Swing Time

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue and Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7 and Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Dance

In this novel, dance is a motif used for several metaphorical purposes. Dance is a form of escape. Miss Isabel’s dance lessons provide a safe space for the narrator and for Tracey to begin their friendship. Dancing makes the narrator feel transcendent, separating her body from the stressful realities of the world whether through her own movement or when she watches others dance.

Dance is also a symbol of pride and equality. While most of the dancers the narrator idolizes in her movie musicals are white, the scant Black dancers demonstrate to her that it is possible for the narrator and Tracey to be as light on their feet and in touch with their bodies as white dancers. The narrator and Tracey are particularly entranced by Jeni LeGon, whose dance choreography celebrates the Black body. The narrator sees traces of her dance passion everywhere, even years after she stopped dancing, highlighting how important this motif has been to her character development.

Trains

Trains symbolize an uncertain future that is out of the narrator’s control. As an adolescent, the narrator feels that other people are making decisions for her, which she describes as being on a train with a pre-determined destination. While she isn’t necessarily against those decisions, she wants her own autonomy. She admires that Tracey is the type of person who jumps off the train—Tracey values radical freedom and is willing to risk anything for her own autonomy. The narrator does not have the courage to jump off her train, but she does derail it. The imagery of the train captures the chaos of adolescence, articulating the high stakes of the choice between freedom and meaning that most of the novel’s characters will eventually be forced to make.

London

The setting of London embodies different kinds of culture. In metropolises such as London, neighborhoods are indicative of socio-economic and racial disparities, maintained to keep socio-economic strata away from one another; residents of areas known for poverty or nonwhite majorities end up stereotyped into certain boxes by British white society. The narrator grows up in a neighborhood with a very specific cadence: It is marked by poverty and a feeling of ambivalence about the future. Its residents have no reason to believe in social mobility or the ability to transform their fate. This socio-economic segregation informs the narrator’s low self-esteem and apathy.

The narrator leaves London thanks to her job with Aimee, but she never feels at home in New York City or in Gambia. This reveals that, though her relationship with London is complicated, it is still home.