...Living with strangers In the text “Living with strangers” Siri Hustvedt discusses the lack of solidarity and the social rules, one may meet in a big city, like New York City. Siri Hustvedt starts the essay by describing, the big difference she felt, when moving from rural Minnesota to New York City. She begins by briefly describing to the reader, how one was expected to behave, where she grew up. Whenever you encountered someone on the road, whether you knew them or not, you should always greet them. If you didn’t, you would be considered both rude and a snob, which was pretty much the worst thing, you could be in that part of rural Minnesota. Therefore, Siri Hustvedt quickly felt the difference between these two places, when greeting everyone you meet in downtown New York simply isn’t practical. But Hustvedt does not only describe it as impractical, but also as a kind of social code in the city. The title “Living with strangers” refers to a paradox that is apparent in every major city, although never specifically mentioned in the essay: We are becoming increasingly isolated while being surrounded by more and more people. Siri Hustvedt describes this through an anecdote from her first apartment in New York. Even though she was living alone at the time, she represents her neighbors as roommates, because she was witness to several acts that should remain private, such as a heated argument from down stairs and walking around wearing only underwear. However, she did not...
Words: 923 - Pages: 4
...article “Living with strangers’’ is from. Her name is Siri Hustvedt and she wrote the essay in 2002 which was published in The New York Times. She moved from the country in Minnesota to New York City where addressing strangers on the street is considered very odd. Siri Hustvedt’s essay is inspired by this difference between the norms and ways of doing things. The title “Living with strangers” is a bit of a paradox, because living with someone would normally make them everything else than strangers. In Siri Hustvedts life that isn’t the case. She moves to New York City where there live a whole lot of people. In New York City you are surrounded by more and more people, nonetheless you get more and more isolated in your own little world. This isolation and exclusion from the world outside is what Siri Husvedt’s essay is based on. From her apartment she could hear and watch things which should have been kept private such as a couple arguing and men only wearing underwear. They could almost have been roommates or something but they were just fellow New Yorkers who had unintentionally shared private moments. She is living with strangers. “Pretend it isn’t happening”(p.1.l.20) is a law which every citizen of New York City live by. It is a law that says if something happens just pretend it didn’t. Siri Hustvedt comes with several examples where this is proved to be true. Not only is “Pretend it isn’t happening” considered a law but also a way of surviving which is clarified in the example...
Words: 956 - Pages: 4
...the essay Living with strangers, written by Siri Hustvedt, we get some insight into the life of a person living in a larger city. In this essay, we get to know how everyone is a stranger and in New York City, there rules a special unwritten law, which is the law of PRETENDING IT ISN’T HAPPENING. An aspect of living with some complete strangers that Hustvedt is completely fascinated by, is the aforementioned ‘’law’’ pretend-it isn’t-happening-law, and that is an interesting way to get some insight into this urban living. It is a peculiar occurrence because you would think that moving to the cities would affect the amount of people you socialize with, but most of the time you actually spent indoors and isolated from the big world around you. When you finally move yourself out in the big world, then you spend half of the time looking into the ground and straying away from eye contact with strangers. Interactions between humans in our modern world is quite a complex subject to debate and it will be almost impossible, to find an exact answer to how one should act. Should everyone say hi to each and not really mean it, as they do in Minnesota or should they just mind their own business, as they do in New York? Hustvedt does not have an answer therefore; she tries to come closer to the answer by writing an essay. The essay is a subjective collection of her thoughts on this particular issue that she has chosen to divide into three parts, the first being her personal backstory. This part...
Words: 928 - Pages: 4
...Brooks begins his essay with criticizing Amy Chua’s parenting with showing how hard she is on her daughters. He’s reasonable throughout but still questions Chua and calls her “soft”. In “Amy Chua is a Wimp,” David Brooks argues that Amy Chua is too soft when it comes to parenting, leading her to ignore the importance in her children acquiring social skills, and that those skills are just as important as academic skills. Brooks begins with highlighting some cringe-worthy situations from Chua’s book. Amy Chua, a well-known “Tiger Mom,” believes western parents...
Words: 1156 - Pages: 5
...B Living with strangers All cultures and societies have unspoken rules, which an outsider like our narrator in “Living with strangers” from the New York Times in 2002, simply will not understand. Whether if it is in the country like Minnesota where greeting everyone is considered obligated or New York City where addressing a stranger would make you seem mental. This observation is what has inspired author Siri Hustvedt to write the essay “Living With Strangers”. The title refers to what apparently is going on in every major city, although the essay never specifically mentions it: We are becoming increasingly isolated while being surrounded by more and more people. Why can this be? Siri Hustvedt describes this through an anecdote from her first apartment in New York. Even though she was living alone at the time, she think of her neighbours as roommates because she was the witness to several acts that should remain private such as an argument from the downstairs apartment or another woman walking around wearing only underwear, for her to see. However, she did not know these people. They lived so close and shared so many private moments and yet, Hustvedt can still not see them as anything else other than “fellow New Yorkers”. That’s why she is living with strangers. In the text Hustvedt is really fascinated by is the “pretend-it-didn’t-happen-law”. The “law” is made so people won’t feel embarrassed. It links to the previously mentioned about never greeting a person you...
Words: 1116 - Pages: 5
...one of the hardest languages in the world, after all. I think I’ve always been good at allowing my voice to flow in the essays I write. It’s a very tricky skill, but after years of writing for different classes, It’s a skill that kind of develops on its own. The different between an okay essay and a great essay is being able to hear and understand the voice of the writer who wrote that essay. If you allow your voice to come through,...
Words: 960 - Pages: 4
...pain or to love and be hurt in the progress? Jonathan Franzen seeks to answer these questions in his essay “Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts”. The essay “Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts” is, as mentioned, written by Jonathan Franzen and published in The New York Times, May 28, 2011. Jonathan Franzen is born in 1959, and he is an acclaimed American novelist and essayist. The essay is based on the commencement speech he delivered at Kenyon College in Ohio, USA. “Our technology has become extremely adept in creating products that correspond to our fantasy ideal of an erotic relationship, in which the beloved object asks for nothing and gives everything, instantly. (…)” As Franzen claims in his essay, many people can feel like they love their technological object. It gives them a satisfaction, which human interaction maybe wouldn’t. Franzen however thinks, that people in general don’t love material things: they like them. There is a major difference between loving and liking – even though it might appear small. “Liking, in general, is commercial culture’s substitute for loving.” Products are made to be likeable, but if that concept in transferred to a person, you would instantly see a narcissistic person, without integrity. Franzen says that technologic products don’t do this, because they aren’t people. They are in stead a great allied. His purpose with this claim is to make a contrast between the narcissistic tendencies of technology and the problem of...
Words: 1039 - Pages: 5
...think that urban life is pure happiness? In the essay “Living With Strangers” by Siri Hustvedt, we hear about a woman's move from the countryside of Minnesota, to the Big Apple in New York City. Her move is described with many comparisons with her previous life and experiences, and a lot of humor, which underlines her situation and her attitude to urban life. In the following essay I am going to analyze and comment on Siri Hustvedt’s essay “Living With Strangers”. Part of my essay will focus on the genre, the attitude to urban living and the contrasts between Siri’s life in Minnesota and her new life in New York City. As said, the essay is based on Siri Hustvedt’s own life and experiences. Siri Hustvedt grew up in Minnesota, where everybody knows and greets each other. Now she lives in New York City where nobody seems to care about each other, and where greeting strangers would be “impractical and unsound”. This is a big change for her, and she uses an overwhelming amount of detailed descriptions to describe her situation in the Big Apple. She uses many personal experiences and examples, which characterizes the essay genre. Furthermore, she is very reflective, descriptive, subjective and very personal in her way of writing the essay. “It didn’t take long for me to absorb the unwritten code of survival in this town (..). This simple law, one nearly every New Yorker subscribes to whenever possible, is: PRETEND IT ISN’T HAPPENING”. This quote shows her stream of consciousness and...
Words: 1138 - Pages: 5
...Begin WRITING TEST Here. If you ever ask a highschool student whether they would want to go one more year very few would say yes. I would, not because I like school, not because I enjoy spending six hours cooped up inside, but because I could use one more year to just be sure I am completely prepared for college. Along with this I feel that because we are required to take tenth grade graduation test and most of our tenth grade year is spent preparing for this test. Highschool students today are highly prepared for the world, but that one extra year in high school could possibly be spent taking time on preparatory courses in college type setting. Students get thrown into the college setting which is a major shock to them due to the major differences. Maybe doing this our freshmen's first quarter wouldn't be as much of a change. Because we have to take the graduation test in tenth grade we don't learn anything that year. We need another year due to that, so we should go one more year to make sure we are ready. Scoring Explanation This essay demonstrates inconsistent skill in responding to the task. The writer takes a position but displays no recognition of a counter-argument to that position. Development of ideas is thin with general statements to explain the first idea (Students get thrown into the college setting which is a major shock to them due to the major differences) and very little explanation of the second idea (Because we have to take the graduation test...
Words: 1910 - Pages: 8
...Franzen, an American novelist and essayist, wrote the essay “Liking is for cowards. Go for what hurts” in The New York Times in 2011. Franzen’s essay is mainly about the increasing relationship between humans and technology, where he criticizes the development of the narcissism in the modern time. He writes about how to love and like in real life and in consumer technology. Franzen begins the essay with his own example of his relationship to his old smartphone and his new one. He describes his own addiction to the new Blackberry and he “wanted to keep fondling” the new blackberry even though he didn’t have anybody to reach. He finds safety in the smartphone because it won´t hurt you and it’s always available and writes that the “beloved object asks for nothing and gives everything, instantly, and makes us feel powerful, and doesn’t throw terrible scenes when it’s replaced by an even sexier object.” ll.49-53. Franzen describes therefore his blackberry as a girlfriend. But vanity has become more popular these days and the term “liking “ someone’s picture or status on Facebook is stated as “commercial culture’s substitute for loving” (ll.84-84), and is a superficial way of saying that you “like” the person. Franzen writes that we can form our own lives through the media and make it more interesting for others to see and he blames it because of its increasing narcissism and the fakeness of “liking”. But as I mentioned before, this term can be compared to the love/addiction to a smartphone...
Words: 1004 - Pages: 5
...Living with Strangers In the essay “Living with Strangers” Siri Hustvedt discusses the lack of solidarity and the difference between the unspoken social rules, one can meet in a in a big city, for example New York City, and a small town in the state of Minnesota. These unspoken social rules are very hard for an outsider to understand. Hustvedt starts the essay by giving a briefly description of the huge difference she felt, when she moved from rural Minnesota to New York City. She talks about how one is expected to behave where she grew up. It was considered as rude and snobby to pass someone in silence – which is pretty much the worst thing in a small town – you have to say “Hi”. “Passing someone in silence wasn’t only rude; it could lead to accusations of snobbery – the worst possible sin in my small corner of egalitarian state (paragraph 3-5)”. Whereas in New York City it will make you seem mental greeting a stranger if you were to greet everyone you meet on the street. It is this problematic issue that has inspired Siri Hustvedt to write the essay. The title refers to the paradox living in a big city: on one hand you live among so many people and on the other you do not know these people so you are really on your own. Although this is not specifically mentioned; but she indicates it indirectly through an anecdote about the habits of her neighbors “...I listened to the howling battles of the couple the lived below me, their raging voices punctuated by thuds, bangs, and the...
Words: 766 - Pages: 4
...Michelle Gjørup Engelsk Essay 17. maj 2015 Living with strangers By Siri Hustvedt Living in big cities like New York City is a relatively modern phenomena, and why wouldn't it be when the big city, unlike the countryside has so much more to offer? Hundreds and thousands of possibilities can be found and realized in the big cities, its been this way from the time after the industrialization in the 1800’s with the increase of urbanization where a lot of people moved to the big cities to get a job. But with so many people in one place comes several dilemmas, like what do you do in certain situations when people around you seem not to care as much? The lack of social interaction has a huge effect on some people, one of them being Siri Hustvedt. In her essay “Living with strangers” from 2002, Siri Hustvedt discusses how she sees “the big city” and its lack of social interaction, and what affects it has on her as a former Minnesotan. In the countryside everyone knows everybody and people greet each other like its second nature. But as Siri so quotes in her essay people in New York has an unwritten rule to “pretend it isn't happening”. She further states that even though there are so many people that you on a daily basis get up close and personal with ”... I found myself in intimate contact with people I didn’t know, my body pressed so tightly against them, I could smell their hair oils, perfumes, and sweat.” It doesn't...
Words: 1516 - Pages: 7
...Living With Strangers Moving to a new place can be hard. You exchange your old surroundings with completely new ones, you have to change old habits, and you need to go out and explore new places and meet new people. This progress can be hard for some people and it will take a long time to get used to your new surroundings. Siri Hustvedt talks about this in “Living With Strangers” from 2002. In the essay Siri Hustvedt describes her experience when she moved from Minnesota to New York In 1978. The fact that it was brought in The New York Times might indicate that her essay presents the reality of the people of New York. The essay also appears like it was written to people who already have some knowledge about New York as an example she writes: “… was traveling uptown on the Second Avenue bus. At Twenty-Fourth Street …” (line 23-24 page 6). This would mean nothing to people who don’t know anything about the streets of New York and their bus system. During her essay Hustvedt reflects on the difference between her new home New York and her old home in Minnesota. She especially points out the fact, that in Minnesota everybody used to say “hi” to everybody, even people you didn’t know. Not even was it seen as being rude, but you could actually be looked at as a snob, which was the worst thing you could be looked at, but in New York it’s an entirely different story. Here it’s totally impossible to say hi to everybody, and nobody cares if you say hi to them because people don’t even...
Words: 1021 - Pages: 5
...new aspect of culture never explored. Culture is the main root in informing a person how to see the world around them. In the essay “Where Worlds Collide”, written by Pico Iyer, Iyer describes his time first moving to a new place. Coming from out of the country he anticipates that every step he takes is going to be a glance at paradise. “The blue skies and palm trees they saw on TV are scarcely visible from here: just an undifferentiated smoggy haze, billboards advertising Nissan and Cannon, and beyond those an endlessly receding mess of gray streets.” (page 51, Springboard). Here he describes how his picture of L.A was so...
Words: 742 - Pages: 3
...Jordan Swaim 9/21/2014 S/R Why Don’t’ We Complain? In the essay, “Why Don’t We Complain”, written by William F. Buckley Jr., the author explains some situations that he was involved in where no one would complain to fix an uncomfortable situation. He argues that Americans would rather face the inconvenience such as sitting in miserable heat on a train or not having your lunch tray collected on a plane. Buckley writes this essay as a result of constantly finding him accepting the inconvenience of life that could easily be fixed if he were to just speak up. The first theory Buckley stated is that everyone expects someone else to complain instead of them. You can’t go around expecting someone to always do the job for you. You need to speak for yourself. If no one is ever willing to say something, then how is the problem ever going to be solved? I felt that this problem was one if the author’s powerful points in this essay. One example he used, was one day when he was on a train and the temperature was very uncomfortable. It was 85 degrees on the train but below freezing outside. He knew that everyone was suffering from the heat, including himself, but no one ever said anything about the temperature being changed. He then said, “It isn’t just they who have given up trying to rectify irrational vexations” (pg. 77). People always expect someone else to stand up and complain about the situation. The second theory that Buckley explained was that people are afraid to state their...
Words: 542 - Pages: 3
