Symbol: LaBas's Dog
PaPa LaBas is brought to court because his dog defecated on the altar at St. Patrick's Cathedral, which isn't supposed to be read as an act of petty vandalism or a joke; rather, it is a symbolic act that conveys how LaBas feels about Christianity, with all of its violent and cruel oppression of non-Christian religions and, by extension, peoples. It is an act of desecration that is justified in his mind, for while small and forgettable, such an act is still a bold, symbolic assertion of his antipathy toward this version of God.
Motif: Colors
The colors of red and black often appear in the novel, particularly in the Kathedral and Benoit Battraville's ship. Reed writes of the former, "the room is decorated in black red and gold" (49) and of the latter, "the colors of the room are black and red, the walls are red, the floor is black...the central post is red" (131). These colors are historically significant for those of the African diaspora, with red symbolizing the blood shed by the enslaved and black symbolizing the color of their skin. These colors, along with green, were also part of the Pan-African flag, conceived of by Marcus Garvey in the 1920s.
Motif: Intertextuality
Scattered throughout the novel without any captions or explanatory information are photographs, quotes, book and newspaper excerpts, and other sources. These are central to the plot though Reed does not tell us how to use them; he refuses to be the sole "author" of the text, thus mirroring what we admire in Jes Grew and deplore in Atonism. They open up his novel to other worlds, realities, points of view, and points in time; they enliven, perplex, complicate, and elucidate.
Motif: Jazz
Jazz is part of the plot of the novel, as many of the characters meet at clubs, listen to music, experience Jes Grew through the music, and more. However, it is also part of the structure of the novel, for its rhythms, its improvisation, its syncopation, its collaborative impulses, and the fact that it is wholly a Black cultural creation informs Reed's work. We see how disparate storylines intermingle and then diverge, how there are multiple climaxes, and how history, religion, myth, and fiction work together to create a harmonious—but sometimes disharmonious—whole.
Symbol: Erzulie
Reed uses Erzulie, the Voodoo goddess/loa of love, to symbolize a larger history. As critic Joan Dayan writes, Erzulie was "a goddess was born on the soil of Haiti who has no precedent in Yorubaland or Dahomey. In her varying incarnations, her many faces, she bears the extremes of colonial history. Whether the pale and elegant Erzulie-Freda or the cold-hearted, savage Erzulie-ge-rouge, she dramatizes a specific historiography of women's experience in Haiti and throughout the Caribbean." His choice to have Earline taken over by Erzulie is not to simply entertain, nor even to offer opportunities for LaBas and Black Herman to exercise their powers, but rather to comment upon Black women's history and identity.
