Jazz

Jazz by Toni Morrison is the second installment of the Beloved trilogy. Morrison outlines the entirety of the plot in the first paragraph of the novel, allowing the rest of the text to explore the histories and emotional landscapes of the characters. Set in Harlem in the 1920s, Joe Trace has an affair with a young woman named Dorcas. When Dorcas later rejects Joe, he relentlessly searches for her. Joe sees Dorcas dancing with another man at a party and kills her. When Joe’s wife learns of the affair and murder, she learns everything she can about the girl, embarking on her own journey of self-discovery. The novel incorporates the stories of many characters connected to Joe, Violet, and Dorcas, revealing the communal nature of trauma and joy.

This guide utilizes the 2004 First Vintage International Edition from Penguin Random House LLC.

Content Warning: This guide discusses themes and content present in Jazz, including racist violence and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

Set in Harlem in 1926, Jazz tells the story of Joe and Violet Trace, a couple living in the city after leaving Virginia 20 years earlier. In the first paragraph, Morrison presents the major details of the plot in the form of intimate gossip. The remaining chapters develop the complexity of emotions and experiences of each of the characters and evokes the pain and optimism indicative of jazz music. The novel is the embodiment of the Jazz Age and uses techniques from the musical genre to form its structure and plot. Morrison examines the themes Violence as an Act of Love, Relationships and Trauma, and Desire and Possession while exploring the impact of racial violence on romantic love.

In Chapters 1-2, the reader learns that Joe Trace had an affair with a young woman named Dorcas before shooting her. Dorcas refused to go to a hospital because she feared her lover would be arrested. After her death, Violet, Joe’s wife, showed up at the funeral with a knife and attempted to cut off Dorcas’s face. Violet returned home and released her pet birds. Now that these events have passed, Violet becomes obsessed with learning what she can about Dorcas and even places a photograph of the girl on their mantelpiece. She and Joe are haunted by the memory of the girl in different ways.

Chapters 3-4 bring new perspectives to the story. In Chapter 3, Joe Trace’s first encounter with Dorcas is revisited through the lens of her aunt. Alice Manfred recalls Dorcas’s history and contemplates the violence enacted by Joe, a kind and nonviolent neighbor. Violet begins visiting Alice to find out more about Dorcas, and the two women form a strange and unlikely friendship. They don’t feel the need to be polite toward one another, and Violet’s overt anger causes Alice to question her own. In Chapter 4, Violet remembers her mother’s death and the first time she met Joe. She feels split into two people—one full of anger and strength and one trying to salvage a broken life.

In Chapters 5-6, Morrison expands upon the histories that led to Dorcas’s murder. In Chapter 5, Joe recalls more details from his relationship with Dorcas. His obsession stemmed from his mother’s abandonment and his desire to preserve his youth. When Dorcas began to treat him coldly, he tracked her down and confronted her. Chapter 6 provides the history of True Belle, Violet’s grandmother. True Belle helped to care for a boy named Golden Gray while working for his mother in Baltimore. True Belle revealed to Golden that his father was a Black man named Henry. Golden traveled to Virginia to find his father and came across a naked and unconscious Black woman on the side of the road. He took the woman to an empty house, only to discover that it was the house of his father.

Chapters 7-8 draw together the connecting threads of the seemingly disparate stories. Henry called the naked woman “Wild” as he helped her deliver her baby. When the boy was born, Wild would not look at him or nurse him. Henry secured a family for the boy, the infant Joe Trace, and taught him how to hunt. Joe used what he knew to search for his mother. When he found her, he asked her to acknowledge him as her son. Wild said nothing, and Joe shot at her. However, his gun was not loaded. Years later, Joe discovered Dorcas at a party, dancing with another man. Feeling rejected once more, Joe shot Dorcas. As she died, she refused to name her killer.

In Chapters 9-10, the narration shifts to a new character. Felice, Dorcas’s friend, learns that Joe continues to mourn the death of the young girl. To help Joe and relocate a ring she loaned to Dorcas, Felice shows up on Joe and Violet’s doorstep. She develops a friendship with the couple, and, together, the three of them begin to heal.