Summaries of “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead
City limits by Colson Whitehead is a story that defines New York city. It tells readers about how new York city was years ago and modern day new York. Whitehead tries to persuade readers into appreciating the things they have by stating “Cherish your old apartments and pause for a moment when you pass them. Pay tribute, for they are the caretakers of your reinventions.” He tells a story about the memories in new York city and how people shouldn’t always believe the things they hear about New York from history books or documentaries. He says “Never listen to what people tell you about old New York, because if you didn’t witness it, it is not a part of your New York and might as well be Jersey.” Meaning, in order to truly believe something you must first witness it. By telling the readers about the past and what new York use to be like, he tries to remind us about how we sometime neglect the things we had. For example, discovering that an old coffee shop is now a chain pharmacy or five stores is replaced by a travel agency makes us feel a certain way because of what we had is no longer there.
Revision:
City limits by Colson Whitehead is a story that defines New York City. It tells readers about how New York City was years ago and modern day New York. Whitehead tries to persuade readers into appreciating the things they have by stating “Cherish your old apartments and pause for a moment when you pass by them. Pay tribute, for they are the caretakers of your reinventions.” He tells a story about the memories in New York City and how people shouldn’t always believe the things they hear about New York from history books or documentaries or even on television. He says “Never listen to what people tell you about old New York, because if you didn’t witness it, it is not a part of your New York and might as well be Jersey.” Meaning, in order to truly believe something you must first see it with your own eyes. By telling the readers about the past and what New York use to be, he tries to remind us about how we sometimes neglect the things we had. For example, discovering that an old coffee shop is now a chain pharmacy or five stores are replaced by a travel agency makes us feel a certain way because what we had is no longer there. But the memories could never be forgotten. City limits basically describes things within New York City that people take for granted. Colson whitehead wants to remind readers that the places in New York City in which we grew up in know us a lot better than we know ourselves. All of our memories are spent there and a lot of us don’t really take the time out to pay tribute to any of those places. He wants us to look at New York City in a different way and appreciate everything New York City is made up of.
Tell Your Walking-Tour Story
At the beginning of the walk I wasn’t really looking forward to it because I thought it was going to be boring and people just lecturing to us about things we may or may not have known but have seen. When the tour began from the 1st stop to the last I was amazed at how much we got covered and how much information I have obtained. During the walk yesterday I began to question myself “have I really not seen Brooklyn for what it is? Upon of our walk I’ve seen buildings with structures I’ve never seen before also I’ve learned why communities and neighborhoods are the way they are and how they differ from different communities. I’ve also taken in account of stores that are still up even though there’s new technology that makes ones life easier such as video stores. Also we came across a hotel, not in business but still have its place in the community. What also interest me are the tall building that are not being able to be build today but in the 1900’s they were. Brooklyn also have faced many obstacles of getting where it is today such as the great fire breaking out that killed over 300 people leaving this to be the most destructive event in Brooklyn. Overall I felt it was a good informative tour that gave many people including me a different point of view towards Brooklyn.
Revsion:
Today was the day of our walking tour and I am wasn’t really looking forward to this long and boring journey. I imagine the only thing we were going to do was to see places we might have never seen before and hear people lecture about it. The walking began, and down the road we will go. As we marched from the first stop to the last spot on the map, my opinion changed. I was completely amazed at the amount of places that we visited and how much interesting facts we learned about these places. During the walk, I began to question myself, “Did I ever see all of what Brooklyn has to offer?” Taking several steps ahead of the last few, I became more stunned as I began to realize that there are many communities that change as you walk up the block; being modern/middle class to luxurious. Also, the stories behind these building made me become more amazed. Apart from the buildings, there are many stores that are still present although technological advances can have them demolished; Netflix for example has become the virtual video store. We also came across a hotel, which is not a business hotel, but still has a place in the community. Additionally, referring back to the building of Brooklyn, the tall building that were built in the 1900s were of great interest to me. It was stated that some of the houses had boot stumpers which are located outside of one’s house to clean off maneuver from one’s shoes. The walking-tour has showed me that Brooklyn is a strong survivor with all the events that have happened. Overall, from the start to the end of this walking tour I thought it was a good informative tour that provided everyone with different views towards Brooklyn.
Reflection:
It was a hot summer day as my first semester of college began. One of my many classes that I had to take was Eng 1101 with Professor Rosen. At the beginning of the class, as everyone took their seat, Prof. Rosen handed out the syllabus to the entire class. The first thing that was noticeable like fireworks to my eyes was to complete seven essays by the end of the term. I thought this was going to be a really difficult for me to complete in a four month period.
However as the class began to make progress, some things began to change. From my experience, I believe that my time with Professor Rosen was not as fun when compared to being informative and knowledgeable. Reason being is that I feel that over these months that were flying by, she has given me another pairs of eyes to venture out and to take a real good look into Brooklyn. In this English class we mostly covered topics that focused on Brooklyn. It was not just ordinary stories Prof Rosen told us about Brooklyn but stories that we saw come to life as researched and discovered Brooklyn for ourselves; a place where we spend most of our time. An example of one of our assignments that was given was to take a 15 minutes walk away form City Tech. We were told to pick a place and see where Brooklyn overlapping or at least interest us so that we can expand our mind on somewhere we thought we knew.
Everyone thought this was an assignment that would take too much time away from their busy schedules. However, within all the fussing and complaints, everyone was out the next day preparing to venture out for new and interesting details that are close by the school we spend most of our time. Some examples of places that are just a 15 minutes walk away were the Columbus Park or The New York Transit Museum.
Other assignments that we were given to add to our knowledge of Brooklyn were to read articles and examine them in class. This would help change our point of view towards Brooklyn because they show a different background of Brooklyn which took place in the past and differs from today’s present. For instance, there were events that took place and racial discrimination that took place in certain areas.
Additionally, in this class we got to see a little more of the past as well. In other words, we were also given the opportunity to visit the Brooklyn Historical Society which also made us understand Brooklyn better and not just look at the big picture. The process of doing this was extremely easy because my peers and I got to see maps from the 1900s which gave us a detail description of what streets used to be named or what trains use to run and where did they go.
The topics we covered in this class are going to be kept in memory because they have brought many new thoughts and ideas with them.
