My Little Bit of Country

Every unique human-living person has its own dreams and perspectives of life. Someone prefers to live in the urban areas with tall buildings, lots of people and a flow of bustle in the streets. Others have a distinct preference for the suburban life; being in the wild nature with a small society. These differences between the species of lifestyles can be sizeable but you cannot say which one is the best. Every lifestyle has its own pros and cons. In “My Little Bit of Country”, 2012 by Susan Cheever, Cheever prefers to live in New York – Central Park is her favorite place to be. In Central Park she feels safe. Cheever is the narrator but also the main character in the essay. We have a first person narrator, but it is a subjective essay, since it is a summary of Cheever’s life and we only hear about what she longs for. The essay is chronological, because Cheever starts telling about her first memories of life – she is in Central Park with her father in the summer mornings and sometimes they visit the Central Park Zoo. Then she keeps on going telling about why she loves the city but that she is the only one, because her family rather to have a place in the countryside. She grows up in Westchester but as often as possible, she visits the Central Park. At the time when she gets her own children she “vowed to let them grew up in the city and never, ever transplant them to the country.” Her desire is to live in New York near the Central Park and she wants to let her children get the possibilities she was denied back then.
Cheever makes contrasts between the city and the country throughout the text. The two places she mentions the most is New York and Westchester – the two places where her family has been living while she grows up. In the beginning, they live in New York and it is a romantic city after the World War II – a city filled with dreams and hopes for prosperity. Cheever loves the city and especially the Central Park, not just in the summer but all the time. “In the summer we walked over to Bethesda Fountain to cool off. In the winter when the city air smelled of snow, we shouldered our skis…and slid shrieking with joy down the Seventy-ninth hill.” She has and will ever love Central Park no matter the time of year, because it is a useful place and you can do different things – it is her refuge and she simply depends on Central Park. She describes the city with positive words like “magical” while the countryside is a negative “endless driving” . The city is like a magical wonderland with the perfect possibilities you just have to grab while the countryside in a way seems to reduce her prospects. Cheever’s uses of words indicate how much she loves the city more than the country. “Why would I want to swim in someone’s muddy pond crawling with leeches when I could perch myself on a marble basin and cool myself with splashing clear water, topping it off with a lemonade from the cart on Fifth Avenue?” This question filled with details creates pictures in the reader’s head. It is a question like; why have something dirty if you can get the clean? Cheever likes the organized and controlled nature, when you do not have to be muddy if you want to cool off. She does not like the ‘real’ country where it is dangerous to ice skate on the rough lake and the dark nights, where you cannot see anything, scares her. She feels defenseless, when she hears noises from the animals, she only wants to hear the bird singing or the human noises of cars and crowds – noises she recognizes. “I long for the safety of the city, where nature is so beautifully and spectacularly kept on a leash. “ Safety means more than anything does to her, which is one of the themes in the essay. She really loves the nature but only when it is a safe place to be. She only wants the harmless and the beauty from the nature like beads on a string – she only wants the incident beauty, which can take her breath away.
In the essay, Andy Warhol says, “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 there was no little bit of city.” The title of the essay “My Little Bit of Country” represents that Central Park is Cheever’s little bit of country. Central Park is the safe nature Cheever knows. It is an organized and cultivated nature – nothing can surprise anyone. “I long for the natural wonderland that is wild enough to delight and tame enough to enjoy – the wonderland called Central Park.” It is like the Central Park zoo, where her favorite animal; the yak stands immovable behind the bars. “Something about him suggested a great acceptance of the world in which he found himself so far from his snowy native mountains and bubbling brooks.” She feels like the yak as if she comes from another foreign place, therefor she is inspired of the yak’s endless forbearance. Normally every human being are meant to be in the wild and unsafe nature, but today we have big cities with the counterfeit nature. Today, everything is about possibilities in the safety. We accept to be “behind the bars” where everything looks like a natural wonderland. When you are “behind the bars”, you can try to keep out the insecure and unpredictable about the world. That is why Cheever accepts the city and loves Central Park just like the yak accepts the outdoor cage in the zoo. Everybody wants to feel safe and tries to avoid the dangerous about life but unfortunately, you cannot escape everything you fear.