In City Limits an excerpt from The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead, the author expresses his look on the city of New York. Whitehead uses various examples and interesting forms of diction to express his message to the audience. His important message was that every person living in New York builds their own private version of New York. He states that the first time you start building your private New York is the first time you lay eyes on it. He talks about his time when he first started building his own New York. He started building his own New York in the 1970’s which he looks at in a dirty way. He calls all of the “facts” stated on documentaries about New York, hokum. This shows how he feels that New York is misrepresented by outsiders.

The author later states “There are eight million naked cities in this naked city–they dispute and disagree” this means that each person has their own version of what New York City really is. He claims how we tend to forget about our past but then mourn on how we miss what used to be there. He uses personifications when he talks about the apartments having a conversation of the people living there. His main point is when he states “Maybe we become New Yorkers the day we realize that New York will go on without us” this is important because that’s key to his point of the excerpt which is what makes each New Yorker different.