Living with Strangers

732 Words3 Pages
Living with Strangers Each society has a certain set of rules and unspoken laws. Everyone enforces and lives by these laws. “Living with Strangers” by Siri Hustvedt is an essay that concerns this exact topic. The title refers to Hustvedt’s message in the text. She is concerned about the fact that people in New York follow the etiquettes and do not dare to stand out from the crowd. More and more people move to the big cities. Paradoxically, in spite of this, more and more people feel isolated - we are living with strangers. It is a problem that must be dealt with, Hustvedt thinks. The main topic of the text is the Pretend it isn’t happening-law, as Hustvedt describes it. New Yorkers ignore the people that stand out. She starts out by explaining how the unspoken law was in rural Minnesota where she grew up. Everyone greeted each other with a simple ‘hi’, when they passed them on the street. Even those they had never seen before got a ‘hi’. This set rules is a vast contrast to the rules of New York, where the pretend-law reigns. The text is composed by different cases, where the pretend-law is in use. In one of the examples, Hustvedt tries to give an explanation of why the pretend-law dominates the minds of New Yorkers. A tall black man, who seemed to be under influence of drugs, lit up a smoke in a subway car Hustvedt’s husband was in. Even though it was illegal to smoke on the subway, only one little white man dared to ask the man to put out the cigarette. The black man replied by asking the white man if he wanted to die. The whole incident ended without much trouble, but it might serve as an explanation as to why people follow the pretend-law. The white man was threatened on his life for asking politely if the black man would put out his cigarette. It is much easier to look the other way, when something out of the ordinary happens. Siri Hustvedt establishes a kind
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