Morrison's Jazz: Characters' Actions The novel Jazz by Toni Morrison is an extremely well written account of black life during the mid 1850's to the late 1920's. Morrison manipulates the three main character's personas while analyzing their lives to show the effect that a person's history has on their present day life. The most interesting thing I found concerning this novel has the way in which Toni Morrison was able to present you with a first impression of the characters, then proceed through history, to give you a new conception of their character. This is seen through three important individuals: Violet, Joe, and Dorcas. At the beginning, Violet is depicted as crazy