Ishmael Reed, through parody, allusion, and satire, manages to convey the
             meaning of Jes Grew without once explicitly defining it. There is a good
             never defines it; Jes Grew has no true definition. Even those infected by
             ?anti-plague? that evokes the jump, jive, and wail, do what you feel like
             them, can't put their finger on exactly what is 'this Jes Grew thing? (33).
             explain Jes Grew without destroying its carefree feeling. Yet without
             Jes Grewwill peter out as in the 1890's, when it wasn't ready and had no
             search? (34). Ironically, this set both pro and anti-Jes Grew advocates on
             path: to seek out its text. Apparently an inevitable outcome, this essay
             the implications of the sought after text and the exact meaning of that
             which Reed so delicately tip-toed around.
             Jes Grew at first glance reads asjust grew.? Reed chose these words to
             phenomenon a sense of emergence. What was not there yesterday has suddenly
             today because it just recently grew. What used to be the mundane, every day
             Negro is transformed into the enlivened carefree attitude of Jes Grew. The
             freedom which had been burning inside the people is suddenly expelled and
             if there was nothing to stand in their way. Theirrepressible fancy? is to
             express themselves through music, dance, and 'the speaks? (154). The
             in a manner just as it exists, for as it pops up all over the country it
             activity in its victims. Jes Grew acts as a drug to those infected by it,
             to express themselves in otherwise unacceptable ways. The kids want to
             belly and cheek to cheek.... The kids want to Funky Butt while their elders
             Waltz...? (21). And just as the deleterious effects of drugs destroy one's
             contribute to the advancement of society, so does Jes Grew stagger the
             Akin to the bootlegging of the 1920's, Jes Grew persists despite being
             Yet still the societal advocates attempt to stop the contagion. In one week
             have been fired from th...