Previous
Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Jazz, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Romantic Love
Jazz, Improvisation, and Reinvention
Motherhood
Racial Violence and Protest
Gossip vs. Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
The narrator boasts that it is “risky” to try and understand anybody’s mental state, but that she is determined to try. She notes that Joe likely never knew about True Belle, about what happened after Violet’s father joined a party that advocated for Black voting rights and Rose Dear had the house taken away. When True Belle arrived, the family was living off of whatever Violet and her sisters could forage, plus what the neighbors could spare.
As the story spins forward, the narrator seems to feel increasing doubt in her ability to accurately assess what is happening in the brains of those around her (though she is still determined to do so). Structurally, it is vital to note that the story continues to loop back on itself, like a theme with variations—a fitting form for a novel with varied, circular jazz as its subject.
Themes
True Belle stayed with Violet and her siblings for 11 years. During that time, True Belle talked constantly about Vera Louise, the white lady in Baltimore she used to work for, and Golden Gray, Vera Louise’s son. Golden was named because of the color of his skin and his hair, which was darker than his mother’s but radiantly gold. Both True Belle and Vera Louise devoted all their time to the baby boy.
It is clear from the way True Belle talks about Golden that more than being drawn to him as a person, she is intrigued by the little boy’s proximity to whiteness. Given True Belle’s age, readers can assume that her work with Vera Louise at least began while Vera’s family enslaved True Belle, further complicating the adoration True Belle seems to express for Golden.
Themes
Vera Louise told everyone that she had come to Baltimore because she hated country life. But the real reason Vera Louise left home was because of her affair with an enslaved Black man. When Vera’s parents learned that their daughter was pregnant with Golden Gray, they kicked her out, giving her enough money to sustain herself for the rest of her life.
Though Golden Gray has previously seemed to be white, this plot reveal demonstrates that he is in fact mixed-race (albeit white passing). Again, the fact that most of the story’s twists happen in the past suggests that surprise lives more in people’s internal logic than in the facts of their lives.
Themes
Vera wanted True Belle to come with her, so True Belle had to leave her own small children. Though True Belle had no choice in the matter, she tried to convince herself that it would be fun to live in a big city, and that Vera might one day pay her enough money to buy her children’s freedom. True Belle stayed for 22 years before, after convincing Vera that she was dying, she returned to Vesper County with the wages that Vera had “held in trust” for her since the war ended.
Vera Louise styles herself as a modern woman, free of some of the biases that her slaveholder parents possess. Yet Vera’s willingness to separate True Belle from her family, and to not actually give her the money she is owed for her work, suggests that Vera is merely dressing up the practices of enslavement with fancier, more progressive language.
Themes
Get the entire Jazz LitChart as a printable PDF.
Now, the narrator pictures Golden Gray, as clever and handsome and fancy as True Belle has described him to be. In the narrator’s mind, Golden has set off from home in a small carriage, with a stately black horse pulling the way. In the back of the carriage, Golden has brought beautiful items from home. It is August and pouring rain, and Golden’s carriage hits a pothole. He gets out to examine the damage.
The narrator seems to have inherited some of True Belle’s fascination with Golden Gray, romanticizing him to her readers just as True Belle romanticized him to her granddaughters. And vitally, everything the narrative presents about Golden Gray is filtered through the narrator’s conjecture.
Themes
Suddenly, Golden notices a dark-skinned woman in the woods. When the woman sees him, she runs in terror and hits her head, knocking herself out. Golden is not quite sure if the woman is real or if he has hallucinated her, so he gets off his horse and goes to the place where the woman fell. He holds his breath, worried about catching anything from her, anything that might “touch or penetrate” him.
Though Golden has recently learned of his own Blackness, the racism he has been raised with makes him react to the injured woman with disgust and cruelty. The words “touch or penetrate” hint that there is a specifically sexual undertone to some of Golden’s racial anxiety.
Themes
Golden thinks about leaving the woman in the woods, but he decides against it; he thinks Vera Louise would be shocked by the idea of him bringing the woman into his carriage, and this image pleases him. So Golden hoists the woman and carries her into the carriage, noticing the blood on her neck and hoping she will not die. He wonders what his father, a Black man whom he has never met, will think of his son showing up with this woman in tow. Every time Golden thinks of his father, he uses a slur.
Tellingly, Golden’s decision to help the woman (whose identity is revealed later) is not motivated by any sort of care or moral obligation. Instead, Golden is driven by resentment for his mother, a desire to prove himself, and an anti-Black hatred that shows up in the horrific language he uses to describe even his own father.
Themes
Finally, Golden arrives at the house True Belle has described to him. He ties his horse up front, then goes in and puts his trunk down in the small, tidy cottage. Then, Golden brings the woman from the carriage into the house and lies her down on a cot. To avoid ruining his coat, Golden finds a green dress in the house, and he lays it over the woman.
Golden’s sense of entitlement to this small cottage speaks to the immense white privilege he has grown up with. The green dress now emerges as a symbol of Golden’s simultaneous desire to take some form of care and (because he is worried about ruining his clothes above all else) his limits as a caretaker.
Themes
Golden thinks back on the last week. His whole life, he believed that he was white—but now, he has learned from his mother that his father is a Black man named Henry Lestory, the man who owns this house. True Belle had told Golden where to find his father, her final kindness after a lifetime of mending his shirts and sending him homemade treats when he went to boarding school. His whole life, Golden had thought there were only two types of people—white people, and “True Belle’s kind. Black and nothing.”
Even though Golden’s closest relationship seems to be with True Belle, who never showed him anything but tenderness and care, his racist beliefs are so strong that he feels like he can dismiss True Belle as “nothing” simply because of the dark color of her skin.
Themes
Golden finds some liquor in the house, and he drinks it. The narrator wonders if she should hate Golden, as he worries about his trunk before he worries about the injured woman (“he checks the fastenings, but not her breath”). But then the narrator decides to forgive him, because she imagines he scrapes the mud off his “Baltimore soles” as he enters the dirt cabin.
The narrator has never been objective, but here, she loses herself entirely in the characters she is inventing, imagining things about Golden and then having an emotional response to her own conjectures. Golden’s focus on property above the wellbeing and survival of this Black woman echoes the discomfort that Alice Manfred was made to feel in department stores, when she was treated by white salespeople as if she was herself a commodity.
Themes
Back in the cabin, Golden is still avoiding the woman on the bed. As he struggles to process his conflicting emotions, the narrator reflects that he is shaping a story “to tell his father”; Golden thinks he is being a hero to this young woman, though the narrator knows that he is really a “hypocrite.” The narrator resents that Golden wants to brag about his behavior, but when she thinks about how young he is, that he is “hurting,” she decides she doesn’t “hate him at all.”
Though the narrator criticizes Golden for shaping his own story so actively, she is doing the same thing as she recounts her narrative to her readers. In Golden, the narrator embraces the contradiction she denies Joe and Violet, acknowledging both that Golden’s beliefs are inconsistent and that his feelings of abandonment and confusion are real and painful.
Themes
A young Black boy on a mule, later identified as Honor, approaches the house, and Golden comes out to see who it is. Golden is rude, but the boy (assuming that Golden is white) notes that he is slightly less rude than most white people. Honor informs Golden that Henry will be back soon, though Golden misses the pride in Honor’s voice when he mentions that Henry has entrusted him with some household tasks.
Here, it is likely that the narrator is reshaping Honor’s thoughts to make them more sympathetic to Golden. Honor seems touched to be trusted by the respected man, something that readers should keep in mind for later.
Themes
Now, Golden changes into his nicest outfit. He marvels at the fact that he never missed having a father until he learned that he had one; he feels that this parent is like a phantom limb that he needs, even though it will cause him pain. For a moment, Golden decides he does not care about his father’s race. All he hopes for, he thinks, is that “we will both be free, arm-tangled and whole.”
Golden’s feelings of abandonment seem to confirm all the narrator’s worst suspicions about the cyclical nature of relationships—he felt abandoned, and that abandonment transferred to the children who came into contact with him (both Joe and Violet, in different ways). And more contradictions emerge: even as Golden’s racism is anything but freeing, he hopes that bonding with his father will allow them both to feel newly “free.”
Themes
The narrator now berates herself for not giving Golden enough credit—“I have been careless and stupid,” she confesses, “and it infuriates me to discover (again) how unreliable I am.” The narrator wonders what kind of private hurt Golden walks around with, and she hopes that he finds some measure of peace. Golden orders Honor to tend to the woman on the bed, and the boy does so. Golden realizes he is ready for the woman’s “deer eyes” to open.
Here, the narrator’s doubts about her invented stories now take on new stakes, as she becomes frustrated with herself for failing to understand the past and present from the comfort of her room. For the first time, it seems that the narrator’s desire to know everything is self-protective; if she is “careless and stupid,” unable to “rely” on her own conjectured stories, what can the narrator ever truly rely on for stability and safety?
Themes
