When Christopher Morley explains in Where the Blue Begins that “All cities are mad: but madness is gallant. All cities are beautiful: but beauty is dark,” he may not realize how accurately he describes the city depicted in Jazz, a novel by Toni Morrison. Jazz tells the story of those who strive to reach the place of their dreams, Harlem, and how, faced with harsh reality, they must build false hopes that will ultimately destroy their lives and the lives of those behind them. surround. The City particularly affects Violet and Joe, who come to New York to start a new life. As the Town makes powerful promises of eternal happiness to Violet and Joe, their expectations skyrocket. Unfortunately, with great expectations come great disappointments, and as reality sets in, the characters in Jazz fall victim to the danger of relying on the City for their happiness and success. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Violet and Joe travel to New York in hopes of a fresh start. Violet's difficult childhood led her to seek hope and happiness in places far from her home state of Virginia. Her family consisted of a mother who committed suicide and a father who was absent from her life for several months. Similarly, Joe was abandoned by his mother, leaving him to seek to fill his maternal void. After Joe and Violet meet and marry, they do several hard jobs like plowing and working in a sawmill. They wanted something more in life. Together, Joe and Violet were the perfect candidates for the City's alluring promises because of their need to escape their painful childhoods, but also because of the lack of fulfillment they received from their adult lives. As they took the train to New York for the first time in 1906, "they looked out the windows to catch their first glimpse of the City dancing with them, already proving how much it loved them" (32). This is the first sign of the expectations of acceptance and love that Violet and Joe hope to gain in the City and in this new life. Violet and Joe entered the city with a “fascination” that made them “feel more like themselves,” even before they encountered the city and its flaws. Their hope is dangerous. By placing all their trust in a place they had never been to provide them with excitement, money and love, they set themselves up for disappointment from the start. The first reminder of the harshness of reality hits them when they try to find a decent job in the City. Although Joe is no longer required to do heavy labor in the fields, he must now resort to degrading tasks, from cleaning fish to scrubbing toilets. Once he climbs the ranks, he begins working in a hotel and as a waiter where he earns tip money "which falls into [his] palm as fast as pecans in November" (128). Life seems to have improved for Violet and Joe, and when they move to Lenox, they live in a house much larger than necessary for two people. They feel like they live in a castle. They have overcome the city's initial challenges and are living part of their dream, until reality hits them again. As newcomers to the city, Violet and Joe are initially unaware of the high cost of living. When they moved into their Lenox home, they could afford "fifty or sixty dollars a month," but they were unprepared for the drastic rise in rents at the beginning of the.