Monthly Archives: August 2014

Response to E.B. White’s Here Is New York

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E.B White, in Here Is New York, recognized Manhattan’s mortality. White rooted his theory of the city’s vulnerability with the hope that the life of New York, “this very tree,” the people, would stand firm and “hold a steady, irresistible charm” if the city crumbled.

White’s hypothetical in 1948 turned into a reality in 2001.

The mortality of the city’s surface is evident through the change of scenery in White’s essay to present day. Big businesses have taken over the small ones and advancement in technology replaced some manual labor and need for certain resources. Not only did the amount of people coming in and out of the city increase, but also the types of people and cultures settling in the city have changed. White noted the vast amount of Irish people in the city, especially during St. Patrick’s Day, and the amount of illegal Chinese immigrants settling in. The city has become more diverse and welcoming since then.

“No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky,” White wrote. New York today, just as White said it did in 1948, thrives on the gamble people take by living in the city with its “gift of loneliness” and “gift of privacy.”

The lifetime resident, the commuter, and the new neighbor (from somewhere that’s not New York), in 1948 silently feared communism, as White alluded to in the theoretical plane crashes. In the midst of their fear, they all chose to not fold their cards in the city’s game and keep their loneliness and privacy. These three types of New Yorkers remain the same today holding the same hand of cards as the players did years ago.

A fear of being attacked that was once a silent thought became a spoken trauma on September 11, 2001.

When the World Trade Center was under attack, the city’s surface overwhelmed with destruction just as White described it would be in his essay.

Everyone’s loneliness and privacy had been interrupted.

White explained that the gift of privacy can isolate a person from events taking place just around the corner, unless that person chooses to participate. Except the tragedy of 9/11 forced every New Yorker to participate.

White said the city is destructible, but he couldn’t foresee that the city is also rebuildable. This is a way in which the essay is dated. He knew the people were a key component to the city’s existence, but not its most valuable resource.

New Yorkers are just like the lone tree in White’s last paragraph. They are Manhattan.

 

 

E.B White, Here is New York

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E.B White was truly a visionary in the approach he took to write the piece of literature “Here Is New York.” Although there have been many changes throughout time, the concepts and ideas that he portrays are all precise to say the least.

If you think about Manhattan along the lines of infrastructure there has been without a doubt a change in scenery. On a daily basis one can take a stroll down just about any avenue or street and see a building that is soon to be demolished, renovated, or built brand new. More people now reside in the city, more people commute to the city, and there are still a large number of immigrants that are making the trip to start a new life in the city of dreams. White wrote that 40 million commuters used to ride the LIRR into Manhattan yearly, well now there are over 122 million commuters annually that utilize the LIRR to get into the city.

On page 35 White goes on to wright, “Thus, no matter where you live in New York, you will find within a block or two a grocery store, a barbershop, a newsstand and shoeshine shack, and ice-coal-and-wood cellar, a dry cleaner, a laundry, a delicatessen, a flower shop, an undertakers parlor, etc…” Now my argument is not that these stores no longer exist, more so that they have changed with the times and rather than an undertakers parlor there may now be a Verizon and instead of a shoeshine shack there may be a footlocker. Deli’s have become commercial, some obsolete due to competition by markets such as Citarella and Grace’s. Your good old neighborhood barber has been replaced by a new era hipster shop that has its roots LA or Seattle. Storefronts haven’t gone anywhere, it is now more so what is featured inside of the stores that has been modified.

E.B. does an incredible job explaining New York and the citizens that live and work under its umbrella. The commuter, the born New Yorker, and the immigrant. You can still see signs of all three of these types of New Yorkers on a daily basis. I personally am a commuter, although I hate to refer to myself as a locust that flocks in by the morning and departs come night. This excerpt gave me my favorite quote from the entire reading, “Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion.”