Student Question
When writing Jazz, Toni Morrison “was interested in rendering a period in African American life through a specific lens—one that would reflect the content and characteristics of its music [jazz]… and the manner of its expression.” Just as jazz music can free musicians from the strict forms and notations found in classical music, it also frees the characters of the novel from the strictness of narrative and from the life of struggle they are trapped in.
Jazz has the ability to mutate the atmosphere of a place or the tone of the novel.
Up there, in that part of the City—which is the part they came for—the right tune whistled in the doorway or lifting up from the circles and grooves of a record can change the weather. From freezing to hot to cool (45).
In Harlem, Morrison's narrator observes how the unrestricted and unregulated notes of jazz have...
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the ability to "change the weather." The narrator also regulates the narrative's pace in a similar fashion, delving into the minds of the characters and using unregulated paces to articulate thoughts and feelings that defy systemization:
Yet Alice Manfred swore she heard a complicated anger in [the music]; something hostile that disguised itself as flourish and roaring seduction. But the part she hated most was its appetite. It faked happiness, faked welcome, but it did not make her feel generous, this juke joint, barrel hooch, tonk house, music (113).
Not only does the music house a "complicated anger," it also has the ability to produce an effect on characters like Alice who disapprove of it. Jazz articulates her own complicated anger with itself. Though she does not appreciate jazz or its sexual connotations, jazz makes her react strongly even as she resists it.
Jazz is also used to highlight the relationships between different characters. When Violet thinks of the affair between Joe and Dorcas, she imagines:
And when "Wings Over Jordan" came on he probably turned the volume down so he could hear her when she sang along with the choir instead of up so as to drown out her rendition of "Lay my body down" (149).
Joe's affinity for Dorcas's voice is a symbol of his love and affection for her. He would rather hear Dorcas sing than listen to a professional recording. This form of tenderness is an indication of their new love. By the end of the novel, jazz also becomes a symbol for Joe and Violet's recovered love:
"Somebody in the house across the alley put a record on and the music floated in to us through the open window. Mr. Trace moved his head to the rhythm and his wife snapped her fingers in time" (255).
Despite the fact that their relationship has seen infidelity and funeral attacks, Joe and Violet heal their relationship and settle into each others' company. Their comfort and concordance is reflected as they join in on a song, his head moving to the rhythm of a song as her body becomes part of the instruments (through snapping). Their mutual enjoyment of jazz is a reflection of the concordance in their relationship.
Jazz plays an important part in the novel as it acts as an organizing structure for the characters. Their personal feelings as well as their dynamics with other characters reflect the jazz that plays throughout the novel. It situates the novel in 1920s Harlem and provides the background against which the characters live their lives.