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Sylvia Zaki
Pr. Davison
English 110H
20 Dec 2011
White’s New York is Everyone’s New York
American essayist, E. B. White states in his “Here is New York” essay that “New
York is nothing like Paris; it is nothing like London; and it is not 10 Spokane multiplied
by sixty, or Detroit multiplied by four. It is by all odds, the loftiest of cities,” (36). In his
portrayal of what NY is and what it offers its people, he argues what many have written
about through the years, that New York is a place of wonder. It is the center of ideas, art
forms, historical events, culture, and business, all thriving and interacting in an
incomprehensibly complex balance. Due to this variety of aspects, people are compelled
to come to the city to indulge in them. Protagonists in the movies It Should Happen to
You, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Panic in Needle Park do just that. These three aspiring
women, Gladys Glover, Holly Golightly, and Helen Reeves respectively, all come to
New York City in search of something that their hometowns could not offer to them, the
chance to become someone. Their “grail,” as White puts it, is to find and create an
identity that they can embrace and one that satisfies their desires, which New York
allows them to do.
White introduces the aspects of the city he finds to be edifying to its residents,
ultimately giving it the iconic reputation it has today. White reports the convergence of
New York; as is the center of everything, one can find a range of cultures, opportunities,
and people in one little neighborhood, let alone one tiny island. Standing in one area,
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White is surrounded by an assortment of places with both historical and modern value,
such as the location where “Nathan Hale was executed,” (34) as well as where “a man
shot and killed his wife in a fit of jealousy (35).”
White also likens the city to a poem, a compression of many things in a small
form (36). The city, as a microcosm of the world, creates an infinite accessibility to
opportunity. White further admiringly writes of this aspect by describing how hard it
would be to really support this city. Millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of
watts of energy are daily expended to keep up with the technological pace. New York is
very much susceptible to a hysterical breakdown, yet has not allowed that to happen (37).
White proceeds to tell the reader about migrators to NY, since they heavily impact
the development of the city. “Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give
it solidarity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion.” (36). There are three
different New York’s that White chooses to write about; the first being “the New York of
the man or woman who was born here.” (36). To them, the city is nothing special; they
use it and thrive in it but do not see it extraordinariness. “Second, there is the New York
of the commuter-” (36). He likens these people to locusts, uncontrollable, mass eating
insects. Thus, commuters come to abuse the city for their purposes and then go home,
leaving behind the mess and the chaos. The third New York is “of the person who was
born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something” (36).
This third New York is the world of Gladys Glover, Holly Golightly, and Helen
Reeves, three protagonists who have come to New York to seek something and find their
“grail” (34). A grail is the focus or object of an impassioned search; a search that may
completely change the course of one’s path, driving them to great lengths in order to find
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it. New York, to them as well as to others, is the place where they can come to a
conclusion, where they can find what they are looking for. For some, NY is in and of
itself the goal; accomplishment or success lies in establishing oneself here. To others it
may only be a stop on the way, an aid along the path, an experience to learn from. And
for others still, it may only be a medium for an endless cycle where they neither learn nor
advance in their search. For each of these women, NY is something different, yet still
leading them in with what it offers.
Gladys Glover is a young girl from upstate New York who has traveled down to
the city because of issues in her hometown. Leaving behind her mishap of a modeling
career and bolstering her wandering curiosity for something more than “marrying the first
guy that comes along,” Gladys moves to NY. Her grail is to “make a name” for herself, a
phrase she so readily repeats throughout the duration of the film. This poses the question,
a name for what; what will this name stand for? Even her supporting character, Pete
Sheppard, implores her to refine and redirect her search, but she refuses. She wants the
fame that comes with the name and is rejecting NY’s “gift of privacy”(34). All she has is
the thousand dollars she has saved up and a dream that she never awakens from. From
there, a risky and quite reckless decision to buy coveted billboard space in Columbus
Circle introduces her to a conflict with the head of a large company, which eventually
leads her to having six more billboards put up around the city. Within a few months,
Gladys, the small town girl, has become the “Average American Girl”; she has made a
name that everyone knows.
The reason Gladys doesn’t know what this name will stand for is because she
does not know what she stands for yet. Her direction is one of fame, yet her real goal is
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identity and purpose. NY is the city of dreams, the place she can come to be completely
changed and start something new. She wants to be famous, but hasn’t decided what to be
famous for. People come to NY to be famous for singing, acting, painting; ironically
Gladys is clueless. At the end of the movie, Gladys leaves New York for a quieter and
smaller town after the scandalous things she’s had to handle being a famous figure. She
concludes that she loathes the fame and would much rather live in obscurity while fully
enjoying privacy, than be a public figure forced to deceive the people. This is typified
during her weight-loss advertisement, where she underwent situations that pull at her
pride and dignity, as well as at the naming of the airplane speech she forcibly gives at the
end. The seductive New York, with its moneymaking obsession, large business mindset,
and sexual harassing the Mr. Adams III’s, helps lead Gladys to the conclusion of the
person she wants to be through experience and analysis, which is not a New Yorker at all.
Holly Golightly has a more complex identity situation than Gladys Glover. Holly
flees home as a young girl in search of a better life, one that did not burden her with four
children and a husband at the age of fourteen. She leaves Texas to travel and become a
version of herself she believes she should be, one who sparkles with jewelry and has
money at her fingertips. Holly’s conquest, or so she says, is to become rich enough to be
able to afford glittery things and to be able to care for her brother Fred. She searches for
that in her hometown and when she cannot find the proper satisfaction, she tries Los
Angeles. Again, fails to find what she is looking for. In this movie, New York is not her
goal, but seems to be a stop along the way of Holly’s search for self.
White makes a point in his essay that seems to mirror Holly’s entire disposition,
both the phony one discussed in the film and the real one that she is in the process of
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discovering. White states, “I think that although many persons are here from excess of
spirit (which caused them to break away from their small town), some, too, are here from
deficiency of spirit, who find in New York a protection, or an easy substitution” (36).
Holly repeatedly refers to herself as a ‘wild thing,’ something untamable and always
moving, mirroring an “excess of spirit.” She believes that to be the reason for her
inability to settle with Doc, the widower she marries in Texas. After Paul, her supporting
character, gives his speech about Holly’s insecurity and fear, how she runs away when
things get real such as almost becoming a star in L.A. and almost finding love in NY, her
disposition more readily matches that of a “deficiency of spirit.” Holly is indeed looking
for a substitution, a self that she cannot find within her and must create. NY is her
protection; it allows her to work her way up by whatever means necessary and retain
some dignity and pride to a certain level. It is interesting that NY adheres to both sides of
thinking, both struggling Hollys: the phony and the real. There could not have been a
more perfect place than NY for Holly to go in order to come to the realizations that were
her true quest.
Helen Reeves, although also in a demanding search for identity, serves as a
contrast to both Holly and Gladys. Helen come to NY during the 1970’s, a time when
NY was not of the greatest of reputations. The movie begins with Helen already kneedeep in misfortune and among terrible company. From the description of her hometown,
Fort Wayne, Indiana, Helen did not have many problems, as did Holly or Gladys. She
describes it as ordinary and does not confess a specific reason when asked by Bobby, her
boyfriend, why she left in the first place. She seemingly already has the American
Dream: a family, a house, and a lawn for her own. Thus, it poses the question of what
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reason could she have for leaving and why would she come to live in a dangerous area
like New York among drug dealers and thieves?
White’s statement about deficiency of spirit also applies to Helen, as it did to
Holly. Helen lacks spirit to live in Indiana and has come to New York to ‘borrow’ the
“excitement of participation” (35) that the city offers. Helen has a quiet disposition,
speaking very softly in very few words, and always seems to be shadowing a man,
though he may lead her into trouble. The first man the viewer sees, Marco, forces her to
have an illegal abortion which causes her some health issues and the second man, Bobby,
leads her to try the heroin that he deals. She even becomes a hooker in order to make
enough money to support her and her boyfriend’s addiction. Her complacence with being
a hooker and her boyfriend’s lack of immediate objection shows that she is ok with being
used and derives her satisfaction from what others think.
Helen is led from bad to worse situations, always at the mercy of someone else.
At one point in the film, she gets arrested while performing a “favor” for Bobby and is
not angered in the least by the situation. Later on, she wakes up in a panic when she does
not find Bobby next, to her and runs out frantically to look for him; her only reasoning
being that she “does not like to wake up alone.” It is more likely that she is afraid to be
by herself. Toward the end of the film, she allows herself to be manipulated and
convinced by the police officer, Hotch, in turning her boyfriend in, who she supposedly
loves. She seems to want others to make decisions for her in an especially shocking
statement she makes when speaking with Bobby about their relationship. She forfeits all
power by saying “You don’t have to tell me when to go, just leave.” By this, she means
that she can be fully committed and the decision-making about the relationship is all up
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to him. Some can argue that this can be said out of love, but because during the entire
length of the film she does not make affirmative decisions and constantly depends on
someone else, it makes more sense to say that she lacks confidence and personality.
The life in Indiana that she describes is mundane; she “was born and then went to
school.” The description of Indiana juxtaposes the excitement and business New York
offers. Therefore she flocks to NY; she craves an exciting life to replace her former
mediocre one. Never mind that she may be walking into dangerous situations and
harming herself; in her eyes, that is better than her lawn back home. Holly, and arguably
Gladys, also gets into rather terrible situations. The fact that Holly is a call girl takes
quite a toll on her dignity, but there is an intention behind it to make something good, to
grow and become rather than just find pleasure and excitement. Helen is looking to
create a completely alternate self, which, in White’s eyes, is certainly possible
considering all of NY’s assets, though she may be going about it in the wrong way.
Helen has built for herself a cycle of trying to quit her addiction that only leads
into a quick relapse after a hostile conflict with Bobby. The film ends on an ambiguous
note, leading the viewer to believe that she has come to be built this way, still following
others and not making much of herself. The entire movie is about her trying to solve the
conflictions she kept getting herself into, resulting only in more complications. Helen’s
identity is found among others; that is what she believes and is what her life consists of.
New York permits the excitement of participation but she chooses the wrong types of acts
in which to participate.
White writes of a New York that applies to all people of all places throughout the
years, as one can see through these three movies. Though White was writing in the
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1940’s and these movies came out in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s respectively, the NY that
they speak of has a ringing quality. The city plays the defined role to each of these
people that it still plays today though it is ever-changing; it brings together the world and
allows people to grow or fall, to discover and uncover, to make and destroy. These three
women undergo the turmoil of living in the city and the contrast it serves to their
hometowns while using it to mold their lives, as so many still do today.
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Works Cited
Breakfast at Tiffany's. Dir. Blake Edwards. Perf. Audrey Hepburn. Paramount Pictures,
1961. Film
It Should Happen to You. Dir. George Cukor. Perf. Judy Holliday. Columbia Picture
Corporation, 1954. Film
Panic in Needle Park. Dir. Jerry Schatzberg. Perf. Kitty Winn, Al Pacino. Gadd
Productions Corporation, 1971. Film
White, E.B. Here is New York. International Creative Management Inc., 1949. Print.
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Sylvia Zaki
20 Dec 2011
This semester has definitely taught me a lot about my own writing and about the
expectations of what “good” writing is. Having written multiple essays throughout my
lifetime, I knew a loose format of what it was supposed to look like. However, I seemed
to be missing something that ties the whole thing together. Something that I failed to
realize in high school that has been brought to my attention in this semester is my lack of
support I give to my statements. I seem to only write my opinions and then never back
them up with solid evidence, making my work look flimsy, even though I have the
evidence in my mind, just not in a clear-cut manner. Slowly, I am breaking that habit and
am finding myself citing solid sources within my work, which I count as an
improvement.
This course has also challenged my outlook on analysis. During my senior year in
high school, my English teacher broke my class’s habit of saying, “I think” or “I believe”
before a statement. She taught us to assert what we say rather than look small by
seeming unsure. This semester’s English class gave me an opportunity to try out this new
ideal and to grow even more confident in my own interpretations and ideas.
This class has also succeeded in allowing me the opportunity to write in different
contexts. I was not planning on ever being in the position to write a grant application for
a museum, but I did it. I had not realized that collective memory is a more complicated
theory than it sounds, but I wrote about it. Also, I did not know what the public domain
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was nor was I aware of the ways in which I could use it. It was an eye-opening and
mind-broadening experience all around.
This class, especially the last unit, have helped me look at New York differently,
to think about its icon-status and decide for myself if it deserved that name. Paired with
my Arts in NYC Seminar, the assignments of this class helped me explore the happenings
of NY in ways that I would not have done had I not been prompted to. I gained a new
perspective on the city I live in and the ability to write about it somewhat effectively.