Emerald City
Essay: Emerald City
Most people are pursuing a dream. The “American Dream” is the ideal of freedom and opportunity of achieving success and wealth; the belief that every individual can rise from rags to riches with a little grit, imagination and hard work. A dream could just as well be about personal fulfilment. We might not even need the success and glamour if we meet these personal dreams. Nevertheless we pursue opportunities in desire and expectation of living a better life, a life more glamorous and prosperous than our present.
In Emerald City by Jennifer Egan, the main character Rory, an ambitious guy from Chicago, is seeking the “American Dream”. He has moved to New York in hope of reaching the glitter and success he expects the city to offer. Rory has built up expectations and ideas about New York through reading novels and envisioned the glamorous New York life he might be living even before arriving in the big city.
In the beginning of the story Rory appears rather vain and irrational. He strives towards fitting into his own idea of the New York jet set, therefore he changes his behaviour: “…But no matter how much Rory ate, he stayed exactly the same. He took up smoking instead, although it burned his throat”1. He is pretending to be someone he is not, believing this change of behaviour will make him successful - “Fake it till you make it”. To emphasize this, Egan uses the Elmer’s glue as a catalyst to get Rory to reflect on his artificial life: the glue might look more appealing, but it is useless and fake as milk2. In the same manner Rory is misusing himself - he is not true to himself. “Rory had found this disturbing in a way he still didn’t quite understand”3. On a subconscious level he might be aware of this. Yet, it is not until the end of the story Rory realizes this.
As one of the world’s largest cities New York, “The Big Apple”, is the epitome of a metropolitan, emanating glory, greatness, opportunities as well as temptations. The
Most people are pursuing a dream. The “American Dream” is the ideal of freedom and opportunity of achieving success and wealth; the belief that every individual can rise from rags to riches with a little grit, imagination and hard work. A dream could just as well be about personal fulfilment. We might not even need the success and glamour if we meet these personal dreams. Nevertheless we pursue opportunities in desire and expectation of living a better life, a life more glamorous and prosperous than our present.
In Emerald City by Jennifer Egan, the main character Rory, an ambitious guy from Chicago, is seeking the “American Dream”. He has moved to New York in hope of reaching the glitter and success he expects the city to offer. Rory has built up expectations and ideas about New York through reading novels and envisioned the glamorous New York life he might be living even before arriving in the big city.
In the beginning of the story Rory appears rather vain and irrational. He strives towards fitting into his own idea of the New York jet set, therefore he changes his behaviour: “…But no matter how much Rory ate, he stayed exactly the same. He took up smoking instead, although it burned his throat”1. He is pretending to be someone he is not, believing this change of behaviour will make him successful - “Fake it till you make it”. To emphasize this, Egan uses the Elmer’s glue as a catalyst to get Rory to reflect on his artificial life: the glue might look more appealing, but it is useless and fake as milk2. In the same manner Rory is misusing himself - he is not true to himself. “Rory had found this disturbing in a way he still didn’t quite understand”3. On a subconscious level he might be aware of this. Yet, it is not until the end of the story Rory realizes this.
As one of the world’s largest cities New York, “The Big Apple”, is the epitome of a metropolitan, emanating glory, greatness, opportunities as well as temptations. The