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Short Fiction · Chapter

The Making of a New Yorker explained

Raggles, a poet who lives his verses and studies cities as individuals, arrives in Manhattan expecting to find its unique soul.

What happens

Raggles, a poet who lives his verses and studies cities as individuals, arrives in Manhattan expecting to find its unique soul. Instead, he is met with cold indifference, egotism, and a sense of being utterly ignored. After being struck by a vehicle, he awakens to the sudden, overwhelming kindness of strangers—including the very types he had earlier condemned—and realizes he has finally found the heart of the city, defending it fiercely even from a hospital bed.

Themes in this chapter

  • Nostalgia and the Passage of Time

    Raggles's longing for the rough, familiar kindness of other cities contrasts with Manhattan's cold modernity, highlighting a nostalgic yearning for a simpler, more communal past.

  • Humor and Irony

    The ironic twist that Raggles finds the city's heart only after being struck by a vehicle, and his subsequent fierce defense of New York against a fellow patient, underscores the story's playful tone.

  • Deception and Appearance vs. Reality

    Manhattan initially appears as a heartless, egotistical place, but the accident reveals a hidden layer of genuine human compassion, challenging Raggles's first impression.

Characters to notice

Key passages

  • “Without money—as a poet should be—but with the ardor of an astronomer discovering a new star in the chorus of the milky way, or a man who has seen ink suddenly flow from his fountain pen, Raggles wandered into the great city.”

    Penniless, as befits a poet, yet filled with the excitement of an astronomer finding a new star or a writer whose pen suddenly flows with ink, Raggles entered the vast metropolis.

    Establishes Raggles's poetic, romantic nature and his high expectations for New York.

  • “The thing that weighed heaviest on Raggles’s soul and clogged his poet’s fancy was the spirit of absolute egotism that seemed to saturate the people as toys are saturated with paint.”

    What most oppressed Raggles and stifled his poetic imagination was the overwhelming self-absorption he perceived in the people, as if they were toys drenched in paint.

    Captures Raggles's initial despair and the central conflict of the chapter.

  • “He had found the heart of his new city.”

    He had discovered the true, compassionate soul of Manhattan.

    The pivotal moment of transformation, marking Raggles's acceptance and love for New York.

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