How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
When the woman, her name is Violet, went to the funeral to see the girl and to cut her dead face they threw her to the floor and out of the church. (1.1)
The nonchalance with which Violet's violence is presented is a symptom of just how much violence goes down in Jazz—the tone of this quote is pretty unemotional. The really crazy action (cutting a dead girl's face) is buried in the fairly sane action of throwing old Violet out of the church.
Quote #2
He was pulled off a streetcar and stomped to death, and Alice's sister had just got the news and gone back home to try and forget the color of his entrails, when her house was torched and she burned crispy in flames. (3.9)
Ugh, this quote is a one-two punch of evil violence. This kind of insanity was so prevalent in the lives of turn-of-the-century African Americans (especially in the South—this quote refers to St. Louis) that, from Alice's point of view, it's remarked upon in kind of a conversational, quiet tone.
Quote #3
Toward the end of March, Alice Manfred put her needles aside to think again of what she called the impunity of the man who killed her niece just because he could. It had not been that hard to do; it had not even made him think twice about what danger he was putting himself in. He just did it. (3.53)
According to Joe, all's fair in love and war, even shooting his lady love. Alice, who has seen a fair share of violence and doesn't trust the authorities to do anything about it, just chills out in the wake of her niece's death and thinks "The nerve!"