Working Title: “The drummer shouted: ‘You can’t two time’”: Jazz as a Lighthouse for the Lost in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises

At the end of Book I in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, and Count Mippipopolous travel to Zelli’s Jazz Club in Montmartre. Against this backdrop of the cultural nightlife that was gaining traction in Paris during the 1920’s, Jake and Brett discuss relationships and Brett’s soon-to-be marriage to Michael Campbell while dancing to jazz tunes. Yet, during the course of this particular scene, Jake remarks that he “had the feeling as in a nightmare of it all being something repeated, something I had been through and that I now must go through again” (70). Significantly, this premonition felt by Jake is not the only warning present in this scene that something is amiss. Indeed, despite the fact that most of the song itself is elided in the text through the use of ellipses, the presence of Roy Turk and J. Russel Robinson’s “Aggravatin’ Papa (Don’t You Try to Two Time Me)” seems to act as a figurative lighthouse in the novel. By lighthouse, I mean that the song acts as a warning sign for the impending dangers of violence and the feelings of loss that play out as a result of Brett Ashley’s love affairs. Moreover, as noted Hemingway scholar Frederic J. Svoboda indicates in his short yet influential article “Who Was That Black Man?: A Note on Eugne Bullard and The Sun Also Rises,” the appearance of this scene in the novel “can seem merely picturesque expatriate scenery to readers who do not catch the possible significance of the single reference to a ‘Two-Timing Mama’” (106). Importantly, readers are not the only ones who may not understand the significance of this song. Though Jake and Brett dance to the music, they seem to be only able to hear snippets of the song, which may suggest that the characters themselves treat the song as nothing more than background music and are thus also unable to hear the present warnings.

So, this essay is an attempt to chart the significance of the reference to a “Two-Timing Mama” by analyzing how Roy Turk and J. Russel Robinson’s “Aggravatin’ Papa (Don’t You Try to Two Time Me)” extends throughout the rest of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. Through this analysis, I will show how the presence of this song acts as a metaphorical lighthouse signaling the dangers that play out throughout the rest of the novel. At the same time, I will demonstrate how the inability of the characters to hear this warning means that they are ultimately left to perform their own rendition of “Aggravatin’ Papa” throughout the course of the novel, which only serves to reinforce Jake’s dread of having to go through something again. 

Working Title: “farming will never be enough in these parts”: The Pitfalls of America as a Settler Colony  in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

For some, there may be a distinct temptation to view the blood on Jacob Vaark’s hands at the beginning of Toni Morrison’s A Mercy as just an image foreshadowing his role in the institution of slavery. Make no mistake, analyzing the role of slavery in Morrison’s A Mercy is crucial to a complete understanding of the novel, especially with regards to the impact slavery has on African American women. At the same time, viewing the blood on Vaark’s hands as constrained to nothing more than the image of a man predestined to participate in the heinous institution of slavery may too readily shut out other important readings of A Mercy. In fact, when we view the blood on Vaark’s hands at the beginning of the novel, we must remember where the blood came from--the blood is literally tied to Vaark taking action to save a racoon from a hunter’s trap. In other words, though A Mercy can predominantly be viewed as a slave narrative, Morrison also expertly weaves in elements of the pastoral and farming narratives; thus, the blood on Vaark’s hands at the beginning of the novel serve as a foreshadowing image of his role in the slave trade as well as an image of his initial role of participating in and helping to protect the pastoral. By analyzing A Mercy through this perspective, it becomes possible to view and understand Vaark’s character arc as that of an individual who is corrupted away from the pastoral (the small, rural farming life) and towards a life of capital gain built on the commercialization of slaves (directly seen in the construction of the large house via the destruction of nature and the enslavement of blacks for a sugar cane plantation). 

When applied to the theoretical frameworks of postcolonial scholars such as Frantz Fanon and Kariann Akemi Yokota, the corruption of Vaark quickly becomes observable as a stand-in for the corruption of America as a Settler Colony of England. Thus, this essay will seek to apply the frameworks found in Fanon’s “Pitfalls of National Consciousness” and Yokota’s Unbecoming British: How Revolutionary American Became a Postcolonial Nation to Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. By doing so, I will analyze the corruption of Jacob Vaark from small, pastoral farmer to large, destructive plantation capitalist as re-presenting and reflecting the ways in which America, as a Settler Colony, was distorted and fragmented by succumbing to their own pitfalls.