Both Chapters 52
I have been honestly lost on why Ishmael Reed wrote Mumbo Jumbo with two chapters 52. Before we read it, my first assumption was that it would be an exploration of two alternate paths the plot could take. Instead, it ended up being a two chapter retelling of Egyptian mythology and the Book of Exodus with a similar contagious dance to Jes Grew. There is no real break in the story between the chapters besides the narration slightly shifting to Moses a few pages before chapter 52 #2 and shifting back to the 1920s a few pages before chapter 53 (Reed, 374, 398). I don’t see any clear interpretation behind this besides vague connections. You can make the argument that there are some patterns showing each chapter as a separate arc of the overall story of Mumbo Jumbo . The first is of the contagious art and dance spreading and the second is of people trying, and failing, to imitate it (whether to devalue it or to get success). Reed might be splitting the two up to present the two as patterns ...