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Running head: EXPLORING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AN INDIVIDUALS SPACE.

Exploring the Significance of an Individuals Space" Ruben Zea DeVry University

Running head: EXPLORING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AN INDIVIDUALS SPACE. Ruben Zea Exploring the Significance of an Individuals Space

All of us have a different type of life style, in which all of us are accustom to. We tend to live that way because it falls into our comfort zone and its usually because of our culture. In the other hand, things could also be different because of the environment we settle in. The best example of a different life style, based on the environment is the difference between the countryside and the city. Ill take the two essays, I have read that are similarly located in the city, Westbury Court and Silent Dancing. Exploring the similarities that both have in Paterson and Westbury Court and some differences. The city is known to be crowded, surrounded by corner stores, buildings, street signs, traffic lights, schools, churches, super markets, etc. What these stories have in common is the environment that both Ortiz Cofer from Silent Dancing and Danticat from Westbury Court lived in. By the description of the environment, Danticat makes a clear description of Westbury Court to be a place that many would consider the ghetto, Beneath the building ran a subway station through which rattled the D, M, and Q, trains every fifteen minutes or so," and "there was graffiti on most of the walls... hills of trash piled up outside... and the heat and hot water weren't always on.(Danticat, 2013) Even though Danticat never mentions anything about what culture she is from, what year does this part of her memories takes place in; we assume she is an American living in Brooklyn in the 80s because of the description of the area at that time. Danticat also mentioned someone getting killed in front of the building across the street, somebody breaking into her house, just many things happening after the fire. That was some

Running head: EXPLORING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AN INDIVIDUALS SPACE. supporting examples, of why Westbury Court was consider the ghetto, and it was a violent place at the time, as she confessed Still I never thought I was living in a violent place. It was an elevated castle above a clattering train tunnel, a blind alley where children from our building and the building across the street had erected a common basketball court for hot summer afternoon games, an urban yellow brick road where hopscotch squares dotted the sidewalk next to burnedout, abandoned cars. It was home.(Danticat, 2013) Thus, after showing how comfortable she felt in Westbury Court, even after the events and situation in her area was, she actually never dreamed of leaving Westbury court because she consider it her home. Similarly to Danticat, Cofer lived in the city, named Paterson. After migrating from Puerto Rico, Cofers father found an apartment in a tenement, in which was previously inhabited by Jewish families... The way that Cofer has similar lifestyle like Danticat in Westbury Court had, is by the fact that Paterson back in the 50s was not a very good city to live in just like in Brooklyn. I get a full detailed description of the experience in the apartment, clearly showing the state in which they lived in as Cofer described the way the heater pipes banged and rattled, startling all of us out of sleep until we got used to the sound that we automatically shut it out or raised our voices above the racket. The hiss from the valve punctuated my sleep like a non human presence in the rooma dragon sleeping at the entrance of my childhood.(Cofer 2005) Most likely Cofer lived in a poor neighborhood since her father only found the tenement, with an apartment that had heater pipes connected through the apartments. After knowing the environment that both Cofer and Danticat lived in, we have to understand that culture has another different impact in their lives. There also a difference between their families, for example Cofers father was not there most of the time because he was in the Navy, in comparison to Danticats father, she doesnt say much about him because in

Running head: EXPLORING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AN INDIVIDUALS SPACE. her story its mostly about the experiences in the area instead of what happened within her family. Cofers father was doing financially good compared to the other neighbors, but in Danticats story it seem like her father hold a job that pays enough for them to live in Westbury Court. Now considering the culture that Cofer is from, its a very different type of life style from Danticat because he is a Puerto Rican immigrant that just arrived into the states. They are not yet accustomed to the states. Thats why Cofers mother only buys products that she only knows about from a bodega. Cofers mother interacting with other Puerto Rican neighbors makes it obvious that she is only comfortable with the people that know her language. On the other hand Cofers father wants them to not get attached to the place of the people because he wants to leave. The perfect example of the influence of a culture is described through the decoration of their living room at the time, The sofa and chairs are square and hard-looking, upholstered in bright colors (blue and yellow in this instance), and covered with the transparent plastic that furniture salesmen then were so adept at convincing women to buy. The linoleum on the floor is light blue; if it had been subjected to spike heels there were dime sized indentations all over is that cannot be seen in this movie.(Cofer, 2005) That was the typical decoration of a Puerto Rican family at the time Cofer says. Despite that they lived in a poor neighborhood, Cofer indentifies the truth why they probably stayed in Paterson; it was because her father could not find another place for them to move away from the barrio. Finally, I will explore the space in the country side from the story They all just went away and compare it to the space in the city. Oates lives in the country side in which has a

Running head: EXPLORING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AN INDIVIDUALS SPACE. much wider space than in the city. Oates lives in her familys farmhouse in Millersport, New York. Oates is the type of girl that would go wonder off into the woods, going inside abandoned houses; she just seems to enjoy observing the empty houses. The country side is much peaceful in her area, especially since she is surrounded by nothing than just, old torn down houses. Compared to Paterson and Westbury court, there is no way that you can experience loud noises from the streets, trains, neighbors living next door and even be surrounded by the graffiti that are on the walls in Westbury Court. Its more likely that Oates can connect much more with nature than anything else. That can be the reason why Oates always wants to be on her own, to explore and appreciate her surroundings. Some of it is explained when Oates exclusively compares a home with a house as she states The house contains the home but is not identical with it. The house anticipates the home and will very likely survive it For only where there is life can there be a home.(Oates, 1995) Living in the country side may affect the way you look at things; it can be solitary but to Oates seems like perfectly fine. Just like Danticat, Oates acts like its home for her, nothing actually bothers her until she meets the Weidels. The Weidels were a much poorer, dysfunctional family that moved not far from her home. The father of that family was known to beat up his wife and his kids. The Weidels were the sort of tension that hasnt been around in years since Millersport has been abandoned by a lot of their people. They were the main reason why she actually remembers most of her vivid memories in Millersport. The biggest difference of all has to be that Oates actually was living in a much poorer place, from the description of the environment; it seems that her family was the lowest class compared to Cofers and Danticats family.

Running head: EXPLORING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AN INDIVIDUALS SPACE. In conclusion, we all have our own way of living, it can be comfortable to us, but not to everyone. We all adapt to certain places because of the time and how much memories we make in those places. The life in the city and the country side maybe so different, but there will always be some similarities.

Running head: EXPLORING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AN INDIVIDUALS SPACE.

References

Danticat, E. (n.d.). Westbury court. Retrieved November 7, 2013 from, http://plaza.ufl.edu/lacy.hodges/WestburyCourt.pdf

Oates, J. (1995, October). They all just went away. Retrieved, November 7, 2013 from, http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1995/10/16/1995_10_16_178_TNY_CARDS

Ortiz Cofer, J. (n.d.). Silent Dancing. Retrieved October 19, 2013, from http://www2.hawaii.edu/~facoba/readings/cofer.htm