How People Living in a City Influence the Place and How the Place Influences the People - Essay Example

How people living in a influence the place and how the place influences the people Cities, being highly populated and permanently settled areas have a mutual relationship with their dwellers. While the cities influence the lives of the people, dwellers too influence the cities. The various activities taking place in the cities, such as construction, transportation, entertainment and socialization influence dwellers. People, while living in the cities also influence the cities, especially the physical elements and characteristics. Frank O'Hara, a New York dweller expresses his sentiments on his mutual relationship with the city. Although he appears content with the relationship with the city, in some instances, he reveals of the negatives that the city has on him. However, the city is not generally the name, rather, it is the buildings, the people and all the activities taking place in these buildings, and undertaken by the people living in the city. It is due to the activities of people living in the city that influence the life of the people, brining into existence new worlds. However, this is a world full of fantasy and dreams, but one far from the reality. Living in the city, people socialize in different ways. As people work in the cities and conduct business in the city, they interact differently with each other. This way, they influence each other. According to O’Hara, the city significantly contributes to a number of changes in his life. For instance, the city contributes to his sadness. In his narration in the poem, “Meditations in an Emergency,” he points out that each time his heart is broken, he feels like being more adventurous. Love, being part of the social city life influences the moods of the people. However, there are differences between love in the city and love in the countryside. While in the countryside, love knows of no bounds, love in the city knows of bounds. One of the main reasons for this is the impact that city life has on the people (Jaffe web). Not only does it make people complicated, it also makes it difficult to understand them. There is an increased level of unfaithfulness in the city dating scene, if lamentations in O’Hara’s poem, “Meditations in an Emergency” are anything to go by. According to him, people share love in the city, thus rendering love useless. Subsequently, there are frequent break ups as people seek for better partners. The lies that people tell to each other in the name of love are overwhelming. The city teaches smooth lies, which people tell to win love and trust. The heavily built city environment makes life boring (Vince web). They cannot enjoy a nature walk in the grassland and pick up a blade of grass, unless they have to walk up the subway. This is however human in the making. The increased construction in the cities is the main contributing factor to the loss of vegetation cover. Most of the land in the city is paved if not constructed (“BOP Consulting” 2). Thus, although people feel bored in the city and long for nature walks, this is not possible with the lack of natural environment to have walks. Subsequently, people remain indoors and do nothing, amid the urge to leave their abodes (Vince web). In addition to the high levels of boredom facing city people, homosexuality is yet another problem. According to O’Hara, men kiss each other, signifying the erosion of culture and civilization. In his poem, “” he narrates, “Now there is only one man I like to kiss when he is unshaven”, and further attributes this to heterosexuality. When people cannot find love and after their transgressions, they run to the churches thus deceiving one another of their identities. The quality of life in the city, especially for the poor is worrying. Construction workers for instance can only afford sand-witches and Coca-Cola for lunch. Despite the hard work that these people handle, they have poor dieting, which contributes to their poor health conditions. Few people pay attention to the working conditions of these people. As they work in highly risky areas, they have to protect their heads from falling bricks and objects using yellow plastic caps. Prostitution in the city is yet another characteristic of people living in the city (“BOP Consulting” 3). Prostitutes, dressed to appeal different men loiter in the streets comfortably with their short skits and heeled shoes. Rarely do these women consider the thoughts of the passersby, thus making the city immoral (Jaffe web). People too sell magazines of nude women in streets without caring the impact of this to the onlookers. This contributes to the high levels of immorality in the cities as well as the erosion of people’s culture (Badger web). People pollute the air of the city, as O’Hara observes. The noise of vehicles in the streets is one of the ways in which people contribute to the high level of pollution in the city. While their engines produce noise that contributes to noise pollution, their honks too are a source of noise pollution. Further, the high level of construction in the city also contributes to the high-level pollution. Sawdust from seasoned wood plays a major role in the pollution of the city environment. Smoke is yet another form of pollution that people have on the city. For instance, O’Hara in his poem, “A Step Away From Them” narrates that at Times square he finds a sign that blows smoke over his head. This portrays the high level of pollution among the city people in the city. The city influences the behavior of its dwellers, as Badger (web) observes. The high number of clubs in the city beautifully decorated and with nice lighting lures people into drinking. This notwithstanding the leisure that the city offers to the dwellers changes their lives significantly (Jaffe web). In the evening, people meet for coffee, hamburgers or other snacks, as it is common with city life. However, in some instances, it is pointless to eat in the city. The kind of food served to the customers is worthless, despite the price charged (Vince web). In his poems, O’Hara creates a city within a city, especially due to the effects of the city in the life of the dwellers. In his narration, he relays the influences that people have on the city, while at the same time the effects that the city has on the people. The increased level of interaction between a place and its dwellers in most cases contributes to the changes in the life of the people in that place. Further, the activities taking place in the place creates a different world in the life of the individual. With different forces acting on the individuals, they develop new ideas and thoughts, thus creating new worlds. O’Hara, despite living in a city develops his own sense of a city, one of dreams and wishes. In his city, he hopes for a different city with different activities and having different characteristics. The negative effects of the city life rarely impress him, contributing to his fantasy of an extremely different city and world, one that has grasslands, has good morals and with true love rather than deception. Works Cited Badger, Emily. “Turns Out Where You Live Really Does Shape Who You Are,” theatlanticcities.com. Sep 2012. Web. 11 December 2013 http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/09/turns-out-where-you-live-really-does-shape-who-you-are/3353/ BOP Consulting. “The Economic, Social and Cultural Impact of the City Arts and Culture Cluster.” City of London Economic Development. 2013. Print. Jaffe, Eric. “City Life Changes How Our Brains Deal with Distractions” theatlanticcities.com. Jan 2013. Web. 11 December 2013 http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/01/city-life-changes-how-our-brains-deal-distractions/4536/ Vince, Gaia. “Cities: How crowded life is changing us,” BBC. May 2013. Web. 11 December 2013 http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130516-how-city-life-is-changing-us Read More