Analyze E.B. White’s opening lines, “On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.”

Although New York is a city filled with people, it is definitely a place where one can be lonely and private.  Especially with todays use of technology, things like social media have replaced social interactions.  In a fast paced city filled with people, it is easy for one to get overwhelmed and not be able to keep up.

New Yorkers are known to be in a rush. Following their daily routines, people dash from one place to another without a second glance at those that are around them. Seeking prizes like money and fame can leave a person distant from people. Balance of work and social life is needed unless loneliness and  a private life is what you seek.

Discuss White’s prophecy (final pages of the book) about airplanes in the light of 9/11.

” A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions.”

This quote describes the tragedy that occurred on 9/11 as if it were written after the fact.  New York, a city full of life became a quiet city filled with worried people who would flinch at the sight or sound of a plane in the sky. The “fantasy of an indestructible city was shattered. Those who, in panic, ran into the subways for shelter found themselves trapped in “lethal chambers. Frantic people seeking their way out of the smoking city filled the bridges. The swinging bridges filled over capacity seemed as if they were to fall and crumble, taking everyone with it.