Los Angeles is sometimes known as the City of Angels, or even the City of Lost Angels, but in many ways, it is the City of Dreams. Sometimes, it is the City of Dreams Come True, while other times it is the city where dreams go to die. Then there are the times when Los Angeles is the City of Dreams in Suspended Animation, just waiting for the right lucky break for all the dreams to come true. A city with so many possibilities has to be vast in scope û physically as well as spiritually, ethnically, and emotionally. The sense of place in a city such as this is understandably complex and needs to be able to contain all the individual histories that make up its history. This paper will discuss Los AngelesÆ ôsense of placeö through the lens of eight Los Angeles writers who have presented different aspects of the city for the readerÆs examination.
The term ôsense of placeö is used to explain the combination of history, demographics, geography, and art used to describe a place and how it influences the people who live there, as well as how they interact with that space. A place that feels homelike and supportive one minute, can feel threatening the next simply through a change in perception of its size, as for example in Mona SimpsonÆs ôAnywhere But Here,ö when Ann decides to run away from home. In this scene, a familiar route to NibblerÆs takes on a sinister aspect as Ann realizes that she has $6 in her pocket to take care of herself and nothing else. The street the restaurant is on ôseemed largeö and ôBeverly Hills was a city all of a suddenö instead of the town (Simpson 709). In this case, Los Angeles (or Beverly Hills) has gone from being the cozy, familiar city that is a backdrop to AnnÆs dramas with her mother, to a city that is menacing at worst and indifferent at best, and very large to a small girl trying to make her way in the world.
Marc Norman and Joan Didion also set their main characters to exper...