Beauty in "Jazz"
page 67
The brothers smile brilliantly; one leans a fraction of an inch toward
the other and, never losing eye contact with Dorcas, whispers something.
The other looks Dorcas up and down as she moves toward them. Then, just
as the music, slow and smoky, loads up the air, his smile bright as ever,
he wrinkles his nose and turns away.
Dorcas has been acknowledged, appraised, and dismissed in the time it
takes or a needle to find its opening groove. The stomach-jump of
possible love is nothing compared to the ice floes that block up her
veins now. The body she inhabits is unworthy. Although it is young and
all she has, it is as if it had decayed on the vine at budding time.
Questions:
1) Does this scene have anything to do with Dorcas and Joe Trace getting
together?
Comments:
Anyone who hasn't experienced this pain of dismissal wouldn't understand
the effect this had on seventeen-year-old Dorcas.
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