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 grim," he may not realize how carefully he is describing the city illustrated in Jazz , a novel by Toni Morrison. Jazz tells the story of those who struggle to reach the place of their dreams, Harlem, and how, faced with harsh reality, they must build false hopes that ultimately destroy their lives and the lives of those around them. The city particularly affects Violet and Joe, who arrive in New York to start a new life. As the city makes powerful promises of eternal happiness to Violet and Joe, their expectations soar. Unfortunately, high expectations bring the possibility of great disappointment, and as reality takes over, Jazz's characters fall victim to the danger of relying on the City for happiness and success. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Violet and Joe travel to New York in hopes of a new beginning. Violet's difficult childhood led her to search for hope and happiness in places far from her home state of Virginia. His family consisted of a mother who committed suicide and a father who was absent from his life for several months at a time. Likewise, Joe was abandoned by his mother, leaving him in search of fulfillment of his maternal emptiness. After Joe and Violet meet and marry, they do several heavy jobs such as plowing and working in a sawmill. They wanted something more from life. Together, Joe and Violet were the perfect candidates for the City's tempting promises because of their need to escape their painful childhood, but also because of the lack of satisfaction they received from their adult lives. As they headed on a train to New York for the first time in 1906, they "looked out the windows to see for the first time the city dancing with them, already showing how much it loved them" (32). This is the first sign of the expectations of acceptance and love that Violet and Joe hope to acquire in the City and in this new life. Violet and Joe entered the city with a "charm" that made them "feel more like themselves" before they even encountered the city and its flaws. Their hope is dangerous. By placing all their faith in a place they had never been that provided them with excitement, money, and love, they set themselves up for disappointment from the start. The first reminder of the harshness of reality comes when they try to find a decent job in the city. Although Joe no longer has to do hard labor in the fields, he now has to resort to humiliating jobs, from cleaning fish to scrubbing toilets. Once he has made his career, he begins working in a hotel and as a waiter where he earns tips "that fell 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 have the feeling of living in a castle. They have overcome the city's early challenges and are living part of their dream, until reality strikes again. As newcomers to the city, Violet and Joe are initially unaware of the high cost of living. When they move into their house on Lenox they can afford "fifty, sixty dollars a month," but they are not prepared for the dramatic rent increases of the early 1900s resulting from the high demand of others wanting to live in the City (127). Landlords set the rent as high as they wanted; they only cared that people were willing to pay.