...My Little Bit of Country – by Susan Cheever My little bit of country is an essay from the anthology, Central Park. The author of the essay is the American writer, Susan Cheever. The topics that the essay deals with is the country-life and the city-life. The angle of approach takes place when the main character talks about the ancient yak, which lived in a foreign place in which he originally does not come from. She is using the yak example to amplify her situation when she is forced to go living in the country with her parents. She felt that she did not belong to the country and she is longing after her previous life in the city in which she finds familiar and safe. The city and Central Park illustrates the beauty and the good things while the country portraits the ugly and not so welcoming environment as a contrast. Beauty vs ugly. Good vs bad. Everything vs nothing. She is describing the city as a romantic place of dreams and prosperity where everything is possible and by the hand, you just have to grab the opportunities the city and the environment is giving you. Her father was an artist and the short stories he wrote was the beginning of his masterful portraits of the city and the suburbs. It was stories about long lost world of New York City, when it was filled with river light and when everyone wore a hat. Her parents dreams about living in the post war American chimera in a house with a white-picked fence, instead of living in their rented two-bedroom apartment. Central...
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...My Little Bit of Country The essay “My Little Bit of Country” is written by the American writer Susan Cheever. In the essay, Susan describes her life growing up in New York and during the text she introduces the reader to the beauty and calm atmosphere of central park, which she is very fond of, while she at the same time tells about the . In the beginning of the essay, Susan speaks warmheartedly about the earliest memories that she has of central park, with her father in his khaki uniform and a roller-skating chimpanzee with a cigar in the central park zoo. Already, we are presented with the postwar feel that was in New York at this time, when the city was filled with a feeling of new beginnings and the pleasant sound of easy-listening jazz coming from every store. Even though she was only around 3-4 years old at this time, she sort of felt a little bit like the zoo animals in the sense that she also felt like she came from somewhere else, somewhere exotic, and in a sense she did. She was from the urban jungle of New York and had already fallen in love with the city and Central Park. But Susan’s parents didn’t share her love, they wanted something else. They wanted more children, and their two bedroom apartment couldn’t house that, so they migrated to a suburban property with a white picket fence, in true 50’s American style. Susan didn’t like this change though, as she loved the urban life that she had with all its urban features. She didn’t like living in the countryside...
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...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...
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...What lifestyle is contain as the ideal? Is living in the city the ideal lifestyle? Surrounded by people, tall buildings, electric generators noises and crowds. Alternatively, the country life, small society and an uncontrolled nature. It is impossible to conclude which one is the ideal lifestyle; it depends on how your habits are. All humans are different in a peculiar way. There are two types of people in the world. The people who likes the country life or the people who likes the city life. The essay “My little bit of Country” written by the American writer Susan Cheever, and was published in 2012 from the anthology Central Park. The story is about Susan Cheever view on the ideal lifestyle; she prefers to live in the city. When she was young, she lived in New York, later her parents and she moved to the suburbs. In the text, we hear how Susan Cheever did not like the country life she was longing for the previous life in the city. “My little bit of Country” illustrates the suburbs life compared to the city life, there is no doubt that Susan Cheever assumes that she likes the city life more than the country life. Nevertheless, how does she argue for the fact that city life is better? The main character is Susan Cheever; the story is about her life and her habits. We can assume that she is old now because she is married and have children. With the following chronologic structure in the story, which means we follow her from earliest memory and since she was a child to she is...
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...“My Little Bit of Country” As a child, you are very security seeking, and everything different from the usual, especially big changes, can seem strange and uncomforting. As we grow up, different becomes exciting, and we get used to the changes. For the most of us. However, there are those who truly cannot deal with these changes – security addicts. In the essay “My Little Bit of Country” from the anthology “Central Park” from 2012, the American writer Susan Cheever writes about her life In New – and how she loves the life there much better than the life on the country. In this essay, I am going to analyse and comment on the text with focus on the contrasts between New York and the country. I would also like to have a look at the themes that are used in the text. Contrasts, contrasts, contrasts... There is no doubt that the contrasts between the urban life and the life on the country are very thought-through by Cheever. She has created a potpourri of contrasts, which emphasizes the bond between Cheever and Central Park. For instance, “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 […]?” This is just one of many examples, where she trashes the country and praises New York, or rather Central Park. In the beginning of the text, we do not exactly know why she hates the country so bad, but what we do know, is that she loves Central Park, and that she just cannot live...
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...------------------------------------------------- My Little Bit of Country Do you remember you favorite place when you were a child? My favorite place was a playground near where I live, and I LOVED it! I could be there every day at all hours. I was on the verge of tears when I have to go home. In My Little Bit of Country is Susan Cheever writing about how she felt when she and her family moved from New York to Westchester. She have to move from her favorite place, Central Park. This essay is from 2012. Susan Cheever describes in her essay her relationship to Central Park in New York. She recollects many good experiences in the park as a kid. She describes the city as a magical place with many options, but her parents want a typical suburban life so they decided to move from their apartment in middle of New York to Westchester, which in outside the city. Susan Cheever’s relationship to Central Park does not end here, because she commutes to New York as soon as she gets an opportunity to come back to the life she and her family had in New York. Susan Cheever moved back to New York some years after, she had children and she raised them in New York, and they love Central Park as much as Susan Cheever does, and even though they are adults, they still love to celebrate functions in the park. Susan Cheever thinks the life in New York is safe, while the suburban life is a little bit scary. In the essay, there is a first person narrator and an omniscient narrator, because...
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...My Little Bit of Country Pamela Prehn and Laura Rexen 3.K My Little Bit of Country is a short story written by Susan Cheever. The essay was published in the anthology Central Park that was published in 2012. Humans are different, there is no doubt about that. It is amazing how every single human-being on this planet is unique, it will always be something that amazes us. You can never figure a person out; the human mind is simply astonishing. The human mind will always behold a surprise. However, even though humans are difficult to figure out, we would say that there are mainly two different types of people in this world: Country-folk and city-folk. Susan Cheever is as mentioned earlier the writer of the essay My Little Bit of Country, and in this essay she reveals to us the thoughts and minds of a ‘city-person’. The story follows a chronological structure, and Susan Cheever starts the story with mentioning how she spent her summer mornings as a child in beautiful Central Park in company of her dad: “My earliest memories are of summer mornings in Central Park with my father” (Page: 1). When reading this essay, it becomes clear to see that Susan Cheever considers herself different from her family members: “I too often felt, even then at the age of three or four, that I had come from another exotic foreign place to live with my disappointingly ordinary family” (Page: 1, L.25) as this quote shows, she describes her family as being painfully ordinary, which clearly...
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...My little bit of country - essay Where is the best place to live, in the city or in the countryside? Some would say the countryside because of the nature, the silence and the small society. Others would like the busy life in the city, surrounded by lots of people and high buildings every day. There is pros and cons of both, it would therefore be impossible to conclude the best place to live. In the essay My little bit of country by Susan Cheever posted in Central Park, is Susan Cheever telling her viewpoint on these two places to live. She makes it very clear that she prefers the city-life, maybe because of the industrialization in western society where most people moved from the country to the cities. Susan Cheever seems happy for this development… In the essay is the writer, Susan Cheever, telling about Central Park and the city-life by using her own memories. She has therefor made herself first person narrator, and all the statements and opinions is from her point of view. She is starting chronologically with her first memory from Central Park, where she mentions her father’s homecoming from World War II. She is from there, in steps, going through her life and memories from Central Park until the release of the essay in 2012. This indicates a timeline from about 1945 until 2012. The narrator is using many adjectives and metaphors to describe the park and her connection to it, which gives the text an almost lyric and romantic style. “Unfortunately for me and my already full-blown...
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...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...
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...Susan Cheevers ‘My little bit of country’, is an essay which is part of the anthology ‘Central Park’. The essay tells the story of the essayist Susan Cheevers herself, and informs us of her opinion of the city, versus the country. The essay takes us from Susans childhood, all the way through to herself having kids. Susan illustrates in several ways the difference between living in the suburbs, and living in the big city. It is safe to say that Susan has become accustomed to the lifestyle of the big city, which in return has made her discontent when it comes to the more primitive life of the suburbs. The way that Susan Cheever chooses to tell her story, is done through a series of metaphors and adjectives. The result of this is that the reader is drawn into Cheevers' dynamic writing, which helps to make the essay more interesting to read. An example of this can be seen on page 10, at line 278-283, where she says: “One night the surface of the water heaved and buckled, and a turtle as big as a small car, a mossy prehistoric apparition in the middle of the city, inhaled the biggest chunk…” Every aspect of the story is described in detail, so that every object and person in the story, seems almost real enough to smell and taste. As we’re told in the essay, Susan has both lived in the big city of New York, where she lived at Central Park, as well as lived in the suburbs. Because Susan may be a person who is scared of changes, this makes it difficult for her to accept a life in...
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..."My Little Bit of Country" by Susan Cheever What would you prefer; The relaxing life of the suburbs or the wild diversity of the urban life? Some would prefer one while the other would feel inexplicably horrible in choosing the other. “My Little Bit of Country” is an essay by Susan Cheever, this essay starts from when she was a little girl and ends in 2012 which is when she wrote the essay. In the beginning little Susan Cheever was living in New York and was pretty happy with her life there, but that wasn’t enough for the family, they wanted the American Dream with the white picket fence and a place in the “real” country, as Susan Cheever puts it. This did not please her and she really disliked the suburbs, that when she got older she would go to New York as much as possible. In the end she moves to New York again and is happy and forever satisfied with the urban life. The story is basically written with contrasts, contrasts and more contrasts. The most obvious one is the suburb life vs. the urban life; country vs. city. She very much dislikes the country life, it being a step down from the city: “Why would I want to scrape around the rough, dangerous ice of a country lake when I could glide around the smooth ice at the Wollman Ring and pause for a hot chocolate when my toes and fingers get too cold?” here she compares the natural procedure of the lake turning to ice with a manmade ice rink specifically made to be the most safe way to skate. Some would say that the country would have something special about it...
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...My Little Bit of Country In the first clause, I will introduce the story “My Little Bit of Country”. The Authors name is Susan Cheever, she was an American writer who was born in 1943, who wrote the essay. She is the daughter of the famous novelist and short story writer John Cheever. The essay is from the selection called “Central Park”, which was released in 2012. The writer has written as a first person narrator through out the text. We met our main character Susan Cheever when she was very young. Her father has just returned home from the WW2. We are told by Susan that her family’s almost commonplace visits to Central Park Zoo and Central Park. Susan’s father started writing and because of the big success he had and the fact that they as parents wanted one more child, the family moved to the one of the suburbs of New York City. Susan was not very enamored of it, she loved to be in the enormous city, to skate on the ice rink and to visit the yak in Central Park Zoo. After they had moved, she eventually moved back the New York City and became an adult who raised her own kids, in the way that she wanted to be raised. In this analysis, we will focus on the writer’s use of contrast. We will also analyze the central- themes, which are explored in the text, and we will in the end put some comments on the title of the essay. In this paragraph, we will comment on the title. “My Little Bit of Country” was the title of the essay. The title was inspired by Andy Warhol, who Susan...
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...home from school and hanging out with friends around 7 in the evening, my mother surprised me with some news. She grinded and said that she had something to tell me. When I saw a smile on her face, I was excited to hear it. “You are going to America.” she said. I stopped smiling and turned my face into a frown. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to leave my house, school, families, and best friends that I have for my entire life. “But mom, everything is expensive over there. ” I tried to give her as many excuses as I could think. I added, “I’m not going to have any friends. I don’t know how to speak English. It is impossible for me to study over there. I don’t want to go. Please, let me stay here.” “You will be fine. You have your brother and your dad there. What are you afraid of? Your dad has been there for many years. All he wants is to see his kids succeed with good education. Look at your brother; he is fine over there. So you will be ok.” she said. I was sitting on a mountain of wet tissues. I would miss my friends a lot. I wouldn’t be able to hang out with them after school every day until 7 o’ clock anymore. Since I had no other choice, I had to come to America. I was scared because in my opinion, American people are big and tall compare to people in my country, and that scared me. In a gloomy morning, I had to leave to the airport at 4 since that was a long flight. The good thing was, my mother came and stayed with me for a month. It was the time that the...
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...Team dynamics has important role to play to complete any task. Be it a small one or a large one. Because at the end, it is the performance of the team that is responsible for better productivity. About team dynamics, I had some different perspective before coming here. Though I have work experience, but still I have always worked around people of my country. Though my client was a US company, but we had interactions only through mails. So I though team dynamics is more of dividing the work and working together because you have all the people of like mindedness around you. However, after coming here it was a totally different experience for me. Being an exchange student for international exposure, this subject and various activities helped me in good understanding of team dynamics. The group that I was assigned to had people from diverse background- Russia, Africa, India. So it was a perfect blend of totally different cultures. Forming Stage: Since the group was formed by Mam randomly, we were forced to come out of our comfortable zone and be more interactive and work with others who were not already friends with us. Hence, it started out as formal temporary team. We didn’t had any problems introducing ourselves and was excited to work together initially. We came up with a common goal about the preference that would be given to this subject for various assignments and group activities. We also started thinking of some norms that we should follow while working together...
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...home from school and hanging out with friends around 7 in the evening, my mother surprised me with some news. She grinded and said that she had something to tell me. When I saw a smile on her face, I was excited to hear it. “You are going to America.” she said. I stopped smiling and turned my face into a frown. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to leave my house, school, families, and best friends that I have for my entire life. “But mom, everything is expensive over there. ” I tried to give her as many excuses as I could think. I added, “I’m not going to have any friends. I don’t know how to speak English. It is impossible for me to study over there. I don’t want to go. Please, let me stay here.” “You will be fine. You have your brother and your dad there. What are you afraid of? Your dad has been there for many years. All he wants is to see his kids succeed with good education. Look at your brother; he is fine over there. So you will be ok.” she said. I was sitting on a mountain of wet tissues. I would miss my friends a lot. I wouldn’t be able to hang out with them after school every day until 7 o’ clock anymore. Since I had no other choice, I had to come to America. I was scared because in my opinion, American people are big and tall compare to people in my country, and that scared me. In a gloomy morning, I had to leave to the airport at 4 since that was a long flight. The good thing was, my mother came and stayed with me for a month. It was the time that the...
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