Analyse af Siri Hustvedts essay 'Living with Strangers'

This essay is called “Living with strangers” by Siri Hustvedt. It´s a personal essay on Hustvedt´s own experience of “The Big Apple”, which has focused on the genre and the attitude towards urban living as introduced in the essay. She clarifies about the different aspects of living the urban life compared to the suburban life.

This story starts with Hustvedt telling that she grew in Rural Minnesota, and about how important it´s too great everyone u meet “passing someone in silence was not only rude, but it could lead to accusation of snobbery” (p. 1 – l. 4).

Hustvedt moved to “The Big Apple” in 1978 and experienced to meet among strangers in New York. She illustrates people in New York, egoistic and selfish. It´s completely impossible to notice how strangers are, when you are so physically close to each other all the time, as the three stories “the bathrobe lady, the fanatical preacher, and the spitter” (p.2 - l. 46) has focused on. She is fascinated about the “Pretend it isn´t happening” – law, which she uses to outline the behavior of the strangers in NYC. She also mentions a story from a friend of hers, where a woman was only wearing a bathrobe at the bus station, but no one surprisingly seemed to care since everyone was following the pretend-law. She notes that she can see and hear her neighbors in their private life, and in the subway u probably have to stand or sit so close to strangers that you will have a very intimate contact with a random you don´t know as we see in the text she describes” …my body pressed so tightly against them, I could smell their hair oils, perfumes, and sweat.” (p. 1 - l. 15). It reminded Hustvedt the way she grew up nearby loved ones, which isn´t the same in the big cities. They have a rule; “Whenever possible, pretend it isn’t happening!!” (p. 1 – l. 20), the rule applies when u is dealing with strangers. She had many unpleasant experiences that her husband, daughter and her friends have experienced. There are many different types, some of them are strange and insulted. She mentions the text of where her fifteen-year-old daughter became harassed in the subway, which made her horrified of embarrassment. While everyone in the subway just looks and pretends nothing has happened; “I love you!” he yelled. “I love you! You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my life!” (p. 3 – l. 86). This makes her know that there was a witness to this situation, and it gave her “a feeling of ordinary human solidarity.” (p. 3 – l. 96).