Living with Strangers Case

Living With Strangers

Moving to a new place can be hard. You exchange your old surroundings with completely new ones, you have to change old habits, and you need to go out and explore new places and meet new people. This progress can be hard for some people and it will take a long time to get used to your new surroundings. Siri Hustvedt talks about this in “Living With Strangers” from 2002.

In the essay Siri Hustvedt describes her experience when she moved from Minnesota to New York In 1978. The fact that it was brought in The New York Times might indicate that her essay presents the reality of the people of New York. The essay also appears like it was written to people who already have some knowledge about New York as an example she writes: “… was traveling uptown on the Second Avenue bus. At Twenty-Fourth Street …” (line 23-24 page 6). This would mean nothing to people who don’t know anything about the streets of New York and their bus system.

During her essay Hustvedt reflects on the difference between her new home New York and her old home in Minnesota. She especially points out the fact, that in Minnesota everybody used to say “hi” to everybody, even people you didn’t know. Not even was it seen as being rude, but you could actually be looked at as a snob, which was the worst thing you could be looked at, but in New York it’s an entirely different story. Here it’s totally impossible to say hi to everybody, and nobody cares if you say hi to them because people don’t even acknowledge that you are there, they bump into you and elbow you as you walk through the streets. She also thinks that the urban life is lonely and hostile “Most of the time, we insulate ourselves out of necessity…” (line 107-108 page 8) this might be why the essay is called “Living With Strangers”.

This might be caused by the unwritten law of New York the “Pretend it isn’t happening law” which she claims every New Yorker uses. This law is used by the New Yorkers to protect themselves against others, and the best way to do that, is to pretend things around you aren’t happening. She gives us three examples of situations where the law has been used. First she tells us about her Iranian friend who witnesses a lady who wears nothing but a bathrobe, and is about to enter the bus. The Iranian friend had been staring at the women, but when he realized he was the only one he was ashamed of himself. Secondly she tells us of a train ride she once had, where a man is shouting verses from Revelation, and tell people that 9/11 was God’s punishment for their sins. Even though she can feel the people around her hears him, nobody turns to him and confront him of his provoking claims. Finely she describes another train ride she had, this time with her husband. This time she sad at the same row as a man with a very hostile aura. Even though she sat twenty yards away from him, he spits on her when he leaves the train and nobody acts, not even her husband, who later said that if there had been more spit on her he would have acted, did nothing.