The Colossus of New York: A City in Thirteen Different Parts

In Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York: A City in Thirteen Different Parts Whitehead examines the many intricacies of what it means to be a “New Yorker” living in New York. What examines what it means to live in different apartments, maneuver through subway systems; walk down Broadway, and to create your own skyline of the city. Colson explains what it means to truly be a New Yorker, more so than any tourist book ever could. He writes about street corners, mom and pop shops, and gum underneath the subway seats. He describes the personal relationship that he has with his city, a relationship that is different than every other relationship he has.

            Colson describes so personally his relationship with the city of Manhattan in the section “Broadway.” Walking down the street Broadway, “there will be no destination. No map. Live her long enough and you have a compass” (73). Sometimes the only way to truly understand a city is to walk with no destination. So he walks down Broadway. He walks past children; pass going-out-of-business sales, and past cracked sidewalks. He comments of no matter how much you walk, “you will always end up where you begin,” meaning the city is never going anywhere. You can push against it and flee from it, but Broadway will always be here.

            The things you learn about ones self through living, walking, moving, and breathing in a city is astronomical. “Day by day you contribute to it,” writes Colson and day-by-day it contributes to you and you begin to create your own city, your own skyline. “You start building your private New York the first time you lay eyes on it.” What you witness from the very first time you set your eyes on New York City to the time you leave becomes the city you build. Each person has built a different city in their mind, yet they are all the same place. Each place you go, each person you see, each sidewalk you cross, and each train you take contributes its attributes to “your city.” They way you saw it then is how you will always remember it, even if places go and new buildings are built, you will always recall how it was when you first laid eyes on it.