Living in New York

By Xincong Chen

In recent days, I have been to Met to view famous paintings. In fact, I must admit I really have no talent in appreciating artworks. So while I was viewing in the museum, I was unable to understand most of the paintings in the museums. However, when I found those exquisite paintings which was created by the artist Edward Hopper, who was born in Nyack, a town located on the west side of the Hudson River, I felt so familiar to those special paintings because those paintings were created according to the New York City in around 20th century.  I discovered that those paintings lively represent the view of New York City in the past as I learned from the books. Those old buildings built by the bricks, the tiny small apartment, the streetlamps and lots of details of the paintings show us a comprehensive view of the great city. What’s more, those characters in the paintings were really typical working class people.

First, I found that most of the characters were those working class people from their clothes and living states. In the first painting, the background was dark. We could see a girl who was naked and looking out of the window, it seemed like she was lost in the city. Living in the tiny apartment, alone, this girl maybe had lots of sadness in her heart. It was normal at that time because in that period, people who were not born in New York City, they all had dreams to come to this city. However, reality was so cruel that not every one could be successful. This might be the reason that why she was perplexed. Similarly, the man who was in the last picture, who seemed like not happy. He was looking at the view far away from him. He might be an apprentice that was studying some craft skills. This explained why he wanted to look the view far from him because in his working place there was even no window there. He really wanted to move to those center place. We could find American dreams in their mind because in the city like New York City, people all had chances to be successful. They all hoped to achieve great careers.  

Second, it was so obvious that among those paintings, we could only find white people. It also could be explained in that special era. As we all knew, though President Lincoln liberated the south and aborted the slavery, black people and white people were still not equal in the society. They lived in different places and black people was segregated by the white people. So, in the second painting, in the café, there were only white people there which also very precisely describe what the real situation was at that time.

Looking at those paintings really impresses me a lot because they tell the stories that that people tried their best to achieve their dreams in America. I  believe that the stories will repeat and never stop.