Bright Lights, Big City
Critically evaluate the way the city has been represented in two or more texts, films or visual images studied in this module.
In Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City, the reader follows an unnamed protagonist through his tumultuous daily life living in New York City. The use of second person narrative, specifically through the word “you” distances our protagonist from himself, making him seem alienated and alone despite being surrounded by the huge bustling city and it’s inhabitants. His lack of name throughout the novel makes it seem impersonal, despite his intimacy in revealing all thoughts and emotions felt to the reader, and infers a lack or loss of identity; he could easily fade away into the crowded streets, just another New Yorker, making the city itself appear uncaring and swallowing.
The difference between how the city is represented in terms of day and night is significant in McInerney’s novel. His protagonist appears to crave darkness, and night becomes an almost veil over reality which he seems terrified of facing. In chapter one, for example, his description of the morning is filled with negativity, “It is worse even than you expected…The glare is like a mother’s reproach. The sidewalk sparkles cruelly.” He is more than unwilling to face the approaching dawn/sobriety throughout the opening chapter, seemingly only able to cope with the city when drunk or with cocaine.
In the daylight, our protagonist always prefers to be wearing sunglasses, hiding behind them from the unyieldingly bright city. His days seem slow and long, he is always thinking about their end, as apposed to the busy nightlife lead by extravagant Tad. The parallels between the representation of the city and of his cocaine habit are common, both portrayed as manic, fast-paced, he uses the latter to escape the former, “all might become clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more bolivian marching powder,” there is irony in his belief that the hard
In Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City, the reader follows an unnamed protagonist through his tumultuous daily life living in New York City. The use of second person narrative, specifically through the word “you” distances our protagonist from himself, making him seem alienated and alone despite being surrounded by the huge bustling city and it’s inhabitants. His lack of name throughout the novel makes it seem impersonal, despite his intimacy in revealing all thoughts and emotions felt to the reader, and infers a lack or loss of identity; he could easily fade away into the crowded streets, just another New Yorker, making the city itself appear uncaring and swallowing.
The difference between how the city is represented in terms of day and night is significant in McInerney’s novel. His protagonist appears to crave darkness, and night becomes an almost veil over reality which he seems terrified of facing. In chapter one, for example, his description of the morning is filled with negativity, “It is worse even than you expected…The glare is like a mother’s reproach. The sidewalk sparkles cruelly.” He is more than unwilling to face the approaching dawn/sobriety throughout the opening chapter, seemingly only able to cope with the city when drunk or with cocaine.
In the daylight, our protagonist always prefers to be wearing sunglasses, hiding behind them from the unyieldingly bright city. His days seem slow and long, he is always thinking about their end, as apposed to the busy nightlife lead by extravagant Tad. The parallels between the representation of the city and of his cocaine habit are common, both portrayed as manic, fast-paced, he uses the latter to escape the former, “all might become clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more bolivian marching powder,” there is irony in his belief that the hard