The representation of the City

In considering the representation of the city, there are several texts to consider:- ‘Eveline’ ‘Dubliners’ (1914) by James Joyce (1882-1941). ‘To Brooklyn Bridge’ (1933) by Heart Crane (1899–1932), ‘The town and the city’ pp 354-48 (1950) by Jack Kerouac (1922 – 1969) and ‘Pushcart man’ (1963) by Langston Hughes, (1902 – 1967)
‘Dubliners’ (1914) is a collection of short stories written by James Joyce (1882-1941). The collection is written in free indirect style, allowing the inner consciousness of his characters to be heard; in a realist approach, where what happens to the character’s is credible and possible; in a modernist form, that takes no moral position to the characters he builds. Thus creating within the text, moments of epiphany, where his characters experience a sudden revelation, juxtaposed with states of paralysis, that prevent them from moving into the epiphany he creates.
‘Eveline’ has neither a satisfactory ending for the reader, or does it contain much of a plot: A woman stands by a window and looks about her room; she is thinking of leaving home -and Dublin- with her lover Frank to go to Buenos Ares. (Joyce 1914 p.31)
Though she feels tied by the constraints of her promise that is woven into her religious convictions, It is the Image of her mother’s ghost (Joyce 1914 p.33) calling out to her, that gives Eveline, a moment of epiphany. But when she does get the opportunity to leave the city with her lover, (Joyce 1914 p.33-34) she sees the huge “black mass” of the boat (Joyce 1914 p.34) and is then rendered totally paralysed by Joyce who describes her as a “passive and helpless animal” as Frank boards the ship surrounded my hundreds of people. (Joyce 1914 p.34)
The sense of unresolved epiphany interwoven with the complete paralysis Joyce shows at the end of ‘Eveline’ is a good example of what happens to the rest of the characters in the collection; and by repeating this action, throughout the entire text, Joyce suggests to the reader that this: his imagined city of Dublin, is a representation of the real city of Dublin herself.
However, ‘Dubliners’ as a text is also complex metaphor, connecting the political and historical context of the time it was written. This directly relates to the fall from favour of Charles Stewart Parnell, (1846 -1891) the nationalist political leader in Ireland at the time. Taking this into consideration, there is a sense of the dystopian in Joyce’s Dublin: for he represents the city as a place where hopes are dashed, where paralysis succeeds and people are trapped.
If the city is portrayed as a dystopian concept in ‘Dubliners’, Then Heart Crane’s (1899–1932) ‘To Brooklyn Bridge’ (1933) gives the reader a sense of spiritual wonder and reverence of the city.
‘To Brooklyn Bridge’ is also part of a larger text ‘The Bridge’ by Heart Crane; and therefore could be seen as being similar to P.B Shelley’s (1792 – 1822) ‘Mont Blanc’ (1817). As well as being generally considered as a reply to T.S Eliot (1888 –1965) ‘The waste land’ (1922).
What Hart Crane manages to convey throughout the poem, is the reverence of the growing industrial age; as well romantic sense of the sublime. This he does by deliberately entwining the arcane language of the first person pronouns: ‘Thee’ and ‘thy’:- as seen in line 13 “And thee across the harbour silver spaced’ and again and 26 ” in the beautiful metaphor animism “Thy cables breathe the north Atlantic still” (Crane 1933) around the technology of the modern world, such as : “The cinemas panoramic heights” in line 9, and “the cloud flown derricks” that turn, in line 23.
And though he also represents the city as a place of tragedy, in stanza five:- “Out of some subway scuttle, cell or loft […]A jest falls from the speechless caravan.” He counterpoises the tragedy with stanza eight: “O harp and altar, of the fury fused/ […]Prayer of pariah, and the lover's cry,--“ (Crane 1933) and finally in stanza ten: “Under thy shadow by the piers I waited;/Only in darkness is thy shadow clear. / The City's fiery parcels all undone,/ Already snow submerges an iron year.” (Crane 1933)
By doing this, he beautifully portrays an image of the lone Romantic considering the Bridge and the City it represents as a living place where drama, tragedy, passion and high tension abound.
This sense of the idealised representation of the city is both extolled and questioned by Jack Kerouac (1922 – 1969) in his novel ‘The town and the city’ (1950).
‘The town and the city’ is a semi-autobiographical novel written in the free indirect style that James Joyce also employs in his text ‘Dubliners’; as with ‘Dubliners’, Kerouac allows the readers to listen to the conscious thoughts of his character’s. He also uses the modernist non-judgemental approach throughout the novel.
In considering entering New York, and therefore giving an introduction to the city, Kerouac steps into the scene in the first two paragraphs before jumping into Peter Martin his semi-autobiographical protagonist: “There are lots of ways of travelling into New York, into the vital dramatic heart of it –Manhattan” (Kerouac 1950 p.354) says Kerouac offering a different representation of the city from the dystopian of Joyce, and the Utopian imagery of Heart Crane.
The bus route he considers the best is the one from Connecticut, “that comes down through the Bronx”. (Kerouac 1950 p.354) this, he says, is because other routes do not “penetrate by degrees into the city’s heart”. (Kerouac 1950 p354). By creating an emotional journey of discovery, he gives an impression of the city: (In this case it is the city of New York.) This he notes in the growing suburban sprawl:- “A tremendous feeling comes from the simple and terrifying fact: what vastness is this, that feeds this throbbing centre.” (Kerouac 1950 p.354)
Yet as the journey continues, through the eyes of his protagonist, a realisation dawns: that the representation of New York and the reality of the city are not the same and the search for New York becomes a quest for something almost mythical: the essence of the city itself.
As the journey continues the protagonist is aware that he is not in New York, yet “but only in Larchmont” or “New Rochelle”. The anticipation is reflected by the other people on the bus “looking out expectantly” (Kerouac 1950 p355) yet: “Instead of the dazzling view of Manhattan towers, there are innumerable huge apartment houses standing high in the darkness” (Kerouac 1950 p355) the apartment blocks become larger, the scenery changes to the point where Peter Martin thinks that “This is New York, O This is New York!” (Kerouac 1950 p356). However, in the very next paragraph:- “But nothing changed, the blazing tenements and the crowded streets continued on and on but this was certainly not New York”. As the bus finishes it journey Kerouac describes 59th street as “a multitude of heads” ( Kerouac 1950 p.357) like a living sea of humanity “weaving underneath lights” (Kerouac 1950 p.357 ) yet , even this is not New York, and when the bus journey ends at times square, Kerouac says again “was this the end of New York” No, it’s not, he ironically points out: “it’s only times square”[…]“and where are the sparkling towers of Manhattan now? How could they be seen when one was buried in them? How could one miss them from afar?” (Kerouac 1950 p358) By doing this, he points out not only a metaphor for the modern age, but he also suggests that there is a misrepresentation of the image of the city, and by doing so points out a city’s representation has to be a reflection of its people, without whom the city would not function.
If as Kerouac implies: a city’s representation is a reflection of its citizens: it is underpinned by the poetic prose of ‘Pushcart man’ (1963) by Langston Hughes, (1902 – 1967).
Like Joyce’s ‘Dubliners’, ‘Pushcart man’ is part of a short story collection; and like both Kerouac and Joyce, Hughes uses the free indirect style to give weight to the scene he depicts. But-unlike Joyce- Hughes is deliberately sparing with depth in his characterisation and in scene; and whereas Heart Cane uses powerful romantic imagery in ‘To Brooklyn Bridge’, to represent the City as a place of high drama, tragedy and romance; the scene upon which Hughes builds upon, in his representation of the city, is dark, chaotic and as crowded as Kerouac’s “magnitude of heads”.
For Hughes, the city is represented as an emotionally rich, yet chaotic place; full of complex people and half stories, perhaps to be told, but never fully realised, while the throb of Jazz fills the air, though the melody of short, sharp sentences given by the characters in well-crafted prose.
He begins ‘Pushcart man’ in a similar way to Kerouac, out of the scene:- ‘The usual Saturday night squalls and brawls were taking place as Pushcart man trucked up eighth avenue in Harlem. A couple walking straggled legged got into a fight. A woman came to take her husband home from the corner saloon but he didn’t want to go. A man said he had paid for the last round of drinks [ … ]A midget stabbed a full gown man Saturday night Jumped’ (Hughes 1963 p214)
Thus the scene being set, the character’s come in and flow out in rapid succession:- the sanctified sister: “forgive them father they don’t know what they do” is countered by the young punk, “yes they know what they do they just don’t give a damn”, The studious young man that insists on a copy of the” times”. The couple fighting where she says “you called me a son of a-“ , […] ‘The man leaning on the mailbox saying “I once knew a blind man who made more money begging than he did working” , (Hughes 1963 p.214) the voices wrap about each other so sharply, leaving the hint of a suggestion: as Joyce does in ‘Dubliners’, that there is no single story, but a collection perhaps needing to be told; however unlike ‘Dubliners’ there is no sense of epiphany or paralysis; Instead there a sense of dancing, danger and excitement in the heart of Harlem which give a melody to and thus a representation of the people and therefore the city whom these people depend upon.
For many authors the perception of the city represents all that humanity has to offer: and throughout most of these considered texts, apart from ‘The town and the city’ the representation of the city has been imagined. For Heart Crane the city is a representation of romantic tragedy and almost reverential inspiration. For Kerouac this same romantic inspiration is questioned against the growing urban sprawl; and in turn is a metaphor for the modern world. For James Joyce the city is represented as a place of personal dichotomy; where a sense of the dystopian nightmare of the city is projected to make a political point. Yet the same dichotomy around urban chaos is also celebrated by Langston Hughes, leaving the representation of the city: with its many virtues, its vices, its ills, and its thrills; as a place where life in all its differences can be questioned but equally also possibly even be celebrated. Thus leading to the real question: - can there really be an honest representation of the city, Or is the real representation of the city as Kerouac cleverly implies, further on?

Bibliography
Joyce James: ‘The Dubliners’ (1914) Brown .T. Penguin modern classics (2000)
Crane H. ‘To Brooklyn Bridge’ (1933) S. Haslam S. Asbee The twentieth century Bloomsbury (2012)
Kerouac J ‘The town and the City’ (1950) Brinkley J penguin modern classics (2000)
Hughes L. ‘Pushcart man’ (1963) ) S. Haslam S. Asbee The twentieth century Bloomsbury (2012)