Kitty Genovese Urban Life

We cannot deny that the death of Kitty Genovese was an absolute outrage and that it was something that should never have happened in the 20th century. Kitty was just a normal woman who lived her life in the city. The circumstances of Kitty’s death and also the details surrounding her death cause huge speculation and outrage which can be hugely linked to life in the city. This is the area in which Georg Simmel specialized and studied the effect of urban life on the individual. The death of Genovese occurred in 1964, leaving it hard to believe that it was only 52 years ago since this horrific tragedy occurred. Genovese was an independent woman who was a bar manager and she frequently told her father that “no man could support me because I make

Living in the city has huge impacts on the individual and according to Simmel “The mental attitude of the people of the metropolis may be designated formally as one of reserve”. I believe this is very appropriate to Kitty’s death and the reaction of the onlookers. The onlookers were very reserved in their actions and I believe, after reading the metropolis and mental life that this is wholly down to urban living. There is no comparison between rural and urban living as in rural locations the majority of the population know each other whereas the complete opposite can be said for life in the city. In my opinion, I think that a tragedy such as Kitty’s would not have taken place in a rural setting as people are much friendlier towards one another and would not have liked to see anything happen to Kitty. In comparison to the city, to where people are just simply

Simmel begins “The metropolis and Mental Life” discussing an extremely critical element of his work that “the metropolis fosters a situation where one must buffer him or herself from a constantly changing environment”. This, I believe, is one of the main challenges of urban living and something which really separates both rural and urban