Conceptualization of Violence in Toni Morrison’s Jazz

The 1992 historical novel, Jazz by Tony Morrison is mostly narrated in Harlem during the 1920s. Through exploring the past of various characters both male and female, Morrison exposes the panic stricken brutal realities of the black urban existence and life of woman in a society like America. This paper gives a deep insight into the theme of violence; its subset collocation among various characters and analyses the victimisation and emotional traumas put up with characters like Violet, Joe, Dorcas, Alice Manfred, Vera Louise, Golden Gray, the unnamed Dark Lady and Wild. Love and obsession are the two side of a same coin, similar in certain aspects but varied in its form and nature. Love is soothing, supportive and an uncontrollable feeling when a person wants best for his/her loved ones even if they are not part of their lives, whereas obsession is an insane, violent feeling that is capable of hurting others with the clutchers of manic love. The awful and appalling love in Morisson’s novel is accomplished with psychological, social, historic, cultural and economic ingredients of urban Black life.