugh at the way her naked body looks.
Over and over again, the novel will assert that people’s adult behavior in romantic relationships is linked to their childhood experiences with their parents (or parental figures). Here, Dorcas’s need to be loved and desired perhaps reflects the absence she felt after her parents were both murdered.
Themes
One night, when Dorcas is 16, she sneaks out to a party with her best friend Felice. Being with Felice, whose skin is darker and whose hair is oily, always makes Dorcas feel confident. And tonight, as they take in the records and the alcohol and the dancing, both girls are filled with reckless glee. Dorcas has spent all day trying to make the conservative clothes she has at home look suitable for this evening.
The jazz records at this party are salient, as they represent both the unpredictability of the jazz genre and the repetition of recorded music. Dorcas’ description of Felice once more shows how racism and colorism subtly inflect friendships and day-to-day life: Dorcas believes she’s just a little bit better than her friend because her skin is lighter than Felice’s.
Themes
As the lights dim, Dorcas notices two brothers dancing in the center of the room, commanding all the attention. Dorcas sees the boys whispering about her, and she feels her stomach flip, the sensation that always tells her she has a crush. But before she can approach, Dorcas sees one of the brothers wrinkle his nose at her, and she becomes convinced that “the body she inhabits is unworthy.” The narrator understands, then, why Joe Trace would be appealing to a girl who felt both such “hunger” and such rejection.
One of Morrison’s trademarks as a writer is her ability to highlight how small, seemingly forgettable moments can shape one’s entire future or sense of self. Here, Dorcas’s rejection (based only on her appearance) by these two handsome young men makes her suddenly, desperately crave the affection and devotion Joe Trace might offer her.
Themes
For Joe, running into Dorcas again was merely a happy accident. He had decided to make an early delivery of some of his beauty products, interrupting a luncheon for the Civic Daughters. All the women there were happy to see Joe, flirting with him and feeding him lunch even though he knew it would ruin his appetite for Violet’s fattening cooking. Joe was used to this flirtation, to the way women lit up when they heard his rural intonations—so the narrator has never understood what made Dorcas, and that day, different.
For the first time, the narrator seems forced to admit that she is unable to completely predict why certain interactions or decisions occur. Violet’s fattening cooking hints at Violet’s discomfort in her own body—rather than accepting herself as she is, Violet wants to look different and curvier.
Themes
The narrator wonders if Alice had a premonition that Joe would fall for her niece Dorcas. But probably not—Alice is too busy reading newspapers cover to cover to pay attention to what happens on the street, to learn how people really behave. The narrator thinks that if Alice had come out more, she might have seen Joe’s shots coming. Most of all, the narrator marvels that “the woman who avoided the streets let into her living room the woman who sat down in one.”
Though the narrator critiques Alice Manfred for focusing only on newspapers and not on the world around her, the narrator is guilty of that exact same habit (as she later admits to watching life from her window rather than participating in it). Violet’s willingness to experience life firsthand—to be in “the streets”—forms a complement to Alice’s caution.
Themes
Near the end of March, Alice is knitting and thinking about the “impunity” Joe Trace had to kill her niece. Joe seemed like a sweet, neighborly man, someone whom women could let into their homes and trust. The fact that Joe turned out to be dangerous, then, destroyed Alice; “the brutalizing men and their brutal women,” she learned, “were not just out there, they were in her block, her house.” Now, she spends her time reading newspapers, learning every day of some new violence against women.
Like the narrator, Alice once felt that reading and talking about the news would allow her to distinguish between “the brutalizing men” and the safe ones. But Joe’s murder of Dorcas proves that is no longer true. The violence against women that Alice reads about reminds readers just how intersectional prejudice and harm is—if women are vulnerable in general, then Black women like Alice and Dorcas face danger from many aspects of their identities.
Themes
At first, Alice had thought Dorcas, and most women, were defenseless. But that changed when Violet Trace showed up at Alice’s door, filling Alice with fear. Alice at first turned Violet away, but after Violet (or “Violent,” as people called her now) was gone, Alice found herself newly angry, more furious at Violet than afraid of her. Without realizing it, Alice began to wait for Violet to return.
Previously, Alice felt her fear turned into rage by the marchers on Fifth Avenue; now, her brief encounter with Violet creates a similarly energizing effect. The slippage between the words Violet and “Violent” again demonstrates how the novel uses wordplay to echo the improvisational tones of jazz music.
Themes
Alice reflects that she spent most of her life restraining herself, taught by her parents to avoid pregnancy before marriage at all costs. But while Alice feels she has chosen “surrender,” and forced Dorcas to do the same, they are other women like Violet who have chosen war. With some measure of pride, Alice thinks about the Black women she knows who have hurt men. “Black women were armed,” she muses, “black women were dangerous and the less money they had the deadlier the weapon they chose.”
Alice loathes and condemns the fact that Violet showed up at Dorcas’s funeral with a knife. But privately, Alice also admires that Violet found a way to be “dangerous” instead of “surrendering” to societal danger, claiming some of the agency that Alice feels she has herself never really had.
Themes
Besides, Alice knows there is more than one way of being armed. Some women found protection in God, who they felt was angry and judgmental, taking revenge on their behalf. Other women hoarded money and houses, hoping wealth would keep them safe. So maybe it is unsurprising that Alice feels comfortable with Violet, who holds a knife and leaves notes under her door for months, pleading to be let in. One day in February, Alice finally decides to open her door.
It is important to track the passage of time—the story begins with death in the dead of winter, but Alice and Violet’s friendship starts in February, a moment of symbolic and literal thaw. The seasons are at once cyclical and changeable, just like the emerging bond between these two women.
Themes
As soon as Violet walks into Alice’s apartment for the first time, she heads straight to the picture of Dorcas. Alice’s nervousness is evident, but Violet assures her that she has nothing to fear. Whenever Alice presses Violet for answers or insight, Violet seems just as confused as Alice herself was. Indeed, Violet seems overwhelmed just being there, complaining of a headache and asking to lie down.
The narrator seems determined to offer neat, straightforward explanations for even confusing behavior (like the fact that Alice lets the woman who stabbed her niece into her apartment). But Alice and Violet are comfortable with uncertainty and contradiction.
Themes
The next time Violet comes, Alice asks if Joe was violent to her. Violet explains that he wasn’t: before Dorcas, Joe had never hurt anything but the animals he used to hunt. But Alice doesn’t want to hear Violet describe her history with Joe, so she sends her away. The next day, Alice, bothered by Violet’s shabby appearance, offers to repair a tear in Violet’s dress. Violet never takes off her hat during these visits.
Violet’s comments about Joe here once more ties his feelings for Dorcas to his years hunting in childhood, suggesting again that youthful experience impacts adult behavior. Alice’s decision to mend Violet’s dress hints at the almost maternal cast that their relationship takes on.
Themes
Alice, remembering what it felt like to iron men’s clothing, is now ironing every scrap of fabric in her house. She has started to look forward to Violet’s visits, though these visits make her angry. But Alice likes how she is when she is with Violet—less polite and nervous, ready to joke and unwilling to apologize.
It seems that some of Violet’s bravery is rubbing off on Alice; for the first time, Alice is comfortable enough to mock or challenge the inequities in her life rather than trying to ignore or contort herself for them.
Themes
As Alice makes tea, Violet tells stories about the sex workers whose hair she cuts. Sometimes, Alice wonders how anyone could kill anyone else; Violet counters that women should fight for their men. Alice does not say this to Violet, but she has her own memories of an unfaithful husband, now buried in Springfield, Massachusetts. For seven months after her husband left her, Alice had thirsted for blood, imagining violent ends for all of his mistresses.
Now, Violet emerges as an even more concrete mirror for Alice, as Alice, too, has been betrayed by a husband. Alice’s fantasies of violence complicate the tidy divide the narrator has tried to draw between the two women, a reminder that characterization is never as easy as the archetypes created by gossip.
Themes
At the end of those seven months, however, Alice’s husband had died; she had planned his funeral. One of the mistresses attended, and Alice felt she wasn’t allowed to say a word about any of her pain. Thinking of all this, Alice slams her iron down and turns to Violet. “You don’t know what loss is,” Alice says.
The sheer degree of loss Alice has experienced is staggering: her sister was killed, her husband left her and then died, and now her only family—Dorcas—has also been murdered. But in some ways, Alice feels she “knows” most of all because she has had to suffer in silence, losing not only the people she loved but the ability to talk about those losses with others.
Themes
