Themes: Fear and Power of Music
Alice Manfred fears the power of such music. The drumbeat she hears on Fifth Avenue in 1917, as frozen black faces march past her and her young niece, draws her in, providing her with “a rope cast for rescue” from the alienation and distance from everyone that she has felt since her husband left her for another woman many years ago. That music, like that of the church, sustains, but jazz is dangerous, smells of flesh, and reminds her of “the life below the sash.” She believed the ministers and editorialists who claimed “it wasn’t real music—just colored folks’ stuff: harmful, certainly; embarrassing, of course; but not real, not serious.” Such music lures Dorcas to Joe Trace, nightclubs, parties, young men, and death. From such powerful forces, Alice eventually flees.
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