The Empty City

“Beneath the gore and smoke and loam, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow. In the end it is a story of the ineluctable conflict between good and evil, daylight and darkness, the White City and the Black.” (xi) This shows the contrast between the White City and the Black City. One, perfect, beautiful, magical, the other dark, filthy, evil. The two work together yet against each other in the battle to win over the hearts of the people who visit, and those who decide to stay

“Emptiness stretching for miles, the sense of space, the vastness of the sky above, passing no farm or cottage, no kind of dwelling house at all in three miles. All was emptiness.”

The author uses more mysterious diction and phrases in this quote to portray a sense of darkness amongst the city. By using words like blackness and comparing the city to a funeral this shows how the

Many believe that the human race is inherently evil, and the story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas shows this with jarring detail. Ursula LeGuin tells the story of a seemingly perfect city named Omelas and its residents that know nothing but contentment and peace. However, this is offset by the suffering of one child, that, if freed from its prison, would jeopardize the happiness of the rest of the city. Therefore, the theme of Omelas is morality, which is shown through LeGuin’s use of imagery, “man vs. society” conflict, and utopia.

The poem represents Tokyo as a city that is over populated, which leads to congestion but the population keeps growing. The poem explores Tokyo in relation to its congestion and quality of life. The persona’s attitude to the city is best described as negative as evidenced by using a negative tone, the use of metaphors to describe her negative feeling to the cities and the majority of negative adjectives.

Everyone knew that when one stayed in the water too long, one drowned. However, that was not the case. In Alden Nowlan’s, “The Fall of the City,” Teddy was a young boy who had a very vivid imagination. Although at times it went to the dark side, it was ultimately the mistreatment from his aunt and uncle which cause Teddy to destroy his city. For example, his uncle’s threats of physical abuse leaded Teddy drowned in his imagination, the only place where he can feel safer. Although Teddy hardly spoke back to his uncle, he was still threatened that he will not “be able to sit down the rest of the week.” The threat isolated Teddy from his uncle and Teddy felt as if he has no one to turn to. Without someone who truly understands his feelings,

Throughout the story, Lost in the City by Edwards P. Jones there are many different ways the city influences the different characters. Lost in the City takes the reader through some difficult times of many African Americans in Washington. The different characters form bond that cannot be broken in order to handle what life throws at them. In the stories "The Girl Who Raised Pigeons" and "The First Day" the city influences the different main characters in different ways, to help them come of age.

The collection of articles, “The Shame of the Cities” written by Lincoln Steffens, evidently reveals the history of corruption in many American cities during the 18th and 19th century. The chapter, “Pittsburg: A City Ashamed” focuses wholly on the effect Christopher Magee had on the city of Pittsburg during the time of his ruling. With the help of William Flinn, Thomas Bigelow, and E.M. Bigelow, Chris was in complete control over the city. While some of what he was doing was very helpful toward, it is undeniable that he was the cause of Pittsburgh’s extensive corruption.

The lights of the town were veiled in darkness, a mere inverted shadow amidst the gloom of the night. Distant thunderings, as those brought to mind with Dies Irae or the distant chattering of a great blaze could be heard, drawing nigh upon the trembling hands of the people frantically seeking a shade for the lights that would soon propagate should their brilliance stretch to the skies, but found difficulty locating even their hands at arm’s length, due to the cloud over the town, in the streets, as real and thick as the blanket of golden and crimson extending toward the town at a propeller’s rate, silencing the natural beauty of the countryside amid the sounds of death and destruction.

The technology, over time, has created a dull, lifeless setting. Even the cement “vanish[es] under flowers and grass”. (Bradbury 174) The city has no passion to care for the natural world-it’s cracking and dying. Its elements have been disturbed, some removed-including the very human itself. The city has no sound, no life. Leonard can even “imagine himself upon the center of a plain, a wintry, a windless Arizona desert with no house in a thousand miles, and only dry riverbeds, for company.” (Bradbury 174) The long, silent, empty street is described as lifeless, indicating that only elements of the dystopian society

He waited until the night’s 11th hour. By now the Princess rested in the highest tower of the castle, locked away from the dangerous world, yet so oblivious to the dangers that which fated the rest of her life. Silently the peasant journeyed outside, where he stopped at the wall of the tower where she lay. He watched her in the darkness from below, lifting his face to her, letting the light rest on his every surface of darkness. The night was cloudless. The winds wailed between the motionless oak trees as its thin branches clawed out, ever so slightly disturbing the leaves with its hostile screeches. Not the thick moss of the trees nor the damp leaves squirming in his toes could distract the peasant from so enticing a scent. All that encircled him was the sweetness of lavender and rosewood, filling his entire being as he sunk into the grass, like sand washed over by the water, with every breeze passing

Erik Larson, who wrote The Devil in the White City, told a very interesting story. The story was based off of the mysterious murders that occurred during a 1893 town fair. The murderer is now known to be one of the first serial killers throughout history.

To begin, in the first part of the story, a city called Omelas and its inhabitants are described as one happy community, but a negative connotation on the city and its people is implied as the story progresses.”They

Why do people wish to leave New York so badly? Leaving New York is full of sad goodbyes and lasting memories. It might be a forceful pulling away if someone does not want to go. The authors seem to be attempting to escape the insanity. They all have a different take on what it means to leave New York and their personal viewpoints on why they left. Whether it was for sanity, love, less hardship, or more money. Between Fitzgerald in My Lost City, Didion in Goodbye to All That, Ptacin and Strayed in Why Writers Love New York and (Then Leave It) each had the same idea which is that leaving New York is the best thing they ever did regardless of what there is to offer they found more. The city shatters one’s illusions one by one the illusions one has of the city will eventually be destroyed.

Italo Calvino’s extraordinary story, Invisible Cities is a literary accomplishment. Invisible Cities contains of an impressive display of discussions between Marco Polo, the legendary Venetian explorer, and Kublai Khan, the famous Conqueror. The two settled in Kublai Khan’s garden and Marco Polo details, or for all one knows invents, depictions of several wonderful cities. Considering these cities are not ever actually seen, yet only recounted, they are unnoticeable to the emperor. In consideration of the fact that they might not actually exist, they may be truly obscure to all but the reader, who is captivated by the dazzling, foreboding input of Marco Polo. “If I tell you that the city toward which my journey tends is discontinuous in space and time now scattered, now more condensed, you must not believe the search for it can stop. Perhaps while we speak, it is rising, scattered, within the confines of your empire…” (164). The main topic is Marco Polo and the cities he has traveled, or one city in several structures. These expeditions involve cities of memory, trading cities, cities of desire, thin cities, continuous cities and of the sky. The outcome is an intensely intriguing achievement of literature that urges surpassing the borders of the fictional book. Between these enlightening depictions of unfamiliar settings, Calvino allows his readers to indulge in the discussion between two men, one in the middle of his career, the other in