The extract “Here is New York” from 1948 is written by E. B. White and appears in “Essays of E. B. White” (Harper, 1977).
It deals with the information about New York and a classification of three groups: natives, commuters and settlers.
Once, the author James Thurber stated: “No one can wrtite like White.” The reasons for his quotation becomes very clear if you have a closer look at some main facts White used in this extract.
White wrote his text in a adequate style. He did not use colloquial English. Adventious is that White used (very) long sentences with a lot of information in them.
For a reader whose native language is not English, some phrases seem to be a bit difficult to understand abruptly and need to be read twice. A good example might be in line nine up to line twelve: “And whether it is a farmer arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference [...]“. The language is not such difficult but probably all the information: Possibly, you must read this sentence twice to get all the pieces of information.
Another support of the facts mentioned above might be the stylistic devices White used.
Yoou can find some enumerations in this extract (e.g. ll. 1-5 or ll. 15-17). Even if they may confuse the readeship, they specify the context.
In line 15 up to line 17, the text is about the terror “that would visit the city more than 50 years later” (additional information) and the enumeration intensifies the context: “A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the undergroung passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions.”
But not just this enumeratin can be found in this long sentence. “[..] no bigger than a wedge of geese” is a simile which supports the next stylistic device in this phrase: “the island fantasy” can be identify as a metaphor.
It is a metaphor because it stands for something special, something fantastic New York has in his opinion.
But not just this stylistic devices have the effect of specification.
“Each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love], each absorbs New York with the fresh yes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light [...]” (ll. 12-13). In this sentence, White worked with an anaphora to specify that everybody loves this hometown – no matter if this person is a “a farmer arriving from a small town [...] or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt [...]” (ll.11f.).
Another support which might be striking for Whit’s way to write his essays can be found in this example as well: a metaphor. “Each embraces New York [...]“ (l.11)
Normally, you cannot embrace a city – you can only embrace person you like or even love. Another proof how deep Whit’s relation to “his” New York must be.
In my opinion, Thuber’s quotation can be seen as a support of White’s way to author a good essay.
White used many analytic aspects – just to make some information interesting and worth reading.
