I like the way the City makes people think they can do what they want and get away with it.

Big legged woman with pink kitty tongues roll money into green tubes for later on then they laugh and put their arms around each other. The people down there are happy about that. Alone, yes, but top-notched and indestructible-like this City in 1926 when all wars are over and there will be another one. When I looked over strips of green grass lining the river, at church steeples and into the cream-and-copper halls of the apartment buildings, I’m strong. It’s the bright steel rocking above the shade below that does it. In the words of an omniscient narrator: A city like this one makes me dream tall and feel in on things. Our first account of the city is found in Chapter 1 of the novel. This essay will examine the importance of the “City” in the development of the novel as well as its effects to the reader’s interpretation of it. The city represents many different aspects of the African-American life which makes this novel a credible account of the African-American life during the Harlem Renaissance.īy using the Harlem City as the setting of the novel, it makes the novel more grounded to the historical period where it is based from. The Harlem Renaissance as Depicted by Harlem City in “Jazz” As stated earlier, the city has become the sole instrument of the novel in making its account of the historical period vivid and interesting. The rise of the Harlem Renaissance heralds a paradise that is discrimination-safe for the African- Americans. This period paved way to “The Great Migration” where African- Americans migrated from south to north en masse particularly Harlem, New York.Įven when they confronted another kind of racism in their new community, they somehow led a better and more decent life.

Toni jazz