My little bit of country free essay sample

My little Bit of Country’’ is an essay, written by Susan Cheever, about Central Park. Susan Cheever acts as the narrator, telling parts of her life story, from her childhood days until her present, from her point-of-view. The story takes place in the urban Manhattan, putting the New York City life in perspective, of a life in the suburbs. The story begins with the protagonists’ first memory of summer mornings in Central Park with her father, after his return from fighting in World War II, and since the story progresses chronologically, it can be presumed that the story’s timeline begins in the 1940s, and as earlier mentioned, ends in the narrators present. While living in New York in her earliest years, Susan Cheever is an only child, living in a two-bedroom apartment near the Queensborough Bridge. In attempt to explain the greatness of New York she writes on page 8, line 36: ‘’The city in those years just after the war was a romantic place, a place of dreams and the beginnings of prosperity for people like my young parents’’ showing that already at a young age she felt a platonic love for the city in which she lived. We will write a custom essay sample on My little bit of country or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page She got infatuated by the idea of New York at such a young age, that she seemed to have created an idea, of which being that nothing could compare to New York. With these ideals she moved to the suburbs with her parents, where she was living her parents’ dream of the white picket-fenced house, gaining a younger brother and a dog, in Westchester. Already knowing what she thought was best, she puts the two different ways of living in perspective through personal experience: Page 2, line 110: ‘’Why would I want to swim in someone’s muddy pond crawling with leeches when I could perch myself on a marble basin and cool myself with splashing clear water, topping it off with a lemonade from the cart on fifth Avenue? ’’ Page 2, line 115: ‘’Why would I want to scrape around the rough, dangerous ice of a country lake when I could glide around the smooth ice at the Whollman Rink and pause for a hot chocolate when my toes and fingers got too cold? ’’ Page 3, line 172: ‘’Country children may have had ponies, but my kids had the delicious Carousel with its honky-tonk music and bright stallions. ’’ Page 3, line 77: ‘’Suburban children had fancy art classes; my children had the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ’’ The way she wrote the essay clearly puts her in favor of the city life. How she describes how amazing the city is with all its opportunities, whereas the country is more limited. How she makes the city out to be almost majestic and magical in comparison to the suburbs, by using words like marble basin, splashing clear water, delicious carousel and bright stallion about the city, while words like muddy, rough and dangerous to describe the suburbs. She quotes an author named Andy Warhol about how you can find a little piece of country in the city, but no city in the country. Central Park is her country, her refuge from the city. She describes it to be beautiful but tame, whereas she explains how she is afraid of the wild nature that lies on the other side of the suburban house walls. My little bit of country free essay sample What would the ideal lifestyle contain? Would it be a busy life, surrounded by tall buildings and lots of people or would it be on the country, enveloped in the uncontrolled nature and with a small society? Some would argue for the city-life, while others would argue for the country-life. It might be impossible to conclude which lifestyle is really the best, but there is definitely both cons and pros to each of the two lifestyles. In an article called My Little Bit of Country, posted in Central Park by Susan Cheever, Susan Cheever argues her view of living respectively in the city and on the country. Susan Cheevers preferred place to live is the city. When she was a baby and as a very young child, she lived in New York. Later, she moved to the suburbs with her family and she didnt like it at all. When she grew up and got children, she raised them in the city, because she felt better in the city. We will write a custom essay sample on My little bit of country or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Cheever describes the life in the city and on the country as to completely opposite things, treating them as definite contrasts. The city-life is controlled, safe and clean – whereas the country-life is wild, dangerous and muddy. She uses a lot of examples, like ice-skating and swimming. In the city, you have safe ice-skating rinks, where there is no chance of going through the ice and there is pools that is almost completely clean and disinfected every day. On the country, you ice-skate on lakes and ponds in the winter, that might or might not be able to bear your weight, and in the summer, you bathe in the same lakes and ponds that might or might not contain poisonous algae and other plants or dangerous animals. Cheever also argues that pieces of nature exist in the city, but that pieces of city doesnt exist in the country. According to her, Central Park is an example of nature right in the middle of a big city. While it is correct that Central Park is indeed plants and a few animals, some would say that it isnt exactly the same as the uncontrolled nature you would find in a place that didnt get daily visits from gartners or where there wasnt any  supervision and control with each species of animals living there. Cheever also points to the privileges following a life in the city. The possibilities, as she describes them, are much more numerous than on the country. While the city still offers playgrounds, parks and pools, it also provides cafà ©s, lively people and flashing lights everywhere. The clean environment simply attracts her more than the dirty country. For children, Cheever thinks that the ideal place to live is also the city. She thinks its safer for children to grow up in the city and that its easier for the children to live in the city. She uses an example to support this. She compares the living country pony and the carousel city pony to each other and concludes that the carousel pony is better than the living pony, because its clean and easy to handle. However, this example might not be very strong, as many people would point out that the carousel pony lacks just exactly the work and experience that the living pony can bring to the children. Also, the bond that the child would create between the pony and itself isnt present with the carousel pony. Later in her text, we learn that Cheever has an apparent fear of living in the country. She explains that one of the most important things for her is to be surrounded by civilization at almost all times. She feels safer when she can hear the buzzing of the traffic outside her apartment and see the flashing lights on the wall in her room when shes going to sleep, knowing that theres people around her. When shes on the country, she cant hear nor see any of this and she feels insecure and alone. This might be the case for a couple of people, but it is definitely not an average feeling among humanity. Cheever fails to mention the often-mentioned downsides to the life in the city. A lot of the people living on the country often reason, that they live on the country, simply because the constant buzz of the big cities would stress them. They prefer the tranquility they choose to see in nature instead of the loneliness that Cheever herself feels. Some parent and children would also argue that getting dirty and playing around in forests, swimming in lakes and ice-skating in the hands of nature is better than the completely controlled environment of the city and that it brings valuable  experience to be in the nature and learn by its rules. Lifestyles is a question we often ask ourselves and â€Å"city† or â€Å"country† is one of the big pointers as to what kind of life youre striving to have. Where the city has many different cultures, people and jobs, the country offers gardens, quiet and big families with pets. No lifestyle would be perfect for everyone – theres simply too many varying and colliding tastes and priorities for one lifestyle to fit every single individuals wants. In the end, it probably comes down to personal preferences what is really the best way of life for each individual. And thats probably how it should be.