ipl-logo

Summary Of My Little Bit Of Country By Susan Cheever

1338 Words6 Pages

A life in the city versus a life in the country is possibly one of the most debated life style choices in modern days. The excitement and loudness of the city attract the same kind of people, who enjoy to let the younger side of themselves break loose, whereas the calm and sturdiness of the country, and more specifically the suburbs, speak to the people who seek the family dream and want more than a fleeting life in the fast lane. But on the subject of family and children, is our comfort in city or country dependent on our fear of change and the feeling of familiarity from the place we grew up? Because you can bash the other idea as much as you want, but I can guarantee you, there is someone out there who loves it precisely because of those …show more content…

In the text, Cheever touches on the subject of her experience of Central Park compared to her life in the suburbs. As the text is written in a first person narrator as a series of memories which collide in a final present understanding of Cheever’s own relationship to Central Park, we learn a lot about Cheever. She is first and foremost a lover of the big city life. It is not said when her family moved to the country, but we know that up until that point she had lived in New York City and grown up with Central Park: “My earliest memories are of summer mornings in Central Park” (l. 1-2). And although Cheever loves the city her parents thought otherwise and at some point in Cheever’s life they moved to the country. Cheever expresses multiple times that she felt like an outcast in her family on this particular subject: “I too often felt (…) that I had come from another exotic foreign place to live with my disappointingly ordinary family” (l. 27-30), “I was the lone dissenter. I did not want to go.” (l. 90). To no one’s surprise, she moved back to New York City when she was old enough, and made a point out of raising her own children in the …show more content…

284-287) and “I long for the safety of the city, where nature is so beautifully and spectacularly kept on a leash” (l. 295-298). The underlying message of this essay lies in these few lines. For the author explicitly explains her love for Central Park with the feeling that it is her “bit of country” in the city, and the spectacular nature confined in the park cannot be matched anywhere in the suburbs. But as seen in the lines 295-298, the reason for her dislike of the country’s nature might lie in the fact it is not controlled, and you cannot be sure of what can happen, whereas in Central Park the zoo-animals are confined and everything is made sure to be safe. And that lack of certainty might be what is scaring her

Show More
Related
650 Words | 3 Pages

Frederick Law Olmsted, an environmental designer noticed this “Every day of their lives they have seen thousands of their fellowmen, have met them face to face, have brushed against them, and yet have no experience of anything in common with them.” , (pg.12), this character of urban society troubled other genteel reformers and thought of construction of parks as recreation in urban life. Olmsted built the first park in United States in New York known as “Central Park” in 1858 with Calvert Vaux. The other major park during this period was Chicago’s Columbian Exposition built by Daniel H. Burnham in 1893. These parks, are compared by the author to prove, that the remedies offered by the parks were different, but the purpose of building them was the same.

Read More
342 Words | 2 Pages

In this passage from Last child in the Woods, an extremely discouraged Richard Louv shows the separation of nature to both parents and children. By showing imagery through car rides in the present vs. car rides in the past he shows an extraordinary change. By his use of rhetorical devices such as pathos, ethos, and imagery Louv produces a captivating argument to fire up the modern generation. Throughout the passage Louv cites many sources, and deserves credit.

Read More
546 Words | 3 Pages

Crow Country by Kate Constable is a story of Sadie Hazzard, a girl who slips into the past to right the old wrongs and prevents it from reoccurring in the present time. The author successfully reveals the best and worst of Australians to a great extent through reflecting values that are found in contemporary Australian society and the past such as integrity, respect and acceptance. Gerald Mortlock displays the worst acts when he neglects the value of respect, however, Lachie and Ellie show Australians at their best. Kate Constable explores the idea of disrespect being shown in the past, reflecting the worst of Australians. This is evident when Gerald Mortlock, Jimmy Raven’s friend says ‘the War’s over… Jimmy is a good man, a good worker.

Read More
1259 Words | 6 Pages

David Baron’s “The Beast in the Garden” primarily follows the life of Michael Sanders, a biologist working mainly in Boulder, Colorado. Michael’s mission throughout the story is the study and prediction of the dangers of urban cougars. Living in a city of staunch environmentalists, Michael’s attempts to sway public opinion is a daunting task. As it would seem, the majority of Boulder environmentalists value cougar’s lives over human lives. Michael Sanders is a middle aged biologist, originally from a small town in Tennessee.

Read More
154 Words | 1 Pages

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good and Night by Elie Wiesel are two different stories; however, their protagonist characters Kenny, an Indigenous boy living in a residential school, and Eliezer, a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp were traumatized by similar horrifying experiences. Firstly, both characters were punished by being forced to the school or camp for their race which are aspects of identity. Secondly, Kenny and Eliezer were forced to watch a young peer die before their eyes. After running away from the residential school, Kenny remembered his friend Howie who was laying in bed “bleeding and beaten” after being whipped to death (Good 6). In the concentration camp, Eliezer was also forced to watch the hanging of a young boy (Wiesel).

Read More
304 Words | 2 Pages

"The Scottsboro Boys" By Jessica McBirney explains the prejudge towards African-Americans during the mid 1900's. The author separates her ideas by piecing them in different sections of her writing using headings. However, she mentions the main idea of her informative writing throughout the different paragraphs. The main idea of her short writing was that the Scottsboro Boys' trials showed an enormous degree of racial inequality that existed in the United States' criminal justice system and most of the Southern United States. The Scottsboro Boys' trial sparked African-American protestors and activists to push the government to improve the racial equality in justice systems.

Read More
867 Words | 4 Pages

Mary Chesnut was born on March 31, 1823, in South Carolina. Chesnut is best known for her Civil War diary, A Diary for Dixie. A Diary for Dixie tells us the story of women role during the Civil War. The first entry is dated February 18 1861. She had just found out that Mr. Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States.

Read More
698 Words | 3 Pages

In his passage from “Last Child in the Woods,” Richard Louv uses various rhetorical strategies in order to make his audience more supportive of his argument. The passage discusses the connection, or really the separation, between people and nature. On this subject, Louv argues the necessity for people to redevelop their connection with nature. His use of tone, anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and factual examples all help develop the pathos and logos of his piece.

Read More
87 Words | 1 Pages

The following poems all teach readers the importance and significance of wildlife and the horrible treatment they too often receive from human beings. As everything becomes more modern, we can not help but stray farther away from nature. This increasingly insensitive attitude can have detrimental effects on the environment. Although the elements of poetry used in the following poems vary, Gail White’s “Dead Armadillos,” Walt McDonald’s “Coming Across It,” and Alden Nowlan’s “The Bull Moose,” all share one major conflict; our civilization 's problematic relationship to the wild.

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

The poem My Mother The Land by Phill Moncrieff poetically describes the struggles the aboriginal people faced at the hands of the European people and colonisation throughout history. The fact that the author based the poem on accurate historical events adds to the authenticity of representations and engages the reader in an emotional journey with the struggles the aboriginal people faced with the somewhat loss of their country, culture, identity, people and place. The author uses a variety of language features and text structures to create this view point, for instance the author uses several language features and text structures throughout verse one to demonstrate the loss of culture and people. The poet uses effective language features throughout the poem to describe the loss that the narrator feels in their country, culture, identity, people

Read More
551 Words | 3 Pages

Nature is easily projected onto, as it allows for a sense of peacefulness and escapism. Due to its ability to evoke an emotional reaction from the masses, many writers have glorified it through various methods, including describing its endless beauty and utilizing it as a symbol for spirituality. Along with authors, artists also show great respect and admiration for nature through paintings of grandiose landscapes. These tributes disseminate a fixed interpretation of the natural world, one full of meaning and other worldly connections. In “Against Nature,” Joyce Carol Oates strips away this guise given to the environment and replaces it with a harsher reality.

Read More
1701 Words | 7 Pages

Many people who take trips to other countries use it to escape the boredom of their own life and to have fun in another country. Taking vacations can provide excitement when heading to different locales, give a person the tastes and sights of a new place, and overall provide a sense of pleasure to a tourist. However, there is an aspect of this that many tourists do not get to see. In her essay A Small Place, author Jamaica Kincaid makes this aspect very clear. Kincaid, along with many other natives of foreign islands, believes that tourists are “ugly human being[s]” who seemingly feed off the boredom and desperation of the natives of a certain place, creating a source of pleasure for themselves (Kincaid 262).

Read More
935 Words | 4 Pages

Have you ever moved houses? What about cities? Or states? Moving for many people is normal and doesn 't affect them whether they move to a different neighborhood or to a city far away. Some enjoy experiencing new places and new people, basically starting a new life.

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

It is a place that people can escape the harsh and cruelness of the world through enjoying the peace and serenity of nature. Many people don't take into account and admire the surroundings that were created for us. This is why I have chosen to observe my own public park. February 6, 2016 was a rather unusual winter day because of the high temperatures that was in the 90° F. During the early afternoon when I arrived

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

City life is stressful because cities are noisy and crowded. City people live a luxury life with modernity. In contrast to city, village does not have more facilities to make their lives comfortable. They are still integrated with the basic and traditional way. They are living a simple and normal life.

Read More

More about Summary Of My Little Bit Of Country By Susan Cheever

Related Topics

Open Document