Most of us have a place we prefer to be. A place we feel safer and a place we feel more at home. Some feel they belong to the country while others feel they belong to the city. Others might go to the extreme and move to a different country to feel at home. But what do you do if you are still a child and your parents are taking you away from the place where you belong? This is the problem Susan Cheever dealt with when she was a child and her parents moved from Central Park to the countryside.
Susan Cheever is an American writer. She was born in 1943. Her father is a famous novelist and short story writer, John Cheever. Susan Cheever writes her memories in the anthology Central Park which is published in 2012. The first three to four years of her life (p. 7, l. 28) she was raised in the area around Central Park. She loved it. She loved everything about the place and was completely uncomprehending when her parents decided to move to Westchester on the Hudson River (p. 8, l. 23-24). Her parents wanted to get away from their two-bedroom apartment, the noisy traffic and they wanted to get a bigger family and a family car (s. 8, l. 71-76). She did not like it in the suburbs. She wanted to move back to Central Park. When Susan got old enough to be allowed to take the train alone, she travelled to New York as often as she could.
“Later in my life I heard Any Warhol say that it was better to live in the city than the country because in the city he could find a little bit of country, but in the country the was no little bit of city” (p. 9, l. 140-144).
This was exactly the way she felt; she could not live without her city life. This also showed when she swore to let her children grow up in the city and not force them to move to the country (s. 9, l. 163-165). She did as she promised herself. Her children grew up in the city (p. 9, l. 159-169) and she stayed by Central Park with her husband.
She explains how all of her children’s friends lived in the suburbs but how she could not really understand why. “Country children may have had ponies, but my kids had the delicious Carousel with its honky-tonk music and bright stallions” (p. 9, l. 172.175). The way she talks about her children and “the country children” is like they are two different races of human. Like there is a wrong and a right; and her children happens to be the right kind. She does not comprehend how people want to live their life out in the countryside when you can live next to the most beautiful place on earth, Central Park.
Even though her children moved far away, Susan still makes sure the traditions are kept about the park. Two traditions in particularly; the “New Year” tradition and the “her birthday/summer” tradition. Both of them are really important to her.
Even though she was taken away from the park for a few years of her life, the park has always been her place to be (p. 9, l. 182-183). She would not know what to do or where to go without it. She can do everything she can imagine at the park (p. 9, l. 190-196).
“I have depended on Central Park for its usefulness, but its incidental beauty has often taken my breath away” (p.9, l. 203.205).
Besides her love for Central Park, it is also shown in this quote that the essay is written in first person. It is an anthology about her life and her childhood. She describes how she feels about it and puts a lot of effort into explaining why she admires Central Park as much and why she does not feel like she belongs in the suburbs. “I feel utterly defenseless. I long for the safely of the city, where nature is so beautifully and spectacular kept on a leash. I long for Manhattan, where my door is locked at night and the noises are the comforting human noises of cars and crowds. I long for the natural wonderland that is wild enough to delight and tame enough to enjoy – the wonderful Central Park” (p. 10, l. 295-304).
At the end of the story she admits to her fear of the suburbs. She does not feel safe in the country. In a way she is an unsecure person who cannot stand the thought of being alone in the world. She feels terrified listening to the animals howling at night. The sound of the city calms her down. The sound of knowing she is not alone in this world and knowing she is only a few footsteps away from her neighbors. As the famous quote says, “The city never sleeps”; if she wakes up in the middle of the night she can always be comforted by the noises of the cars and she will not have to worry about the howls of the coyotes.
Susan loves to live in the city. The city is her home. She does not understand why people want “all country” and “no city”, when they can get a lot of city with a little bit of country. To her Central Park is the place to be and the place where everything is possible. She thought her parents were crazy for moving away from Central Park and into the suburbs, she felt left out and lived in the city from the moment she possibly could. She found her home in the city where she was born and became so close to it that she felt like she belonged there.