SE Academic Review 2023

5 ACADEMIC REVIEW 2023

Morrison also explores the impact of slavery on the relationship between Joe and his own identity in Jazz . This brings forth the notion that the impact of slavery on relationships can still be felt despite the abolition of the slave trade. As well as portraying Joe’s changing relationship with his wife and his lover, the novel also explores his relationship with his own self and the search for his own identity despite the madness, loss and dissolution he endures. The character’s search for his identity is reflected in his own last name: Trace. Joe describes how he ‘told the teacher [he] was Joe Trace’ (p. 124), signifying his lack of cultural and ancestral identity. The absence of a name is an emblem of those who did not have one as a result of slavery and hence magnifies how the impacts of enslavement have left a legacy which is still felt in the lives of African-Americans. Moreover, the influence of the aftermath of slavery on Joe’s own relationship with himself is affirmed in the novel due to Morrison’s use of a motif when searching for Symbolism The symbolism in Beloved and Jazz is representative of the impact of slavery and how it still affects relationships. The home in Beloved and also Sethe’s milk convey the hardships of slavery and its impact on familial relationships. The house in Beloved contrasts with traditional connotations of a home as somewhere warm and welcoming. The novel’s first lines describe the house, ‘124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom’. (p. 1). The personification of the house, by describing it as possessing emotion, assists Morrison in communicating the horror and trauma that occurred in 124. Morrison uses the house to symbolise the pain and suffering that had been endured as a result of slavery; this notion is further instilled in the description of the house’s history when she tells us ‘124 was used as a way station’ (p. 77) for people trying to escape slavery – much like Sethe herself. However, 124 was not always the cold, unearthly house it is described as: ‘Before 124 and everybody in it had closed down…124 had been a cheerful, buzzing house’ (p. 101). Through depicting the cheerful atmosphere the house used to possess, Morrison provides a stark contrast and signals that the actions of Sethe – which were caused by the fear of enslavement – have destroyed the warm atmosphere of 124. As a consequence of Sethe’s actions, Morrison uses the change in the atmosphere of the house to

his mother, Wild. Morrison uses recurring images of traces and tracks to emphasise Joe’s loneliness and absence of his own identity. ‘He had seen traces of her in those woods…but he saw tracks enough to know she was there’ (pp. 176-177). Joe uses the search for Wild as a means to connect with himself and to learn about his heritage in order to form a stronger relationship with his own self (Bernatonyé, 2011). The motif of tracks and traces amplifies Joe’s desire to search for his identity; the repetition of this imagery mirrors Joe’s thoughts – he is constantly searching for who he really is in order to fully understand himself. Joe’s search for Wild and his search for who he truly is are resonant of the lack of identity of those who endured the slave trade, with people being taken from their homes and forced to change their names. Morrison uses Jazz as a means to communicate this important part of African-American history and how the legacy of slavery still impacted millions of black, modern individuals as represented by Joe in Jazz . represent the grief and affliction that has occurred; the change of 124 from a cheerful, buzzing house to possessing a spiteful nature signifies how the pain of slavery never disappears and instead leaves a legacy forever. Sethe’s milk is also used as a symbol to depict to the reader the destruction that slavery has caused on relationships. A mother’s milk carries connotations of love, new life and the responsibility that a mother has for her child; throughout the novel we understand the importance of milk for Sethe. As a young child, we understand that Sethe had ‘no nursing milk to call [her] own’ (p. 236). This memory stays with Sethe for the rest of her life and as a result she vows that ‘no one will ever get [her] milk no more except [her] own children’ (p. 236). This foregrounds how her experience in slavery has affected her relationship with her children: the traumatising experience of having no milk to drink and consequently having no motherly connection is something that she never wants her children to undergo. Not only does Sethe’s time as a child in slavery affect the future relationship between her and her children, but the sexual violence that she experiences and subsequent taking of her milk traumatises her further, not only because of the rape but also because she feels as though she has