I stepped one foot onto the corner of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and it utterly took my breath away. My world stopped spinning at the sight of Times Square. I looked up to see flashing billboards, tall buildings, and crowds of people for what seemed like miles. Although it was a dense, dark night in the city, Times Square lit up like the middle of the day. Advertisements for Aeropostale, Kanye West’s new album, and broadway shows illuminated the entire street. The smell of food trucks and sewer water filled the air. The sounds of taxi drivers honking their horns and the blaring music of backed up traffic rang in my ears. The feeling of bodies buzzing and walking past left me paralyzed on the gum stained sidewalk. The sights, sounds, smells, …show more content…
I grew up to the smell of freshly cut corn and the roar of a tractor, so when I first learned the news that my family would be traveling to New York City, I was hesitant to feel excited. Skyscrapers and masses of people were way out of my small town element. Little did I know the city that intimidated me most would later change my life perspective. My family and I were on our way back to the hotel from an incredible broadway show when I turned onto the most famous boulevard in New York City for the first time. I walked down the street in silence, taking it all in. I was absolutely mesmerized by the view and atmosphere. However, I noticed something beyond the buildings, beyond the lights, beyond the traffic. I noticed the people. I continued my way down the sidewalk and glanced over to see a group of men jumping around, doing flips, pumping up a crowd around them, then sticking out a hat in hopes for money. A nearly naked cowboy stood on a street corner offering for his picture to be taken. I walked alongside tourists speaking foreign tongues, smiling, and taking pictures. Later, I passed a group of policemen fiercely standing arm to arm. Homeless people sat at every corner shaking a cup full of change and reaching out as people walked by not even acknowledging them. A man in a wheelchair with three dogs on his lap and two following behind him made his way through the crowded strip. A man in a suit carried a briefcase.
In his essay, “ Brooklyn Bridge,” the author explores the “appetite” of a particular New Yorker. This woman is described as staring,full of awe,at the New York Skyline from another borough. She is ambitious and sees New York as full of endless possibilities. Throughout the collection he portrays New York transplants or prospective residents as being driven by the longing to grab a piece of the city for themselves.This drive is a pattern that is repeated in these works of Whitehead. In his essay “Port Authority instead of focusing on the New York ideal of one individual Whitehead focuses on a body of people about to move to New York. Througout the collection Whitehead switches back and forth between focusing on an individual and focusing on a crowd. In this essay Whitehead also highlights the sameness within the people hustling and bustling in and out of Port Authority. He implies that the same quality of brokenness has led them all here, “They’re all broken somehow… Otherwise they would have come here differently,”(15). Even though they are all from different places and all have different destinations the essence of New York has drawn them all here. Colson’s account of the passengers shows that they are all feeling the same feelings of hope in regards to coming to New York. Although they all hope for different things the theme regarding the passengers is
In 2013, just shy of my 17th birthday, I planned a day trip with two of my friends to see The Phantom of the Opera in New York. At this point in my life, I was entirely unaccustomed to large cities, such as New York City, and felt excited to experience the bustle I expected. While in the city, a woman informed me about methods to avoid the crime so intertwined with life in the city and introduced me to the concept that, just as New York City held many attractions for tourists, it also held some dangers as well. This idea takes pride of place in Edward Jones’ short story, “Young Lions” and its discussion of Caesar Matthews. As I learned a few years ago, the city truly contains amazement for those experiencing it, but, like all things in life,
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 ...
The participants of “Sidewalk” are Howard, Conrad, Jerome, Shorty, Joe Garbage, Butterroll, Alice, Ron, Jamaane, Marvin, Keith, Grady, Ishmael, and Mudrick and other vendors on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village who struggle to with their economic status, on how they struggled in the wake of new economic era and political realities.
Times Square finds itself in a city whose complexity in culture and spontaneity in character, often leaving its visitors as mere spectators, contrasts sharply with the perspective of an organized tourist industry. However, the creation of some destinations from scratch, completely repurposed districts, and the organization of the chaotic life in New York into something safe and consumable have no doubt made Times Square a place to visit as well as ridding it of many neg...
I've loved this city since I was knee-high everything about it sprung out at me, the bright bold lights of times square, the hustle and bustle of Greenwich village and China Town and the serenity of central park. Everything about this city made me feel at home. I stepped out off the corner of pearl street and skipped into the Starbucks coffee shop on the other side of the street. The coffee shop
The arrival to Manhattan was like an entry to a whole new world: from the sea, its breezes, color, and landscapes, to the heart of the city beating louder than ever at the Whitehall Terminal. I could smell New York’s bagels in Battery Park with a mixture of the most relaxing scents: the coffee people were holding while walking down the streets, the old walls of Castle Clinton ...
Because of some of the circumstances that make me who I am, it is hard to say I have any one definitive home. Instead, I have had two true homes, ever since I was a young child. What makes this even more of a conundrum is that my homes have always had little in common, even though they are only a few hundred miles apart. Between the big city of Houston, Texas, and the small town of Burns Flat, Oklahoma, I have grown up in two very different towns that relate to one another only in the sense that they have both raised me.
Even though my grandparents did not live in a big city, it was a fun small town. A town that was so small, it only had one traffic light. Everybody knew everybody. It was a real country town, but I loved it. Well, I use to love it. That’s how I used to feel about it until it happened.
New York City, The city that never sleeps is the largest city in the word. It’s ethnically diverse population is made up of immigrants from all over the world. People come here in pursuit of better job, education and life. Today, New York is all that and more, thanks to the discovery of law, order and technology. Everything about New York is grand it is a fast developing society. Few years ago, New York was nothing like what it is today. It was a discovery in a process of development. During the development process the city had to tolerate diverse types of unstable situation that are unknown to many Americans.
When you associate anything with New York City it is usually the extraordinary buildings that pierce the sky or the congested sidewalks with people desperate to shop in the famous stores in which celebrities dwell. Even with my short visit there I found myself lost within the Big Apple. The voices of the never-ending attractions call out and envelop you in their awe. The streets are filled with an atmosphere that is like a young child on a shopping spree in a candy store. Although your feet swelter from the continuous walking, you find yourself pressing on with the yearning to discover the 'New York Experience'.
Without a doubt, Times Square in New York City is a unique experience, but the image created by TV and movies does not show the gloominess that accompanies the euphoria of being in the Big Apple. The atmosphere is so exhilarating and exciting, you don’t even know what to do for a few minutes, but it is tinged with the bitter reality that sadness and melancholy also trail closely behind the positive. With most, if not all, of your senses being stimulated – sometimes all at once – Times Square creates a memory that will surely be cherished, and haunt you for the rest of your life.
My childhood was a playground for imagination. Joyous nights were spent surrounded by family at my home in Brooklyn, NY. The constantly shaded red bricks of my family’s unattached town house located on West Street in Gravesend, a mere hop away from the beach and a short walk to the commotion of Brooklyn’s various commercial areas. In the winter, all the houses looked alike, rigid and militant, like red-faced old generals with icicles hanging from their moustaches. One townhouse after the other lined the streets in strict parallel formation, block after block, interrupted only by my home, whose fortunate zoning provided for a uniquely situa...
The character of Dalila is first described by Samson, in his opening dialogue with the Chorus, as "that specious Monster, my accomplish'd snare." He also later describes her as "fallacious, unclean, unchaste". Thus when she finally appears in person, the reader is perhaps surprised to hear the Chorus uses a simile of a pulchritudinous ship to describe Dalila, "so bedeck'd, ornate and gay". It is the first mention of her physical beauty. Neither does the Chorus merely mention it in passing; the chorus takes a total of eleven lines to describe the full extent of Dalila's beauty. The Chorus continues this extended simile, admiring her "tackle trim . . . and streamers waving". She even smells sweet, being followed by a damsel train and "amber scent of odorous perfume". It seems as if the Chorus has fallen under Dalila's spell as Samson had.
As I walked down the sidewalk, my nose picked up the salty scent of the sea breeze. I looked ahead and saw the gleaming beach in the far distance. Before me, the tranquil city along with the endless blue sea sandwiched the golden beach that stretched across for miles. Then my eyes were grasped by the incredible beauty of the city skyscrapers that stood hundreds of meters tall, and they probably had also captured the sight of many other tourists. Some people were jogging and others were bike riding Just as the yellow sun rises from behind the buildings. It’s easy for many people t...