Abstract

 Toni Morrison's work Jazz describes a tragic love story among a black couple and a black girl. It reflects the city life of African-Americans in 1920s. At the historic change point of time, African-Americans were forced to leave their hometown, move into big cities for better opportunities. As the discrimination narrowed their living space and the hardship of surviving in big cities give them huge pressure. Under the influence of Jazz Age, Toni Morrison uses jazz music as reference, adopts its features. By analyzing the improvisatory, melancholy and complexity shown in the novel Jazz, the influence by jazz music is proved. Due to this influence and the unique way of organizing the whole novel, a vivid story and stereoscopic characters are shown by Toni Morrison, and it makes readers introspect the inner causes of the tragedies.

Key words: Jazz; Music; Toni Morrison

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction.-1

2. The Improvisatory In Jazz.5

2.1 The Improvisatory On Structure.5

2.2 The Improvisatory On Content.6

3. The Melancholy In Jazz.8

3.1 The Tragedy of the Environment9

3.2 The Tragedies of Characters10

3.2.1 The Tragedy of Violet.10

3.2.2The Tragedy of Joe11

3.2.3 The Tragedy of Dorcas.13

4. The Complexity In Jazz.14

4.1 The Complexity On Writing Methods.14

4.2 The Complexity On Content.-15

5. Conclusion17

Bibliography.19

Acknowledgments-20