Jazz
By the story’s second paragraph, the first symbol is being situated. When trying to identify symbols in a book, a very strong clue that you are on the right track is the same word appears three times within the 200 words. The adult August contemplates whether the lives of her and her friends would turned out differently had they know about jazz. The symbolism is postulated as the potential for recognizing that life has sophisticated rhythms and refrains that if recognized can be mastered for the purpose of improvising.
The Jar/Urn
For instance, a refrain in August’s narrative is a question posed to her father about what is it that is kept in a jar or urn. The father always responds that she knows, but still she continues to question. The beating heart of the thematic plot of the book is August’s intense attempt to escape grief and loss by running away from it. The jar/urn and what is revealed to be inside is the central symbol of this personality trait.
Sylvia’s Father
August’s friend Sylvia seems exotically fascinating to her because she takes piano and dance lessons and learns French from an actual French woman. Sylvia lives with a Type A father who pushes his kids to become educated and doesn’t want his daughter associating with her friends mired in poverty and failure. This drive to be one of those who “rise above” racism is combined with view toward fellow African Americans who don’t as inferior, turning him into a symbolism of the black-on-black racism rooted in elitist superiority.
Gigi’s Mother
Gigi’s mother is another symbol of black-on-black prejudice. Both are lighter-skinned black females and she encourages Gigi’s ambition to become an actress with a dose of racially-charged advice on how to maintain her lighter complexion and things she should avoid to keep from darkening it.
Racism
Because the book is exclusively rooted in the African-American experience of a small section of Brooklyn and the main characters have little interaction with white society, white-on-black racism is never really an issue. For that matter, racism is not thematically explored as a major element to the narrative. Instead, it lingers over the entire story like a shadowy symbolic allusion within the storyline of scenes. Systemic white racism is addressed not directly, but through the way it manages to seep into black society and take root there, propagating its malevolence in the guise of benevolent intent.
