SHORT ESSAY ON TONY MORRISON'S "JAZZ"

1. JAZZ NOVEL
BY TONI MORRISON
THE SEGREGATION BETWEEN
RACES AND ISSUES ON YOUNG
GIRLS’ SEXUAL LIFE IN THE
NOVEL
DELINDA BUDI VISCAYANTI -
13020113140082

2. The author expresses about segregation between races in this novel
clearly. It doesn’t take too much non-sense blabbering. Only by descriptive
information about the condition and the tense between the races in that year, the
author already says what she thinks about the segregation out loud. One of the
quotes that really express her thoughts about segregation is: “White people literally
threw money at you—just for being neighborly: opening a taxi door, picking up a
package. In fact, there were streets where colored people owned all the stores,
whole blocks of handsome colored men and women laughing all night and making
money all day.” (Morrison, 1992: 106) The quotation that have mentioned above, is
an example on how black people were treated by white people during the year
where the novel setting takes place.

3. Also, there’s certain business district only for black people, and only
black people that sell things there, or hang out with friends, who of course also
are the same races. Another quotation comes from the chapter where the
author was talking about Alice. Alice, Dorcas’ aunt also experienced a racism
act from a stranger while she was in the Fifth Avenue, New York City. She was
sitting near white people, and the white people were scout away from where
Alice was. “And women who knew no English at all and would never own a pair
of silk stockings moved away from her if she sat next to them in the trolley”
(Morrison, 1992: 54). A stranger also told her to do not sit near white people,
“Don’t sit there, honey, you never know what they have” (Morrison, 1992: 54).
From what I have read, it means that the author wants to say that segregation
is something that is very usual and common in America, even in sophisticated
places such as Fifth Avenue, New York. The author also says that white people
don’t treat black people fairly. They tend to threaten black people if they come
or sit near them, just like what Alice’s experience.

4. Dorcas lives in Harlem, around 1920s era. That year is actually when the
Harlem Renaissance happened. Harlem Renaissance is a movement around 1920s,
it’s a liberation for literature, music and fine arts by African-American people in
Harlem, New York. For my opinion, the era where Dorcas lives is already modern, but
we could still smell segregation between the white and the black in this novel.
Although, there’s still scandals here and there in the society she lives in. “Violet
invited her in to examine the record and that’s how that scandalizing threesome in
Lenox Avenue began. What turned out different who shot whom” (Morrison, 1992: 6)
from the quotation, we already could get how the society described in the novel.
“Below is shadow where any blasé thing takes place: clarinets and lovemaking, fists
and the voices of sorrowful women. A city like this one makes me dream tall and feel
in on things.” (Morrison, 1992: 7) it clearly mentions how it feels to stand there in the
city that day.

5. The author describes the irony between lovemaking and sorrowful women,
how fists could meet the harmony that clarinets make. It’s full of scandal, but still,
the city makes you want to always dream big. “The people down there in the shadow
are happy about that. At last, at last, everything’s ahead. The smart ones say so and
people listening to them and reading what they write down agree: here comes the
new. Look out. There goes the sad stuff. The bad stuff. The things-nobody-could-help
stuff.” (Morrison, 1992: 7) we could also say that the people in the society and the
followers. They tend to follow the smart ones, they will listen to them, follow and
always agree on whatever they said about things. Maybe there’s a connection when
they used to be a slave, or slavery things their parents taught. That’s why they
couldn’t make their own statements because they can only follow the leader. The
society where Dorcas lives is a place where the people dream about the future, but
behind that, they hid their scandals until another person heard about it and pass it
through other person’s ear.

6. The author also expresses her issue on girls’ sexual life in how young girls
could have an affair with older men. Just like the relationship between Dorcas and
Joe Trace. “Pregnant girls were the most susceptible, but so were the grandfathers.”
(Morrison, 1992: 164) the quotation implies that in that neighborhood, the girls not
always have same age boyfriends, not younger, but much older boyfriends. They
could get pregnant because of them, and that’s all because of the lack of the father
figure between girls in that society. “Who would have thought old men needed to be
cautioned too; told and warned against seeing, smelling or even hearing her?”
(Morrison, 1992: 164) unfortunately, it’s not only the girls, but the old men also have
so much lust that they couldn’t keep it for themselves, but get it all out on young
girls. The young girls there also do the same, they have so much passion, so much
lust that they couldn’t save it only to younger boys, but also to much older men, even
those who already had a wife.