Dissection of Toni Morrison’s Jazz

The importance of tracking and tracing

By:

Catherine Parsley

Tracking and Tracing in Jazz

• Joe’s last name- Trace

• Hunter’s Hunter- tracking in the country

• Joe’s search for Dorcas- tracking in the city

• Joe had to track Dorcas down but simply found Violet– Dorcas is like Wild- difference between

country and city again

Beginnings

• I first noticed the theme of tracking on page 130 in this passage:– Toni Morrison’s reading of Jazz

Audio 1

Page 130 in Jazz

Image 1

What I noticed

• The first thing I noticed when I read this passage was the two different spellings of the same word– “hoofmarks” and “hoof marks”

• Is there supposed to be this difference?

• What does it mean?

• Can these questions be answered using Morrison’s reading of Jazz?

Difference in sound

“hoofmarks” “hoof marks”

Do they sound different?

Audio 2 Audio 3

Difference in looks

“hoofmarks” “hoof marks”

Do the audio waves look different?

Image 2 Image 3

What’s the meaning?• I have concluded that the space has been put in for

emphasis– Morrison doesn’t use other techniques for emphasis, and if

the words are read differently, they mean slightly different things

• It is hard to use the audio version as a measuring stick– It can be considered its own literary form and not a

duplicate of the printed version– Vocal inflection can do the job for you when you are

listening, but the text needs a different cue for when it is read silently

• With the second use of the word, Morrison is stressing that Joe cannot live without the hoof marks because then he would not longer have a trail to keep him in check

The

End

Sources used in the projectPrimary Sources• Morrison, Toni. Jazz. New York: Vintage, 2004. Print.• Image 1- photograph of page 130 in Toni Morrison’s Jazz. Taken by

Catherine Parsley, 11-27-10.• Image 2- audio waves for “hoofmarks”. Taken from Audacity using a

screen grab, 11-23-10.• Image 3- audio waves for “hoof marks”. Taken from Audacity using a

screen grab, 11-23-10.• Audio 1- Toni Morrison reading Jazz, page 130. Edited from secondary

source by Catherine Parsley, 11-11-10.• Audio 2- “hoofmarks”. Edited from secondary source by Catherine

Parsley, 11-16-10.• Audio 3- “hoof marks”. Edited from secondary source by Catherine

Parsley, 11-16-10.

Secondary Sources• Morrison, Toni. Jazz. 1992. Read by Toni Morrison. Audiocassette.

Random House, 1992.