Final Essay

As Americans have grown throughout time, their connection to the civil and lively neighborhoods that used to exist have become disconnected and damaged. We used to live in a time where the design of our buildings and setting of our towns were similar, connected to us, and made us feel as if we were one with society. Kunstler believes that we have become blind to the kind of changes that we have made over time. He argues that we now only believe in the commercial and industrial life and have now become consumers rather than citizens of the towns that we live in. While reading his argument, and viewing the New Yorker covers, we can visualize and understand how we have become disconnected from the city life and attached to the suburban culture that now exists.

In Kunstler’s argument, we can understand how city life has changed since our cities were first built and made. We now only focus on what people want to be entertained by and what makes our life easier, instead of the places that just allowed to stay connected to our city and enjoy what the city life had to offer us. Kunstler argues that we do not notice what is around us and how things have changed. We do not see that the design of our cities now is nothing compared to what once existed. In his argument, Kunstler states that, “we ceased to speak of ourselves as citizens and labeled ourselves consumers.” What this means now, is that instead of living and thriving in the city that we live in, we expect the city to give to us and make us feel good. With this, we are taking away from the city and stripping it of its roots, rather than building it up and brining back what once was our civil and lively city.

The New Yorker covers each show a significant way of how time has changed from the past to the present. In each of the covers we see a different time period with a different design, yet they all have a common simple underlying message in each of them: how the design of our city has lead us to become disconnected and focused on an urban way of living. In the first cover from 1936, we see many people bunched up with no way of getting out of the elevator in which they are in. This cover shows how as our city becomes more advanced and technical, we will always be stuck fighting for a way to get out of what we have brought ourselves into by trying to become more urban. The cover shows how becoming more complex can lead to future difficulties and conflict amongst the people around us because of our want to benefit from our city rather than making our city a better place. In the second cover from 1970, we see how the city design has changed and become more complex. This is what Kunstler is arguing about in his passage. We are changing how our city looks and making it more appealing to ourselves rather than leaving the traditional look that used to exist. In the next cover from 1974, we see the design change of the city. In it we can see a tall building with large glass windows and other buildings being reflected in the windows. The buildings have now become taller and more complex rather than simple and small like they used to be. This proves what Kunstler is saying with the way that our city is now looking. We have stripped the city of its original look and have made it an advanced urban place for us to live in.

The next cover from 2001 shows a woman who seems to be trying to sell an apartment to a couple. What seems to have captured the couple is the great view of the city and how the buildings look. In this cover, the idea of urban living is now apparent and satisfying to people. In the cover, we do not see anything, but tall buildings with large windows, this shows how our city has now become this large display for people to enjoy more rather than to live in. If we continue to make these decisions in making a city that appeals to the eye and brings us enjoyment, we will lose the connection that we have to the city like the cover from 2007 shows. We will end becoming people who just wander the city aimlessly with nothing but tall buildings trapping us inside of this “ideal” place.

As time has gone by, our city has changed drastically and has lost the appeal that it once had. We have become a society that is focused on living an urban life that has no connection to the city life that we once had. As our population developed with our city, we added many additions while also accepting different and unique influences. Although only some of the original city we live in today still exists, it is clear that with urbanization, we have not only grown from what we once were, but separated ourselves from it too.