They All Just Went Away They All Just Went Away

LIFE IN THE COUNTRY VS. LIFE IN THE CITY GILBERT S. JOSON DEVRY UNIVERSTIY PARAMUS NJ September 2013

They All Just Went Away

Life has a lot of things in common. Each individual is different in a lot of ways but life is the same in any way you look at it and every angles and aspects of it. Having a family is another segment of life that may set life apart from each other by comparison. Being alone and setting oneself to a new adventure in life that is, getting married and having children, makes life a lot more different coupled with a lot of complications and difficulties, yet people live differently amongst one another yet one calls their home, a home. We have two people that wrote about their past experiences when they were about the same age. The differences are that the one girl lives in an urban area called Westbury Court in Brooklyn, NY and the other child lives in Millersport, NY, a country setting with wide open spaces. The city as we all know is a vast metropolitan area in where spaces are a necessity more than a status symbol of wealth and stability. City dwellers are more practical and fast paced, while the country dwellers are more relaxed and exist in more of an ideal setting for raising children and having a family. That is how life in the suburbs was perceived by a lot of Americans in the 50s and so on. Until now that life in the city is where people exist together fighting for the American Dream, generating a lot of money and get seduced in by false hopes and dreams. Some people make it and some do not. It is a hit or miss opportunity, depending on how one manages his life and finances. Life could be hard at times. There are poor people in the country and there are wealthy people anywhere. People in all categories are spread out. Social status in life has changed how people look at others. Some people believe in equal distribution of wealth. Peoples social, political and spiritual statuses are changing all the time and urban people tend to lean towards thinking this way. For me, country life is a picturesque ideal dream for a family man. It is a dream that is somewhat hard to achieve. It involves a lot of work, sacrifices, disappointments, failures and successes. There are

They All Just Went Away stories of people that are untold. What we see in a big house, like a few cars on the driveway. It took them years to build a house and acquire possessions. It is the fruit of their labor and perseverance. Life is not easy. It starts the day we are born and our parent that took care of us and raised us. We, as

individuals, are prepared to this task as we grow. Parenting and building a home for our family seems to be the focal point of having a family. What is a home? Why is it a home and not just a house? What makes of a house to be called a home? These are questions that need to be asked in order for us to understand. I think it is a big part of growing up. Knowing the answers to these questions gives us a lot of ammunition to prepare us to be a better person and better parent. In our two stories it contrasts the two different setting of life in two locations. This we can compare and evaluate what we think is the influence in growing up and living in two different contrasts. Danticat lives in Westbury Court, in Brooklyn, New York. According to her story they lived beneath the building ran a subway station through which it rattled the D,M and Q trains every 15 minutes or so. It seems to be a little chaotic; the streets are littered with people all the time. There are people listening to loud music, street vendors, and pedestrians. There were even people getting drunk while drinking on the street. There is loads of garbage that are waiting to be picked up by the city garbage collectors. It made me think that Westbury Court is overcrowded and not a good place to raise children. It came to my mind that these behaviors could be influenced by the culture of the emigrants that lived in the neighborhood. Personally I would not live and raise my children there. I was glad that Danticat made it to be who she is now. With her experiences living in the city made her stronger and smarter. She wrote about life experience in Brooklyn. It is good that people write things about their neighborhood. People now know how it is in some parts of Brooklyn and what might be the demographics. But the lesson learned in her essay is that not all neighborhood produce bad people. She

They All Just Went Away is a strong-willed person and was not distracted and influenced by her environment. She moved out of the Westbury Court three years after the fire, and I think that could have been also a factor that made her who she is now. I think she could be a great influence and role model to some. The only thing I observed is Liberalism is well alive in her because she carefully uses her words. She did not use words that might be derogatory to others or her fellow Haitians. The topic was more on her and experiences and people in general. But never about her race or the race of the people had that lived in and around Westbury Court. I detect that she dont want to create a stereotype impression in her neighborhood. I observed that mostly city dwellers, especially New Yorkers are leaning more towards this type of political and social principles.

In contrast, Joyce Carol Oates wrote with conviction and passion. She calls things the way it is. I like this type of writing it agrees with my principles. They All Just Went Away, is a good piece. I like it. It discusses the inner feelings of the writer and what she thinks happens based on what she saw in actuality and what she thinks happen after the Weidels were gone. Oates mentioned that Where a house has been abandoned unworthy of being sold to new tenants, very likely seized by the county for default on taxes and the property held in escrow you can be sure that there has been a sad story She is somewhat very sure when she mentioned this. She generalized in that respect. Leaving someones home is always a sad story. I experienced it myself and up to this point in my life I did not moved on. I always feel sad just thinking about the memories and history I have in the house. She wrote this based on what she witnessed and her recollections are based on her memories and what was left of the house. Even though the Wendels have issues of abuses and it was actually hinted in the story, there is still a certain identity and history in the empty house. It did not diminish the fact that the house was once a home for the Wendels, whatever happens inside the house, she feels sorry for the children and the wife. They all survive and the only witness to everything that happens is the walls of the home that confined their privacy from the outside. According to Oates, The house anticipates the home and will

They All Just Went Away very likely survive it, reverting again simply to house when home (that is Life) departs. For only where there is life can there be home. I like what she said and I agree, I lived the life in a home that I lost and felt the sadness for a long time. It made me think while I read this essay. I reminded me of a lot of things, a dj vu moment for me. One thing I know is that the contrast was real and classic, to a family in both situations and the locations. I believe that both writers made a good point and were able to convey the morals and what could be learned in both of their past experiences. It was good indeed and a lot to learn from it.

I for one have lived these through, and knew that there will be new stories and history that will be made anywhere you lived. A house seems to be a structure to a lot us while we are growing but whatever happens inside the house is what makes it unique. How the people lived in it and how they cooked and eat. Every home has their favorite dish. These are stories that set the uniqueness of each home. The traditions that are made in each house are different. It is like having a personality of its own. It comes alive with history and never ending stories. It is something I miss about my house. The many times I spent in the dining table, words that were said, good or bad. The love that was put in the house and the people that lived in it is incomparable. The disagreements the fight and the many sorry that was said and the forgiveness that comes after. These are the uniqueness that people need to understand about the house that people called home.

They All Just Went Away Reference.

Danticat, E. (n.d.). Westbury court. Retrieved from October 19, 2013 from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:21oUIuoiSRwJ:english.b asd.k12.wi.us/mocarski/collegeenglish/WESTBURYCOURT.rtf westbury court danticat&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us Oates, J. (1996, October 19). They all went away. Retrieved from http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/CurrentCourse/Scan0006.pdf