Jes Grew is Jus' Growin'

Throughout Mumbo Jumbo, readers attempt to discover what exactly Jes Grew actually is. Even after finishing this confusing tale, the question of what Jes Grew represents remains. We are told in the first chapter that it is “a psychic epidemic” which “once we call it 1 thing it forms into something else” (4-5), yet the idea behind this anti-plague continues to accompany readers. Initially, we as readers begin to believe that Jes Grew is a surface level representation of the jazz movement that swept the nation during the time period. The Wallflower Order attempts to silence the violent dancing deemed inappropriate and that had resulted in women sexualizing themselves and going down the wrong path. 

However, Jes Grew is not solely a musical revolution, but also a cultural awakening for Black Americans. The book mentions loas, spirits in the African diasporic religion of Haitian Vodou, which symbolize the revival of the suppressed spirit of Black Americans and no longer feeling as though they must conceal their identities and ancestry due to Western influence. As the plot continues, Jes Grew was highlighted as anything that disrupted Western civilization or was uncontained in the Western world. Eventually, Jes Grew dies down as Western culture adopts and repossesses culturally significant thought or objects, as exemplified by the art looters (Mu’tafikah, as the narrator puts it) robbing the "Center of Art Detention located at 82nd St. and 5th Ave” (museums) and returning the pieces to their place of origin. 

After finishing the book, Jes Grew seems to illustrate sudden social or political transformation. Pushing and destroying societal boundaries are attributes of Jes Grew that are highlighted by the unconventional syntax of the book, such as the haphazard punctuation, ordering of the first chapter and the title page, partial bibliography, usage of not real words, newspaper clippings, illustrations, two chapter 52’s, etc. Reed implies that the obliteration of these social customs and behavioral norms are present throughout the world, whether we can detect them in present time or not. He states that while we are not always able to identify the metamorphosis of our society in real time, we can see the conversion society undergoes over a period of time. From women’s suffrage to the Civil Rights movement to feminism movements to LGBTQ+ rights to so much more, Jes Grew is heavily present in our society today and never really leaves us, but rather gets harder to recognize until we can finally realize it was with us all along.