Here Is New York

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1948

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Background

Essay Analysis

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Literary Devices

Personification

Throughout “Here Is New York,” White employs personification, or the assignment of human traits to an inanimate object. Specifically, he refers to New York City as having the characteristics of a human being, able to “carry on its lapel the unexpungable odor of the long past” or have “perished of hunger” (19, 32). Later, White writes of a street having formerly had “a discernable bony structure” (48), further assigning human traits to the physical structures of the city. He also describes commuters as “having fished in Manhattan’s wallet” (27). In personifying New York City, White alludes to an innate energy and autonomy, similar to that of a human being. His use of this literary device supports his claim of the city’s unique vitality. This connects to his theme The City as a Living Ecosystem and his idea that the city is a living organism.

Simile

White uses similes in “Here Is New York” to extend and clarify his arguments about the qualities of the city and its cultures. For example, White compares New York City and a poem. “The city is like poetry,” White writes, because it includes a huge amount of people, cultures, and communities, all located in a relatively compact physical space that can be likened to the brevity of a poem (29). Furthermore, New York City, White claims, has a musicality that is similar to the rhythm of a poem. White’s use of a simile offers a new perspective on the distinctiveness of New York City.

Imagery

Imagery refers to language that conjures a vivid sensory experience through the use of descriptive language. White uses imagery throughout “Here Is New York” to convey the qualities of the city. Specifically, he offers textured, highly specific language that aims to create an image in the reader’s mind. For example, White writes about the “extravagant plantings of Rockefeller Center—the daffodils and grape hyacinths and birches and the flags trimmed to the wind on a fine morning in spring” (28). He offers specificity through naming the types of flowers, the weather, and the season, inviting the reader to fully inhabit the scene he is describing.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is the use of hints throughout a text that offer suggestions of events or themes to come. White foreshadows the possibility that airplanes could be used in a terrorist attack by mentioning them before his discussion in the essay. He writes: “I didn’t even hear any planes except a couple of westbound commercial airliners that habitually use this air shaft to fly over” (22), and later notes that the Empire State Building was struck by an airplane during foggy weather. Later, White writes: “Overhead a plane passes dreamily, its running lights winking” (41). These references to airplanes foreshadow further discussion of how humans’ capacity for flight has changed the fate of the city. Near the end of the essay, White writes: “A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy” (54). The earlier references to air travel and airplanes take on an ominous nature with this assertion.