Imagery of the Quest
The novel is a Quest in that the characters are searching for a powerful object (in this case, a Text) that will unlock the mysteries (Jes Grew and its survival, or, conversely, its destruction). There are even Templars, but they are not the heroes in this tale; rather, PaPa LaBas and the other astro-detective, Black Herman, work with the mystic, Benoit Battraville, and work parallel to the roguish art-nappers in order to prevent the Templars from achieving their goal of finding and destroying the text. The images center on detective work tropes like clues, dead bodies, and religious rituals.
Hinckle
Hinckle Von Vampton is described as an elegantly dressed white man, but one who is rather...coming apart. He is sere, brittle, devoid of life and vitality. He is all artifice and no reality; he is the 4th Horseman of the Apocalypse as Blake painted, Reed writes: a grim harbinger of death and obliteration. This, then, is imagery that supports the author's claim that Atonism is empty and bereft.
The Music
Reed unites sound and image to convey the deep, bold atmosphere of Haiti and, by extension, Africa. He writes of the moment when Earline seduces the trolley driver: "The music came from the blind pig, heavy, thick, gummy like a quagmire; mud, the ancient soil of the Black-belt South with its climate, swarming with birds, snakes, bugs, wildflowers" (121). This is thick and oppressive in a delicious way, indicative of dance and sex and Life itself—nothing less than Jes Grew.
Actual Images
Reed includes actual images in his text to further elucidate his themes. For example, there is an image of the train Harding supposedly was poisoned on, a white man shooting an Asian man, images of women dancing, white men menacing Black men, and a Black figure on a Grecian-style vase. Most of these have no captions and there is no way of knowing exactly what Reed intends the reader to pick up from them. However, considered holistically, they add drama, nuance, evocation, emotion, and depth. They are not easy to understand, but they do just as much as the written word.
