How did new york city play in Ruth’s and James’s lives?

Much of the setting in in New York City. After graduating from high school, Ruth moved to New York City and began working in her aunt's leather-goods factory. She returned to Suffolk when she learned that her mother was sick, but in the end refused to stay. Upon resuming her life in New York she fell in love, and in 1942 she married a black man named Andrew McBride. By the time Ruth learned that her mother had died, she had been disowned, considered to be "dead" by her Jewish family. She converted to Christianity to deal with her feelings of grief and guilt, and ultimately found a new life in the religion. She and her husband raised eight children after moving from Harlem to Brooklyn's Red Hook Housing Projects, where they founded the New Brown Memorial Baptist Church. Her husband became the church's first reverend, and Ruth refers to him as a man of "vision".

The details in this story make New York city dynamic enough for Ruth to have her unique life that includes her Jewish heritage as well as Christianity and the ability to be in a mixed marriage and have bi-racial children.