Detroit Arcadia Analysis

Nowadays Detroit is all but synonymous with failure. Popular news media is filled with images of broken down buildings and abandoned factories. Rather than follow this trite depiction, Rebecca Solnit’s piece “Detroit Arcadia: Exploring the post-American landscape” gives the reader a new glimpse into the city of Detroit. On the surface, the article seems to agree with most others on the subject by describing the deterioration that has come to define the city. Upon further inspection, however, the article brings to a light a different side of the city -- one of hope and rebirth. Solnit achieves this deeper image of Detroit through her use of the beginning metaphor, contrasting diction, and shifts in tone. Although her essay later depicts a brighter

This is perhaps most evident when Solnit describes Detroit as “not quite post-apocalyptic but … strangely – and sometime even beautifully – post-American” (Solnit 2). Cutting the phrases ‘post-apocalyptic’ and ‘post-American’ with beauty is Solnit’s first hint at a sort of hope after death. An idea that Detroit’s collapse provides a chance at a brighter future. This contradiction is utilized again when the piece portrays “a burned-out house … next to a carefully tended twin” (Solnit 3). The image of collapsing ruins neighboring a pristine home highlights the widespread deterioration happening across the city. We see this strategy once again when Solnit construes Detroit as “wildly outdated, but not very old” (Solnit 3). This sentence in and of itself is counterintuitive and yet again parallels the contradictions in the city that Solnit attempts to document. By stating that something is outdated, but not old, Solnit accentuates the unique, eclectic, and almost paradoxical elements of Detroit. Overall, the piece’s consistent use of antithetical phrases draws the reader attention and broaches questions about what really happened to

The turning point between these two themes is signaled by a different type of language choice evident by her descriptions of visions for the future that are “tender, hopeful, and green” (Solnit 7). The word green in particular, with connotations of flourishing nature, signals a positivity that is not present while describing the urban decay in the heart of the city. Specifically, the reference to nature-related diction connects to the same idyllic notions from the frieze, symbolizing the idealized Detroit. This more positive diction is fairly consistent after the aforementioned transition. For example, we see the use of the word ‘lush’ return when describing “three-acre Earth Works Garden” (Solnit 8). This is of distinct significance because it is the same word used to describe the woodlands from the Pontchartrain frieze. This parallel word choice marks the hope of a return to a time before the death of Detroit. These more uplifting word choices contribute to the tone shift that accentuates her vision of the future Detroit. Most obviously, we see this glimpse of hope in the very title – “Detroit Arcadia”. The very definition of the word arcadia is “any real or imaginary place offering peace and simplicity” (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary). This seems to foreshadow a time beyond the urban decay and poverty when Detroit is no longer a symbol of a filed one-industry