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Essay on Jes Grew

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Ishmael Reed, through parody, allusion, and satire, manages to convey the meaning of Jes Grew without once explicitly defining it. There is a good reason why he never defines it; Jes Grew has no true definition. Even those infected by this ?anti-plague? that evokes the jump, jive, and wail, do what you feel like spirit inside of them, can?t put their finger on exactly what is ?this Jes Grew thing? (33).
One cannot explain Jes Grew without destroying its carefree feeling. Yet without
?finding its text,?
Jes Grew ?will peter out as in the 1890?s, when it wasn?t ready and had no where to search? (34). Ironically, this set both pro and anti-Jes Grew advocates on an identical path: to seek out its text. Apparently an inevitable outcome, this …show more content…

(18). The greater the enthusiasm for personal enjoyment, the less achievement can be made towards modernity, and this is the trend which those in charge looked to put an end to.
The sense of emergence conveyed in the interpretation ?just grew? identifies also with the musical movement of the 1920?s. ?For if the Jazz Age is year for year the
Essences and Symptoms of the times, then Jes Grew is the germ making it rise yeast-like across the American plain? (20). Previous musical styles had traditionally been such that every note played was indicated on the sheet of music. However, jazz unleashed the art of improvisation which allowed the music to transcend the dots and stems painted on the page. ?Once we had ?ragged? words; now we ?jazzed up? everything? (115).
Notes
merely served as a skeleton for the music to emerge from. James Weldon
Johnson
described Jes Grew in terms of the music of the 1920?s. ?Its words were unprintable but its tune irresistible? (211). Still indefinable, ?Jes Grew, the Something or Other that led
Charlie Parker to scale the Everests of the Chord. Riff fly skid dip soar and gave his Alto
Godspeed? (211). Although set up by the forerunner of ragtime, jazz seemed to spontaneously appear on the music scene as a marvel distinct from anything before. In fact, Reed?s intention may have been for a second reading of the phrase to be ?just groove.? This emergent form of music leads the world to just sit back, relax, and feel the groove. If Jes

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