Reading Comprehension

PT136 · S1 · P3 · Q16 Toni Morrison’s Jazz

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Music and literature, rivals among the arts, have not coexisted without intruding on each other’s terrain.

Topic

The musical structure and narrative innovation of Toni Morrison's novel Jazz, especially how it draws from jazz music to shape its literary form.

Framework

Theme / Example

Main Point

Morrison’s Jazz stands out as the first African American novel to use a musical genre—jazz—as its structuring principle, not just thematically but in the very way the story is told, thus redefining what narrative point of view can do in literature. (Best encapsulated in the final paragraph and in the sentences: )

P1: Literature inspired by music—Morrison’s innovation

We’re told that music and literature have always influenced one another, especially in the African American tradition, but that Toni Morrison was the first to structure an entire novel based on a musical genre—jazz—with her 1992 novel Jazz.

P2: How Jazz mimics jazz music in its narrative

The passage explains that the novel doesn’t just reference music in its plot but replicates jazz’s structure in its narration. The storytelling shifts from a detached narrator to deeply personal voices of the characters, much like solos in a jazz band, with the narrator still controlling the overall “composition.”

P3: Comparison to Duke Ellington’s musical innovations

This paragraph brings in Duke Ellington’s composing style—writing pieces tailored to his musicians, encouraging individuality but always within the larger work. Morrison’s storytelling is compared to this, with her allowing character “solos” within her own carefully designed narrative frame.

16.

The author's discussion in the first paragraph proceeds in which one of the following ways?

from a common claim about
Contradicted: denial
The first ingredient is probably fine, but "denial" of this claim makes no sense, when the author transitions from the wide angle lens of Music vs. Literature into the medium field lens of African American art by saying "Nowhere is this truer than in the African American tradition".
2% picked this
Correct
from a general remark about
Why this is right
This matches our first two ingredients very well and the third ingredient reasonably well. 1. the author introduces a historical tension between two different art forms a general remark about two art forms 2. the author applies this tension to African American art a similar observation about a particular artistic tradition 3. the author zooms in on one specific artwork by an African American that blends these two forms in an unprecedented way. a particular work that exemplifies the prior remarks The fact that Toni Morrison's novel does something unprecedented makes it a tough match for "it exemplifies the prior stuff". However, the prior remarks include "writing has aspired to the condition of music, in which form contributes significantly to content", and that's exactly what's happening in Jazz. Since Morrison is using a musical genre as a structuring principle, the form is contributing to the content / the writing is aspiring to the condition of music. Realistically, I would probably leave this but not pick it on a first pass and only come home to it because other answers are broken and we can better make this work.
Skill tested: Method · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
72% picked this
from a description of a
Weak Match
The first ingredient seems okay? 1. the author introduces a historical tension between two different art forms a description of a common claim about two art forms Is there a common claim about literature and music? It's not saying that the two have something in common. It's saying they have always been rivals. I guess what they have in common is that they've always intruded on each other's terrain. Does the author then provide specific evidence that supports that "music and literature have always intruded on each other's terrain"? Not really. He says that literature has aspired to the condition of music, especially in the African American tradition. That's another weak match. When we compare the 2nd ingredient of (B) to the 2nd ingredient here, it seems like (B)'s is an easier, more accurate match (a similar observation about a particular tradition). Finally, does the author make an inference about a particular individual? No, the author just describes an individual who wrote a book that involves literature and music swirling together. The author doesn't infer that Toni Morrison was an writer who intruded on music's terrain. He just says she wrote a book that had an innovative way of blending the two. It feels like all 3 ingredients in this answer are stretchable if we had to, but we don't have to, because (B) provides easier to match language.
14% picked this
from an observation about a
Bad Match: specific art / more general
Does the first paragraph start with an observation about a specific art form? The first sentence is about two specific art forms. We could ignore the first sentence and say that the author's 2nd sentence makes an observation about writing: "it has aspired to the condition of music". Does the author go to a more general claim about the applicability of that to other art forms? Definitely not. The claim was already about music, so there aren't any other art forms to apply that claim to. And the 2nd ingredient is getting more specific (not more general), about the music vs. literature tension within the African American tradition.
6% picked this
from general comments about the
Bad Match: the arts / counterexample
There is no general comments about "the arts", just one specifically about two arts, music and literature. There is no counterexample. The author zooms into a particular artistic tradition (African American) by saying "nowhere is this truer than here". The first paragraph maintains the same theme and keeps zooming in two more layers of specificity.
6% picked this

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