Because New York is such a wonderful place to live, it is difficult to describe the
experience in words. However, E. B. White does a brilliant job in conveying what it is
like so many people can either relate to it or learn from it. He describes New York as the
“concentrate of art and commerce and sport and religion and entertainment and finance,
bringing up to a single compact arena the gladiator, the evangelist, the promoter, the
actor, the trader, and the merchant.” This gives the reader a sense that despite New York
being such a diverse place to live, so many different kinds of people can all come
together and interact with each other. New York also offers the gift of privacy even in
times of festive celebrations. White uses the example of the “greatest air show ever
staged in all the world” to illustrate his point; he comments that although many people
did attend the event, he and the “other eight million other inhabitants” did not. Perhaps
the most intriguing aspect of living in New York is the diversity, which is made of
“literally a composite of tens of thousands of tiny neighborhood units.” In practically
every street of every neighborhood, there is a grocery store, barbershop, newsstand,
flower shop, delicatessen, etc. The people who operate these stores come from all
different places, ranging from European nations such as Germany and Austria to the far
away land of China. Thus, when one experiences New York as one of the eight million
people who reside here, one will never run out of things to do, people to meet, and places
to see.
Besides illustrating the positive elements of the experience of living in New York,
White even admits that New Yorkers can sometimes feel abandoned, but it will never
seem “dead or resourceful.” White also claims “mass hysteria is a terrible force, yet New
Yorkers seem always to escape it by some tiny margins.” He uses swarming subways,
crowded hospitals, packed schools, unimproved highways and bridges, the lack of fresh
air and light, and the gross differences between the seasons as examples. However,
despite all the problems, the city gives a “sense of belonging to something unique,
cosmopolitan, mighty, and unparalleled.”
Since the experience of living in New York sounds so captivating to many, it is no
surprise that many have left their hometowns to pursue their dreams in the big city. These
people make up “New York’s high-strung disposition, its poetical department, its
education to the arts, and its incomparable achievements.” When a settler arrives in New
York, he/she “embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs
New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the
Consolidated Edison Comapny” and brings New York its passion. Besides being attracted
to the diversity and excitement of New York, most are also attracted to New York’s “gift
of loneliness and the gift of privacy.” This may seem peculiar to outsiders who view New
York as a “hustling and bustling” city, but it’s true because those who come here want to
escape their previous life, to escape reality.
After one watches It Should Happen to You, one is able to easily realize Gladys
Glover fits into E. B. White’s third category of New Yorkers in his essay. This third
category consists of those who were “born somewhere else and came to New York in
quest of something.” It is revealed that Gladys came from Binghamton in upstate New
York, and has been living in New York City for the past two years. She yearns to make a
“name for herself”, to see her “name in lights” in the big city. She is so caught up in this
dream that she believes if she ever goes home, she would be forced to say goodbye to her
chances of making a name for herself. Thus, in White’s words, she is here “merely to
escape, not face reality.” Her dream becomes a reality when she buys a large billboard
sign that displays “Gladys Glover” in large letters. Quite soon, she becomes famous
amongst New Yorkers and even Americans, and in a way, she does succeed in finding
“sanctuary or fulfillment or some greater or lesser grail.” She becomes broadcasted
throughout America as the "Average American Girl" and participates in talk shows and
advertisements. Gladys has reached her dream of being famous where people across
America know who she is. However, she comes to an epiphany by the end of the film
when she is about to reveal her name, “Gladys Glover,” on a military plane: she finally
realizes that one can’t just make a name for oneself if it doesn’t mean anything. She also
realizes that there’s nothing wrong to be part of the crowd, and, as a result, decides the
plane should be named “One of the Crowd.”
As Gladys reveals more about her life, she mentions to Pete Shepherd how
unfriendly she thought New Yorkers were. According to White, this would be a typical
response coming from “people from villages and small towns, people accustomed to the
convenience and friendliness of neighborhood over-the-fence living.” For example, at the
beginning of the movie, when she is feeding the pigeons, she gets too close to a stranger,
who gets upset and starts to berate her. When she goes to the Pfeiffer Building to
purchase the billboard, the man who she is supposed to make an appointment with seems
quite busy taking notes and answering phone calls. In this scene, the man’s multi-tasking
represents the “normal frustrations of modern life are here multiplied and amplified.” The
man is quite unfriendly to her, and only shows interest when she agrees to purchase the
billboard for the full price. Although Gladys has achieved her dream of fame, ironically,
she wishes to have more privacy by the end of the film. This is another particular
characteristic of New York: despite New York’s rushed and festive atmosphere, it offers
the “gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.” She does end up getting her gift of
loneliness and privacy when she learns that it’s important to make a name for oneself and
have a meaning to it.
Like Gladys Glover from It Should Happen to You, Breakfast at Tiffany’s Holly
Golightly is an outsider who was “born somewhere else and came to New York in quest
of something.” However, Holly’s quest is more difficult to identify than Glady’s quest.
Originally from Tulip, Texas, Holly comes to New York “seeking sanctuary or
fulfillment or some greater or lesser grail.” Throughout the movie, it becomes clear that
Holly is desperately searching for a home, a place where she can belong. This is the
reason why she is so fascinated with Tiffany’s. Actually, the very first scene of the movie
shows Holly eating pastries and admiring the window displays of the store. When she
meets Paul Varjak, she reveals “I don’t want to own anything until I find a place where
me and things go together. I’m not sure where that is but I know what it’s like. It like
Tiffany’s.” She further explains how “Tiffany’s calms me down right away. The
quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could
find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture
and give the cat a name!” Although Holly is interested in marrying wealthy men, it
somewhat relates to her main quest of finding a place where belongs: if she gets the
money, she can finally create a home for her and her brother, Fred. Another reason why
Holly may have come to New York is “to escape, not face, reality.” In fact, she has even
changed her name of “Lula-Mae Barnes” to the catchier “Holly Golightly.” When Doc
comes to take her back to Texas, she refuses and exclaims, “Stop calling me that! I’m not
Lula-Mae anymore!” By the end of the movie, she decides to fly off to Brazil to escape
her past in New York. However, Paul tells her that "no matter where you run, you just
keep running into yourself." Hearing this and coming to an epiphany, she finally accepts
the fact that "people do fall in love" and runs after Paul to find Cat.
At the very beginning of the movie, the audience is made to believe that “New
York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy” when Holly steps out of
her taxi and admires the window displays of Tiffany’s while eating pastries. Despite New
York’s well known crowded and festive atmosphere, Holly is the only person seen on
5thAvenue. It is at this scene where she is truly alone and happy. New York is also known
to “blend the gift of privacy with the excitement of participation.” At first, Holly’s party
in her apartment starts off with a few people. However, by nightfall, her tiny apartment is
crowded with people, ranging from the “9th richest man in America” to a wealthy and
handsome Brazilian. When Paul asks her who all these people are, she responds, “Who
Knows? Word gets out.” One person that seems to have not gone to the party is the
always irritable Mr. Yunioshi. He could have gone to the party, but he chooses to accept
his gift of privacy rather than partake in Holly’s frivolous party. It becomes apparent at
the party that New York “is like poetry: it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a
small island and adds music and accompaniment of internal engines.” Some notable
guests include Paul, a writer, O. J. Berman, Holly’s agent, Rusty Trawlor, the 9th richest
man in America, Mag Wildwood, a model, and Jose da Silva Pereira, a wealthy Brazilian.
There ae also several Asian guests, and there is, of course, Mr. Yunioshi, the Japanese
photographer. When Holly and Paul both go out to Tiffany’s and do things they’ve never
done before, the audience gets a glimpse of what life was like in 1960s New York City.
Even today, the city is “busy yet peaceful.” There are throngs of people as Holly and Paul
walk along 5th Avenue. However, it is relatively peaceful inside Tiffany’s and the New
York Public Library. Holly is actually berated by a librarian who informs her that she is
too loud.
Similar to Gladys Glover and Holly Golightly, Helen is not from New York as
she reveals to Bobby when she questions her decision to move back to Fort Wayne,
Indiana. However, to be quite honest, I don’t know what her “quest” is since Helen
doesn’t mention her past and dreams much. Although she may not say much about her
past, it is obvious that she is taking a huge risk living in unstable conditions with her
heroine-addicted boyfriend. For example, when they get evicted out of their original
apartment, Bobby tells Helen to leave New York, but she refuses, and together, they live
in an even cheaper and grimier apartment. One wonders why she does not simply go
home, and it may be because she can’t imagine her life without Bobby, or perhaps, she is
here “merely to escape, not face reality.” Thus she fits White’s statement of how “no
should come to New York to live unless he (she) is willing to be lucky.” She is, indeed,
trying her luck since neither she nor Bobby have any kind of stable job, and the money
that they do make from pawning stolen items is usually spent on heroine.
The New York that is shown here is much different than the New York portrayed
in It Should Happen To You andBreakfast at Tiffany’s, which is set in the 1950s and
1960s, respectively. This 1970s New York shows a darker and grimier side, a side not
much tourists and even native New Yorkers would recognize today. Through this movie,
it is clear New York is “literally a composite of tens of thousands of neighborhood
pattern.” It is shocking to believe that within a few miles from where Helen and Bobby
reside in a dirty, small, and cheap apartment are the luxurious penthouses and fancy
cobblestone townhouses. They also spend a good deal amount of time in Needle Park
with other heroine addicts and prostitutes. However, as the couple walks on the streets of
New York, away from their usual hangout spots, the scenery subtly changes to the tall
majestic buildings the city is known for.