The two authors saw things differently, but they were both from the United Kingdom, so similarities can be seen. Many aspects of their travels around New York impressed or disappointed them. Two images have been chosen to accompany this text, one for each author, attempting to help convey their most important and impactful themes. Much can be learned about the authors by reading these excerpts, they also contain significant insight into what Americans lived like before the Civil War. First, Charles Dickens’ experience will be explained. Followed by that of Alexander Mackay. Charles Dickens had a lot to say about his trip to New York, and reacted to everything he saw in detail. He was very descriptive of even the smallest details. …show more content…
“The Tombs” was the name of the jailhouse he visited. Every aspect of it that he saw disappointed him, from the doors of the cells to the conditions within. He writes “Let us look in. A small bare cell, into which the light enters through a high chink in the wall (Dickens 201).” The location that left the largest mark on his mind was the Lunatic Asylum. “The building is handsome; and is remarkable for a spacious and elegant staircase (Dickens 221).” The outside of the structure, and even through its entrances, seemed to the eye to be a nice place, which can be seen in “Image 1.” It could be mistaken for a lively state capitol, and lured a visitor to feel safe. The activities that went on inside, left a dark stain in Dicken’s memory. He learned of, and saw a woman, “She was bent, they told me, on committing suicide. If anything could have strengthened her resolution, it would have been the insupportable monotony of such an existence (Dickens 222).” After the visit, he said “…but I never turned my back upon it (America) with feelings of such deep disgust and measureless contempt, as when I crossed the threshold of this mad-house on Long Island (Dickens 223).” His words, which are sometimes a bit over the top, are perfect at conveying the atrocities he witnessed. Such horrible events that largely impacted the way he saw America, overshadowing the good that he saw. The fact that “Image 1” hides a dark …show more content…
He writes about how the city is spread out, and how its streets run. At one point saying of the early parts of New York “The streets were left to develop themselves in the most irregular manner (Mackay 60). He also mentions the newer part of the city and the plans for it development. The buildings of the city had an impact on him, seen in his descriptions of the Trinity Church: “Trinity Church still looks down upon them, but how few of that anxious, quick-moving crowd (of wall street) seem conscious of its solemn rebuke (Mackay 63)!” The magnificence of the city’s infrastructure is not lost on Mackay, who saves a page’s space for the detail of the new croton aqueduct system. The fountain that he mentions can be seen in “Image 2.” This image is used not only to visualize the fountain, but to represent the overall picture of New York that Mackay painted for the reader. It is a picture of a happy, optimistic, and bustling city. Mackay only ever briefly touches on the plights of the underclass, which allows for this nicer image of New York to persist. He rarely refers to a large structure, such as the church or a bank, as a building. Rather, he calls them “piles” of granite, marble, or
Horsmanden’s journal provides a wealth of information about eighteenth century New York if one is willing to analyze it critically and ignore the bias present in it. If one does this they catch fascinating glimpses of a divided world, one where people are partitioned by race, economic status, homeland and religion. A world filled with fear and suspicion caused by the tension inherent within such societal division. The same tensions that either gave rise to a massive conspiracy to destroy the town of New York or gave credence to a nightmare constructed by the minds of the people and fed by individuals’ self-serving nature. Regardless, eighteenth century New York was a troubled place and Horsmanden’s Journal of the Proceedings gives us a partial but valuable insight to the lives and interactions of colonial New York’s peoples.
Baldwin gives a vivid sketch of the depressing conditions he grew up on in Fifth Avenue, Uptown by using strong descriptive words. He makes use of such word choices in his beginning sentences when he reflects back to his house which is now replaced by housing projects and “one of those stunted city trees is snarling where our [his] doorway used to be” (Baldwin...
Ellis portray New York as a city where it is horrible to live, filled with homeless men,
Negative experiences of belonging within the individual’s place of residence results in low self-esteem and develops the desire to escape and seek belonging elsewhere. We witness this in Herrick’s The Simple Gift in Longlands Road, when Billy says, ‘this place has never looked so rundown and beat’, which conveys his lack of connection to the place through pejorative colloquial personification of place. The “rundown and beat” nature of “place” parallels Billy’s perception of both himself and his home by using the pathetic fallacy of rain. Moreover, his hatred towards “Nowhereville” is expressed using coarse language and the symbolic action of vandalising the houses of his neighbours with pejorative colloquialism in ‘I throw one rock on the road of each deadbeat no hoper shithole lonely downtrodden house.’ This shows the place of residence is an important influence on creating a sens...
“It got to be easy to look at New Yorkers as animals, especially looking down from some place like a balcony at Grand Central at the rush hour Friday afternoon.” (Tom Wolfe). “O Rotten Gotham” argues that New Yorkers are in a state of behavioral sink. It would not be long before a “population collapse” or a “massive die off”.
Throughout The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, she writes about the city’s change through a ballet dance and movement surrounding her. “In real life, to be sure, something is always going on, the ballet is never at a halt, but the general effect is peaceful and the general tenor even leisurely” (Jacobs 833). This idea of change she discusses and goes in great depth with, portrays just how constant not just a particular city but the world is. She describes every day to be a ballet of some sort; witnessing everyone’s day as they walk down the sidewalk. Even when a corner is turned, seeing so many different face as they all move at different paces and occupy their time in different manners, it all adds to this dance. Everything changing around her and maybe even things not really making sense but despite all of that, still being able to come together and create something no matter what’s being made of it, relates to Growing up Unrented on the Lower East Side by Edmund Berrigan.
Just look at the quote I gave you earlier: “Brooklyn, New York, as the undefined, hard-to–remember the shape of a stain.” He sees it as nothing but a stain on the map. He goes on to talk about “…the sludge at the bottom of the canal causes it to bubble.” Giving us something we can see, something we can hear because you can just imagine being near the canal and hearing the sludge bubble make their popping noises as the gas is released. He “The train sounds different – lighter, quieter—in the open air,” when it comes from underground and the sight he sees on the rooftops. Although some are negative, such as the sagging of roofs and graffiti, his tone towards the moment seems to be admiration. In the second section, he talks about the smells of Brooklyn and the taste of food. He’d talk about how his daughter compares the tastes of pizzas with her “…stern judgments of pizza. Low end… New Hampshire pizza. … In the middle… zoo pizza. …very top… two blocks from our house,” and different it was where he’d grown up. He talks about the immense amount of “smells in Brooklyn: Coffee, fingernail polish, eucalyptus…” and how other might hate it, but he enjoys it. In the same section, he describes how he enjoys the Brooklyn accent and the noise and smells that other people make on the streets and at the park across from his house. “Charcoal smoke drifts into the
Charles Dickens, an English writer and social critic, lived in England from 1812 to 1870 (Cody). Dickens usually critiques topics important to him or those that have affected him throughout his life. He grew up poor and was forced to work at an early age when his father was thrown into debtors prison (Cody). As he became a popular and widely known author he was an outspoken activist for the betterment of poor people’s lives (Davis). He wrote A Tale of Two Cities during the 1850s and published the book in 185...
Colson Whitehead explores this grand and complex city in his collection of essays The Colossus of New York. Whitehead writes about essential elements to New York life. His essays depict the city limits and everyday moments such as the morning and the subway, where “it is hard to escape the suspicion that your train just left... and if you had acted differently everything would be better” (“Subway” 49). Other essays are about more once in a while moments such as going to Central Park or the Port Authority. These divisions are subjective to each person. Some people come to New York and “after the long ride and the tiny brutalities... they enter the Port Authority,” but for others the Port Authority is a stop in their daily commute (“The Port Authority” 22).Nonetheless, each moment is a part of everyone’s life at some point. Many people live these moments together, experiencing similar situations. We have all been in the middle of that “where ...
“one of those cross streets peculiar to Western cities, situated in the heart of the residence quarter, but occupied by small trades people who lived in the rooms above their shops. There were corner drug stores with huge jars of red, yellow and green liquids in their windows, very brave and gay; stationers’ stores, where illustrated weeklies were tacked upon bulletin boards; barber shops with cigar stands in their vestibules; sad-looking plumbers; offices; cheap restaurants, in whose windows one saw piles of unopened oysters weighted down by cubes of ice, and china pigs and cows knee deep in layers of white beans.”
Colson Whitehead ponders the essence of New York in his collection of essays titled, The Colossus of New York. Throughout the entire collection of essaysWhitehead inquires about what New York stands for based on the journey’s of its inhabitants and visitors. By establishing a sense of authenticity and creating an intimate relationship between him and the reader, Whitehead effectively provides his readers with a genuine account of New York. This genuineness found in Whitehad’s writing has not been met without criticism. Wyatt Mason’s critique of Whitehead’s essays reiterates throughout the review that Whitehead’s account go New York isn’t unique to New York and that the essayist isn’t particularly attentive to detail. While I agree with the
In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens’ choice of sentimental expression had an excellent effect on the readers’ responses to the characters. The use of exaggerated sentimentality helped create a clear picture of the story’s issues in the readers’ minds; it gave a feel for the spirit of the times, and made it easier to understand the characters’ points of view. It was this very sentimentality that Dickens strived to achieve.
Wirth, L. (1938). Urban as a Way of Life. In R.T. Legates, & F. Stout (Eds.). The City Reader (pp. 90-97). New York, NY: Routledge
When Willy and Linda purchased their home in Brooklyn, it seemed far removed from the city. Willy was young and strong and he believed he had a future full of success. He and his sons cut the tree limbs that threatened his home and put up a hammock that he would enjoy with his children. The green fields filled his home with wonderful aromas. Over the years, while Willy was struggling to pay for his home, the city grew and eventually surrounded the house.
History has not only been important in our lives today, but it has also impacted the classic literature that we read. Charles Dickens has used history as an element of success in many of his works. This has been one of the keys to achievement in his career. Even though it may seem like it, Phillip Allingham lets us know that A Tale of Two Cities is not a history of the French Revolution. This is because no actual people from the time appear in the book (Allingham). Dickens has many different reasons for using the component of history in his novel. John Forster, a historian, tells us that one of these reasons is to advance the plot and to strengthen our understanding of the novel (27). Charles Dickens understood these strategies and could use them to his advantage.