Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition
History, and More Mommy Issues Than Freud Could Shake A Cigar At
So two big things contribute to the initial situation of Jazz. We have, on the one hand, the historical context of Jazz. No, don't yawn—we're not going to make you memorize dates here. We're just going to remind you that the setting is super integral to the exposition of Jazz.
It's Harlem, 1926, and our protagonists, Violet and Joe, have arrived from the South. They were both born quite soon after the abolition of slavery, and that old, horrific way of life for black Americans is very real to them. How real? Well, both of their mothers were a little nutso as a result of the hellish realities of slavery.
This brings us to the character-level exposition: mommy issues. Joe was abandoned by his mother. As a young man he went around making fun of the town crazy woman, saying he was going to kill her, until Hunter's Hunter let him know that said crazy woman was actually his mom. Yikes. From then on, Joe was kind of looking for some maternal caretaking goodness.
Violet's mom went off her rocker and killed herself. As a result, Violet decided never to have children. Everything was going fine and dandy until Violet realized, after it was too late to have babies, that she really wanted one.
Cue Violet cuddling a doll, trying to steal babies out of baby buggies, and going mute, as well as Joe's abandonment issues and need for caretaking kicking into overdrive.
Rising Action
An Affair To Remember
Enter Dorcas. She's a wild child who's wise beyond her years, and Joe thinks she's super hot. Not only that, but she actually talks to Joe. She opens up to him as they lie in bed and Joe gets a little thrill of "Hey, my days of youthful loving have returned," and a little thrill of "Hey, I have a caretaking, nurturing presence who will speak to me." It's the little things.
They canoodle in a neighbor's apartment until—uh-oh—Dorcas decides to move on. Now Joe has been abandoned three times: by his biological mother, by Violet's muteness, and by Dorcas. Third time, as they say, is the charm.
Climax
Bang, Bang, I Shot My Baby Down
There's no climax like a climax with a gun. Joe, crazy with loss and jealousy, stalks Dorcas through the wintery streets of New York City. As he stalks her he thinks about—what else?—when he stalked his biological mother through the woods of Virginia. He finds Dorcas, happy and dancing in the arms of another man, and shoots her. She bleeds to death.
Violet, holding up her end of the dysfunctional relationship, tries to cut Dorcas's face as she lies in her coffin at her open-casket funeral.
Literary climaxes don't have to be the most violent part of the story, but it sure is in this case.
Falling Action
Spring Has Sprung
Quiz time: What season symbolizes rebirth? If you answered spring, good job. You get a gold star and a flower.
The spring after the shooting/face slashing, things get super-bleak and then, as spring works its springy magic, they start to heal a bit. Violet strikes up a friendship with Dorcas's Aunt Alice. Alice reminds Violet of her grandmother, True Belle, and we know that surrogate grandmothers always bring about a sense of healing.
As Violet searches for the information about Dorcas, she also gets pretty introspective and comes to conclusions about her past, her personality, and her desire for children. She starts to think of Dorcas as a daughter. Joe mainly sits and cries out the window, but hey—cry it out, Joe.
Resolution
Dancing Heals All
When Dorcas's best friend, Felice, shows up, it doesn't look like this could possibly be a good thing. Another young woman thrown into the mix of this broken middle-aged marriage? Yikes.
But it is a good thing. By the time Felice shows up, Violet has buried her rage and is excited to give this young woman the maternal affection she desperately wants to share. Joe takes the opportunity to not repeat his mistakes: He neither sleeps with Felice nor shoots her. Good work, Joe. Instead, they all eat catfish dinners and joke around together; we see the trio dance to jazz that someone is playing on a nearby rooftop.
Violet and Joe's marriage is healed, Felice comes to appreciate her parents a little more, and the book ends on a way happier note than it begins.