The Jazz Narration

  

   In the beginning of the novel, it is impossible to determine who the narrator is. The narrator never describes themselves, so how do we know exactly who they are? We can only see and feel their emotions, but also what they experience and what they see.

   In my point of view the narrator is not just one character, but four other characters. The characters sees and experiences many different scenes in the novel, so we can clearly see that there is more than one. Plus it'll be creepy if it's just one character following the others and being nosy in their business. The narrators that are in the beginning of the novel are Violet, Joe, Alice and Dorcas. It is now visible with who exactly is the narrator. Each of the main characters is experiencing different emotions and it is taking place at different locations. Also there is many different scenes taking place and different characters that are being used. Each character has their own portion in which they narrate and they know exactly what has happened or what is happening at that moment.

    The narrator is speaking in first person point of view. The word "I" is used a lot in the story in which the narrator is telling us what they are thinking or what they are feeling. One example can be, "Well, it can make you inhospitable if you aren't careful, the last thing I want to be," (pg.9). In this quote the narrator explains that they do not want to be inhospitable because they are being ignored by their husband. This novel is also speaking in third person omniscient. The third person knows the thoughts and feelings of the characters of the story. Mainly the whole novel is told in third person omniscient. They know everything that is happening in the story.

      In the beginning of the story you will read the character Violet, most of the times. The focus was mainly on Violent and it focuses on what she does and the experiences she went through. The narrator in the beginning will be Violet and she explains herself in the third person point of view. She went into full detail on her whole experience she had when her husband was having an affair. I'm sure Violet was the only person who knew all the details that she went through herself and explained it into third person. In some parts of the story she speaks into first person saying, " I suspected that girl didn't need to straighten her hair," (pg.5). During that event Violet was looking for details of Dorcas after she had been murdered to capture her husband's attention and at that moment it was in third person point of view describing how Violet found what Dorcas used and there was a side note of the first person being used saying that Dorcas didn't need to straighten her hair. One hint that gave out that the narrator was Violet herself was that Violet is a beautician who did hair and she found the iron Dorcas has used. Violet felt sympathy towards herself because she was so desperate in trying to make her husband pay attention to her by reenacting the things Dorca did.

   After Violets narration, it moves on to Joe and this time Joe will be the narrator for his own story. In the second chapter of the novel the third person, which is Joe, is explaining how he saw Dorcas and the way he felt towards her. He explains how he met his wife, then it moves on how he convinced Malvonne to rent out her room, so he can turn it into a love nest for him and Dorcas. Then it moves on to the third chapter in which Alice is her own narrator of her own story. She narrates her own story and what happens. Then it shifts to Dorcas narration and she tells her own story of being happy with another man, but then her experience of being shot.

    The first three chapters of the novel has four different narrators to the story. Each narrator is in both third and first point of view and they're explaining their story and their feelings. The narrator's have sympathy towards the other characters in the story because of of Dorcas death, but Dorca felt sympathy towards Joe. Violet felt sympathy towards her husband because he was so depressed of the death of Dorcas. Joe had sympathy for Dorca since he killed her and now she is gone. And Dorcas had sympathy towards Joe because she didn't want to be with him anymore and she was happy with another man.