Abandonment in "Jazz"
page 100
He'd be in his seventies by now. Slower for sure, and maybe he'd lost the
teeth that made the smile that made the sisters forgive him . . . For who
could keep him down, this defiant birthday-every-day man who dispensed
gifts and stories that kept them so rapt their forgot for a while a
bone-clean cupboard . . . Forgot why he left in the first place and was
forced to sneak into his own home ground. In his company forgetfulness
fell like pollen. But for Violet the pollen never blotted out Rose. In
the midst of the joyful resurrection of this phantom father, taking
pleasure in the distribution of his bounty both genuine and fake, Violet
never forgot Rose Dear or the place she had thrown herself into -- a
place so narrow, so dark it was pure, breathing relief to see her
stretched in a wooden box.
Questions:
1) What part of her father's bounty was genuine and what part was fake?
Can you read this on a symbolic level?
Comments:
I think this passage helps to explain why Violet reacted the way she did
when she discovered Joe was having an affair with Dorcas. Some of the
blinding rage she felt probably had a lot to do with her father leaving
her mother and the anger she felt at her father for doing this.
[Next] View the next Abandonment quote.
Return to the Jazz page.
Return to the Toni Morrison Homepage.