ccurring in such encounters. The teacher, Gradgrind, meets Louisa and Thomas, his children, as he walks home through these darkened streets. The children are said to have "an air of jaded sullenness" that is especially strong in Louisa, "yet struggling through the dissatisfaction of her face, there was a light with nothing to rest upon" (Dickens 22). Dickens uses such meetings to contrast aspirations with reality in various contexts, all against the background of the drab sameness of Coketown. This is seen as well in the relationship between Stephen Blackpool and his wife, for instance. He is a worker who understands and who could be a great leader under other circumstances, but in this type of society, he has little chance of showing his true worth. His vicious wife is another problem that prevents this intelligent but uneducated man from achieving what he might even in this brutal work environment.
New York City in various historical eras serves as the backdrop for several novels, among them Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos, and If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes. New York has long been a rich city for literature, and as in London and Coketown, it has also been a city in which characters form different social classes can meet in public spaces. Indeed, this can be considered a defining characteristic of the modern city.
Manhattan Transfer is set in the center of the city. It is a novel with many characters whose lives intertwine, recreating in this way the life of the city with all its energy and its problems. New York City is one of the characters, with Greenwich Village in particular serving as a representative section where life is examined by the author. A character such as Stan is tied to New York--his father was a well-known lawyer, and he himself would like to be an architect and to build onto the city that is his life. He cannot realize his dream because there is no lo...