Themes: Reformation of Family Through Grief and Suffering
One of the central paradoxes in Jazz is the rebuilding of the family unit through the experiences of grief and suffering. Alice, aware from a young age that calling the police in the ghetto is pointless, sees no formal investigation into either Dorcas's murder or Violet's behavior at the funeral home. Violet and Joe are left to confront their feelings of guilt and seek reconciliation independently, somewhat shunned by their community.
Violet's path to healing involves creating a connection with Alice, the aunt of her victim. She reaches out to Alice to better understand the young woman she had once attacked, even though she is deceased. Following a tense first meeting at Alice's apartment, they develop a closeness based on their shared experiences as black women and a mutual desire to honor Dorcas's memory. Alice shares with Violet her regret that her strict parenting of Dorcas might have led to her rebellious behavior and eventual death.
Through their discussions, Alice starts to come to terms with her own past thoughts of revenge when her husband left her for another woman. Violet, who initially approached Alice simply to find a place to rest—"I had to sit down somewhere"—begins to feel a maternal affection for Dorcas, as portrayed in Alice's stories. She realizes that she and Dorcas had more in common than just their affection for Joe: "I was a good girl her age ... Till I got here. City make you tighten up." Violet keeps Dorcas's photo to connect her with the daughters she miscarried and her own lost youth.
As Violet and Joe gradually work toward reconciliation through shared guilt and pain, they reconstruct their fractured family with a makeshift one. Felice, Dorcas's best friend, is among the first to visit their apartment since the tragic events, to reclaim the ring her mother stole and lent to Dorcas on the night Joe killed her. Over time, Felice develops a caring relationship with both Joe, her friend's older lover, and Violet, the woman who once disfigured her friend's body and has been the topic of much local gossip. She learns the ring was buried with Dorcas but continues her visits, sharing her family history and processing her own complex emotions about Dorcas's death. In this improvised family, there is a sense of understanding, care, and mutual support with minimal demands. For instance, Felice brings records when she visits, and Joe has finally agreed to purchase a phonograph. Violet styles Felice's hair for free—creating perhaps the closest approximation of a fully functioning family unit in Morrison's fiction, united by a common purpose and sharing both responsibilities and affection.
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Themes: Search for Identity and Family
Themes: Redemptive Power of Suffering and Acceptance