Universität zu Köln, Englisches Seminar
HS „Word, Image, Sound: „New York just
like I pictured it. Skyscapers and everything...“

A City′s Phenomenon - From Impersonality to Loneliness,
and the Struggle for Emotional Satisfaction.
Characteristics of a Metropolis such as New York

von: Christian Hensgens

Table of Contents

I. Introduction 3

II. A Profile of New Yorkers - Introducing Eight Million People 3 - 10

1. Social Psychology and Characterization of City-Dwellers 5 – 6

1.1. Unique Urban Characteristics 6

2. Impersonality, Anonymity, and Isolation and their effects on the urban community 7 – 10

2.1. Mental Health in the Metropolis 7 - 9
2.2. Interim Result 9 – 10

III. Who are the ‘winners’? New York between self-doubt and self- fulfillment 10 - 16

a) Edward Hopper: Biographical Notes 10 - 11
b) “Nighthawks” and its Interpretation 11 - 13
c) The Metropolis as Living Space for Fringe Groups 13 - 14
d) Terminus Metropolis: Destiny of the Elderly 14 - 16

IV. Conclusion 16

References 17 – 18

I. Introduction

New York City probably is one of the most famous cities of the world, especially known – among other things – for its diversity, size, and way of life. With a population of 8,09 million people and an annual increase of 108,500 people1 as an average value, New York is a prime example for a modern metropolis of the 21st century.

Such a metropolis typically displays numerous characteristics which are not – or just partly – applicable to a small town or to country life. No matter where many people live together, a typical life in a metropolis develops which considerably affects (especially elderly) people and influences their psychological or mental development. In literature and arts, keywords such as ‘loneliness’, ‘solitude’, or ‘isolation’ frequently turn up as side effects of living in a metropolis (such is the case with Edward Hopper, for example) and several studies took a close look at the question whether or not living in a metropolis makes people mentally sick. This academic assignment will try to design a characteristic picture of a city-dweller and the typical problems of living in a metropolis. Hereby, I will focus on the city of New York on the one hand, and on the psychological aspects in humans living in a metropolis, on the other hand. Under these aspects, I will furthermore try to analyze Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’ (1942), and complete this academic assignment with a look at fringe groups and their status in a modern metropolis.

II. A profile of New Yorkers – Introducing Eight Million people

With an estimated population of 8,09 million people, New York City holds rank sixteen of the largest cities worldwide, and even rank two of the largest metro areas in the world with 30,1 million people in the New York City and Philadelphia area2. To begin with, when we are talking about a ‘metropolitan area’, we mean in general terms “a city and the surrounding developed and developing territory. It is a metropolis functionning as a labor market and retail trade area regardless of governmental boundaries. It usually has cultural institutions serving the whole area, and people have a sense of identity with the area, and if asked while a thousand miles from home where they come from, the will commonly give the name of the central city even if they live in the suburbs” (Hallman 1977: 15). Probably the most popular borough of New York is Manhattan. More than half its households consists of people living on their own, twice the population of any other borough and over 12 percent of its households had incomes exceeding $25,000 in 1970, nearly twice the proportion in Queens, the second wealthiest borough (Hacker 1975: 42). Representing less than 20 percent of the population of New York, “Manhattan contributes a disproportionate share of those people we associate with the cosmopolitan aspects of city’s life, but whether it has the preponderance of such individuals is difficult to say” (Hacker 1975: 43).

With a number of 2,61 persons per household and a median household income of $43,393, New York shows a percentage of 14,6% persons who live below poverty, and 12.9% of New York’s citizens are 65 years old or over3. In a city with a death rate of 32,000 each year, “8,000 people die of murder, suicide or just lonely in their appartment”4. Assumed that an unneglectable number of those 8,000 people die of sicide and/or lonely in their appartment, the question remains whether or not this is the result of a typical phenomenon of a metropolis and if living in a metropolis makes people mentally sick. Srole, Fischer, and others have narrowed these and other questions in their work Mental Health in the Metropolis – The Midtown Manhattan Study (1978). Before I will present their findings, I will in the following type the characteristical city-dweller and summarize the main aspects of living in a metropolis.

1. Social Psychology and Characterization of City- Dwellers

Probably the most itself-suggesting reason for the migration from the country to the city is the fact that due to the inopportune technical and economical structure of the country, the cities verbatim became ‘the land of unlimited possibilities’ (cf. Hellpach 1952: 33). Although the situation has positively changed within decades, this image of the metropolis can still be found in today’s society, where a higher unemployment rate or a more feeble infrastructure – as regards public transportation etc. – can still be hold to be applicable to the country more than to the city. As a result, more and more people move from the country into the city.

[...]

1 numbers taken from Empire State Development, State of New York. New York: U.S. Department of Commerce/Bureau of the Census, 2003 (http://www.nylovesbiz.com/nysdc/StateCountyPopests/ nyscomp.pdf) and from http://worldatlas.com/geoquiz/thelist.htm (see appendix)

2 cf. http://worldatlas.com/geoquiz/thelist.htm

3 cf. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36000.html

4 numbers and facts taken from http://www.kabel1.de/info/doku/links/index.php?21419 (see appendix)