Los Angeles: Through the Eyes of Writers
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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 hers
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o acknowledge Bob at all (296-297). By the time Bob gets to work, he is almost ready to risk losing his job because he feels so squeezed out and alienated by the Los Angeles that he inhabits.
Carlos Bulosan character, Carlos, is a newcomer to Los Angeles from the Philippines, fresh off the train and looking for his brother. As a new arrival, he has no sense of the sheer size of the city, or how he might find his brother. Yet by apparent luck he is able to find a Filipino neighborhood within a few minutes of arrival (299). Carlos seems to discount the white people that he sees as he turns to people who seem more familiar to him. Yet, this is a dangerous move as well as he soon learns in the pool hall (300). When he does find his brother and people he assumes he will be comfortable with, he finds that Los Angeles has changed them and he is puzzled by their actions and reactions, particularly to him (303). His brother smokes, and alcohol is prevalent as the men drink to cushion themselves from their own misery (303). For this small community of Filipino men, Los Angeles has become fatal û taking away their jobs, their pride, and in one case, a life (304-305).
Another sense of place exhibited by Los Angeles in regards to com
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Approximate Word count = 2175
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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