Jerome Johnson - "Jay"

Jerome Johnson represents the assimilation into the American culture. Before Jay became the obsessed money maker, he was a cultural man that represented the energy of the Harlem renaissance. He listened to music such the blues and jazz, and would always dance with Avey. His attention to Avey and their relationship consumed a major part of his life. He enjoyed rituals such as gospels and understood his culture in the literary sense by reading. He shows us how he was an organic force filled with the beauty of life and culture. His ultimate decline was giving up these fruits of joy and pursuing a life that did not belong to him, but to the typical middle-class Anglo-American. He shows us how powerful the American dream can be through his submission to its values. The assimilation to the American culture almost seems unstoppable as we see how he loses what he had with Avey and forgets his internal, soulful livelihood. His death shows us how without the understanding of ourselves we have no life.

Juan Contreras