Living with Strangers Analysis - 1219 Words

B. Living With Strangers In 2011 8,244,910 people were living in one of the United States’ most famous cities: New York. New York has the highest population density in the United States with over 27000 people per square mile and it is estimated that 200 languages are spoken in the city. In a city with so many people, different cultures, and languages converts may have difficulties with growing accustomed to a city full of strangers. The American novelist and essayist, Siri Hustvedt, debates in the essay â€Å"Living With Strangers† from The New York Times, 2002, the complications and challenges an urbanite must overcome in a large city’s society. The main theme in the essay is the ability to show humanity in a city full of strangers. In†¦show more content†¦In the third and final part of the article Siri Hustvedt discusses when and what will happen if people do not follow the pretend-it-isn’t-happening law. â€Å"Taking action may be viewed as courageous or merely stupid (†¦)† (l. 53) this statement is once again supported my anecdotes from the urban life. The first story is by Siri Hustvedt’s husband who was a witness to a man being threatened on his life because he asked another man to put out his cigarette. Even though it was only a verbal attack it can have horrible consequences because, as Siri Hustvedt puts it â€Å"it carries no moral insight into when to act and when not to act† (ll. 72-73), you will never know when you are being attacked for not obeying the unspoken law. Siri Hustvedt moves on to telling another story, which contrary to the previous story has a happy ending. Her daughter, Sofie, was riding the subway when a man loudly declared his love for her. Sofie is a product of the pretend-it-isn’t-happening law and therefore she did as all the other passengers did, she ignored the man. The situation made Sofie very uncomfortable until the passenger next to her broke the unspoken law with a witty remark. This made Sofie feel better â€Å"it lifted my daughter out of the solitary misery that comes from being the object of unwanted attention amongShow MoreRelatedThe Metropolis And Mental Life By Georg Simmel Essay1369 Words   |  6 Pagesthe Metropolis, as a problem of the relation between modern existence and its forms, is the point from which all of Georg Simmel’s Philosophy develops’ (Frisby, D 2013). When Simmel talks about living in the city and what the social structure and economics are like, this is very similar w ith the analysis Weber uses (Rationalization). Key arguments of the primary texts. Simmel argues that ‘society exists as social forms that come through human interaction’ (1971). 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