New York City is no mere City. Every decade and every century the City sees millions of people who awe its majesty. In the present scheme of society New York is considered to be “the freest of American cities”, where everybody enjoys equal rights without any discrimination. Unfortunately this was not so for everyone during the 1930s. For my presentation I chose a narrative titled “New York, 1936” which was written by Ralph Ellison. To be precise this work actually is a small part of the famous essay “An extravagance of laughter”. Ellison was an African – American migrant from the South. He chose New York City because it was “dreamlike” he thought of it as the “freest of American cities and considered Harlem as the site and symbol of Afro-American progress and hope”. He chose to come to New York as a means to escape from the problems in the South “summer free of the South” and to find some sort of employment, at least temporarily that would help him finance his studies as a music major. During his visit to New York far from his state of Alabama he still felt restrained by what his culture had taught him as normal or abnormal in “public conduct”.
It is well known, that the 1930’s was a period of dreadful segregation of African-Americans. The South was a center of segregation due to slavery issues from earlier years. Yet, in the North “social freedom” appeared to be more visible than in the South. This period of time was very important in American history and in particular in New York City. This marked, in fact, the period of Great Migration and establishment of Harlem Renaissance “as a site and symbol of Afro-American progress and hope”. Many African-Americans living in other parts of the country then headed for New York City in order to look for this “social freedom” which was nonexistent in the South. This is what motivated Ellison to visit the city.
The author describes his experiences riding in the subways and buses. He describes one instance in which a white woman and a black man race with each other for the only empty seat on a train. In his words, “the contest was between a huge white woman and a small Negro man. The two had come out charging through the opening doors like racehorses racing towards the only available seat on the train”. Ellison had never seen anything like this before because in the South, where he came from, this was unheard of. No black man would try to compete with a white man or woman for anything. After the race that produced a startling end the African-American man landed on the white woman’s lap “nose-tip to nose”.
The type of description here is very symbolical, but it is clear that behind this description there was a bigger issue, the competition between two main races. The long war between the races, where whites fought for supremacy and blacks fought for at least the right to be free. Even though the society in the North was considered to be desegregated people still felt tension between whites and blacks. In this case the white woman on the train won the seat with “the most ladylike and triumphant of smiles” and the African-American man screamed, “You can have it, I do not want it!” With this example we can feel the tension between the races. Whites considered themselves as a dominant race. The whites from that time were unfortunately stuck with the fact that they had held themselves to a stand of superiority to which they could not and never would achieve.
The author eventually realizes that to enjoy New York and not be treated any differently one had to act like a New Yorker. In the words of Ellison “If you approached with uncertain mien you were likely to be turned away by anyone from doormen to waiters to ticket agent. However, if you acted as though you were in fact a New Yorker exercising a routine freedom, chances were that you would be accepted”. He came to understand that “one was accepted on the basis of what one appeared to be”. To this end Ellison adopted to use a mask which he conceived to be that of a “New Yorker”. To use this mask he had to forget about the culture that he had grown up in the South and simply live in the city the way everyone else did.