My Little Bit of Country
My Little Bit of Country
In ancient times man lived in union with nature. Gradually human being became less connected to nature and in our days most people have sought away from wild nature in favour of urban life. The essay “My Little Bit of Country” written by Susan Cheever deals with two different ways of living: the intense, humming and multi-cultural city life, and the classic family suburb life. It puts the main characters eternal love for New York and especially Central Park in perspective of “the post-war American chimera” with a big dog, lawns, vegetable patches, white-picket fences and a great litter of children. During the story the main character experiences her fear of real and wild nature while she feels secured and comfortable in the city. She’s frightened by real nature wherefore she wants to keep it on safe distance. The author utilizes contrasts as a stylistic tool and writes in a living style with a light twist of humour and biographic elements.
The story is told from Susan Cheever’s point of view. In other words it’s told from a first person narrator. We only see the point of view from one character. The form can be recognized by the use of “I”, “my” and “me” that will occur often in the text: “My earliest memories”, “Most of all I loved Central Park”, “(…) inspired me”. In first person we see the world through the narrator’s eyes and we are introduced to her thoughts, feelings and reflections. We get to know about the other characters through the speaker’s knowledge about them. The style is very living, fresh and humorous, with a great use of adjectives, what makes the story easy to read: “Years later, I raised my own children in Central Park, where the wonderful urban public spaces are more fabulous than even the most luxurious rural private spaces.”(p. 3, l. 160-165). In this extract it’s very clear that Susan Cheever avails herself of many adjectives. This yields a rhythm to the text and leads the reader easily through the story.
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In ancient times man lived in union with nature. Gradually human being became less connected to nature and in our days most people have sought away from wild nature in favour of urban life. The essay “My Little Bit of Country” written by Susan Cheever deals with two different ways of living: the intense, humming and multi-cultural city life, and the classic family suburb life. It puts the main characters eternal love for New York and especially Central Park in perspective of “the post-war American chimera” with a big dog, lawns, vegetable patches, white-picket fences and a great litter of children. During the story the main character experiences her fear of real and wild nature while she feels secured and comfortable in the city. She’s frightened by real nature wherefore she wants to keep it on safe distance. The author utilizes contrasts as a stylistic tool and writes in a living style with a light twist of humour and biographic elements.
The story is told from Susan Cheever’s point of view. In other words it’s told from a first person narrator. We only see the point of view from one character. The form can be recognized by the use of “I”, “my” and “me” that will occur often in the text: “My earliest memories”, “Most of all I loved Central Park”, “(…) inspired me”. In first person we see the world through the narrator’s eyes and we are introduced to her thoughts, feelings and reflections. We get to know about the other characters through the speaker’s knowledge about them. The style is very living, fresh and humorous, with a great use of adjectives, what makes the story easy to read: “Years later, I raised my own children in Central Park, where the wonderful urban public spaces are more fabulous than even the most luxurious rural private spaces.”(p. 3, l. 160-165). In this extract it’s very clear that Susan Cheever avails herself of many adjectives. This yields a rhythm to the text and leads the reader easily through the story.
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