As readers we are not very well disciplined. Everything we deem moderately confusing we expect to be explained to us. The entirety of Reed's Mumbo Jumbo shows that the author doesn't care what we expect, making this book a difficult read. At the start Reed places chapter one before the title page and publisher information where, if you aren't paying attention, you may skip it. I see this as a warning to the reader to read with their guard up because "rules" of literature layout don't matter to Reed. Interspersed in the chapters are seemingly random images with no explanation. These images coupled with core concepts like Jes Grew (which is also introduced with no background)force the reader to think critically instead of passively reading which is an unusual for our society because the literature we read presents simple and easily understood concepts.
The complicated writing style Reed uses in Mumbo Jumbo outlines the simplicity of the prejudice issues throughout the book. To me, by making everything else needlessly obscure and problematic the wrongness of racism becomes obvious. Reed making the wrongness of racism easy to understand leaves no excuses for misrepresentation and prejudice within both literature and society, which I believe is one of the main purposes of the novel.
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