SOURCE: Lewis, Barbara Williams. “The Function of Jazz in Toni Morrison's Jazz.” In Toni Morrison's Fiction: Contemporary Criticism, edited by David L. Middleton, pp. 271-81. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997.

In the following essay, Lewis argues that Morrison's Jazz may be categorized as a “jazz novel,” in that the narrative structure of the story is based on stylistic techniques of jazz music.

It don't mean a thing If it ain't got that swing. Doo wop, doo wop, doo wop, doo wah … 

—Duke Ellington, 1932

If we look at the beginning and end of Toni Morrison's Jazz, the novel appears to be structurally backwards. The opening paragraph tells the whole story: Joe Trace

… fell for an eighteen-year-old girl with one of those deepdown, spooky loves that made him so sad and happy he shot her just to keep the feeling going. When the woman, her name is Violet, went to the...