Solnit and Gladwell Essay

Nature vs. Nurture Although people have their own thoughts and emotions as they are walking along the blocks of a town or city, one can only wonder what the city is actually telling them. Picturesque scenes may evoke thoughts of wonder and hope, but the opposite can be true for the urbanite of the city. Walls littered with graffiti, subway cars covered with trash and vandalism, prostitutes lurking on corners and all around waste that stud the city with the stereotypical “dirtiness” give a clear description of the trouble that lie in the city borders. For the rest of the metropolis, the choice is very well pronounced: live with the dirt and grime or try and fight it for the good of the community. In Malcolm Gladwell’s story, “The Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime”, Gladwell describes that human behavior is deeply affected by our environment. Along the same lines, in the short story “The Solitary Stroller and the City”, the author Rebecca Solnit delves into her own life and the lives of others to explore the role that humans encompass while being individuals on the street. Solnit considers walking to be that of an individual account and a time for deep thought about what is around us. Speculating that instead of just being walkers on the street, these people are a part of society and have a say in the city that surrounds them. She writes, “The streets are where people become the public and where their power resides” (Solnit 576). When reading about both authors points of view about people and society, it’s really the personal backgrounds of the people that change the way the city looks and works. A city does not come to violence due to the city itself but rather the individuality that each person occupies as they walk through it and carry the emotions that were brought upon them from previous experiences. Therefore, the environment does not explicitly impact an individual but rather it is the social