Blog Entry #3

"A poisoned silence floated through the rooms like a big fishnet that Violet alone slashed through with loud recriminations. Joe's daytime listlessness and both their worrying nights must have wore her down. So she decided to love--"(5).

Violet is one of the main characters in the novel Jazz. Her husband had an affair with an 18 year old girl without Violet knowing about it until he decided to kill the young girl. This of course made their relationship worse than it already was. Because they had been married so long, the relationship was changing, and slowly fading. The death of Violet's husband Joe's mistress, only made things more difficult. When the narrator says 'a poisoned silence' she is setting a tone that the reader can almost feel. Poison is something that can kill someone, this means that the silence had the ability not to necessarily kill Violet, but 'wear her down.' Floating has a good connotation. When something floats its light as a feather, and relaxing, so when the narrator says 'a poisoned silence that floated through the rooms' means that the although the silence is strong and can kill, it softly floats through each of the rooms creeping up on Violet making her mind go crazy and think crazy thoughts. 'A big fishnet' is something used to catch fishes, so the silence captured Violet but she 'slahsed' through them implying that she fought through the silence with loud accusations. Joe's 'listlessness' means that he has no interest in anything, and because they both worry at night all of this weakens Violet. Despite all of this, she thinks that 'to love' might be the cure to this problem. In Paradise, on of the preachers stated that love was a privilege, something you had to learn..whereas here, Violet thinks love will cure her problem....

"Daylight slants like a razor cutting the buildings in half...[B]elow is shadow where any blase' 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" (7).

The setting of this book takes place in New York. The narrator seems to love New York. 'The daylight slants like a razor cutting the buildings in half' implies that there's a light side to the city and a dark side. The dark side portrays 'blase' meaning anything unimpressive that happens such as: 'clarinets and lovemaking, fists and the voices of sorrowful women.' This means that none of those things are impressive to the people in New York. It's funny how a city like that makes the narrator 'dream tall and feel in on things.' In the novel Paradise, although it was a small town with only black people, only the elderly loved it, while the younger wanted to venture out and explore. Whereas here, the people such as the narrator, seems to love New York and not want to leave.

"The young are not so young here, and there is no such thing as midlife. Sixty years, forty, even, is as much as anybody feels like being bothered with. If they reach that, or get very old, they sit around looking at goings-on as though it were a five-cent triple feature on Saturday" (11).

Living in New York city implies that the youth grow up quickly and probably don't have much of a childhood. Instead of enjoying life as an old person they dont even feel like enjoying them. Forty-sixty years is not even that old, but because of the life that these people live, it seems old to them. In the book Paradise the elderly gave back to the community by sharing old stories and wisdom. Instead, these elderly people 'sit around looking at goings-on.'

"This notion of rest, it's attractive to her, but I don't think she would like it. They are all like that, these women. Waiting for the ease, the space that need not be filled with anything other than the drift of their own thoughts. But they wouldn't like it. They are busy and thinking of ways to be busier because such a space of nothing pressing to do would knock them down" (16).

It seems as though women are stereotyped as complaining about how much they want rest but when they get rest they end up not knowing how to control it. When the narrator says 'waiting for the ease, the space that need not be filled with anything other than the drift of their own thoughts' meaning they don't want to face themselves. If they have nothing to do, they won't know what to do.


"It was a randy aggressiveness he had enjoyed because he had not used or needed it before. The ping of desire that surfaced along with his whisper through the closing door he began to curry. First he pocketed it, taking pleasure in knowing it was there. Then he unboxed it to bring out and admire at his leisure. He did not yearn or pine for the girl, rather he thought about her, and decided" (29).

The narrator is describing Joe's feelings towards his 18 year old mistress Dorcas. His 'randy agressiveness' was like a forceful energy that he used to pull Dorcas in. He never needed to pull Violet in because he never had to. When he 'curried' his desire, he disciplined it. When it says he 'pocketed it' its implying that he kept it there just so it could be there without him having to acknowledge that it was there. He was able to love his desire whenever he wanted. When it says he did not 'yearn or pine for the girl' its implying that he did not actually desire her, things just kind of happened. This is similiar in the book Paradise because one of the men did not really desire Consalata, he just kind of decided on her and things lead to another. That man was also married to another woman as well. Morrison could be trying to state that even though men seem to be "good" men, they are still men, and men do things not meaning to hurt others intentionally..they just do things not knowing why they're doing it..