Short Fiction · Chapter
The Other Side of the City explained
The narrator reflects on the charitable individuals who quietly help the poor and unfortunate, contrasting them with the indifferent and selfish.
What happens
The narrator reflects on the charitable individuals who quietly help the poor and unfortunate, contrasting them with the indifferent and selfish. He describes how these benefactors rise early to give aid and then pray in churches, hoping to appease God's wrath against human hard-heartedness.
Themes in this chapter
The Ordinary as Extraordinary
The narrator highlights the unnoticed, everyday acts of charity as extraordinary in their quiet selflessness.
Melancholy and Joy
The chapter contrasts the melancholy of poverty and indifference with the quiet joy of charitable acts and prayer.
Key passages
“Were anyone to pass a hasty judgment upon a city, taking my last chapter as a criterion, he would err greatly.”
A reader might wrongly judge the city based solely on the previous chapter.
The narrator warns against a one-sided view of the city.
“I have said nothing of the multitude of charitable persons who sleep while others seek amusement, and who rise at dawn, unobserved and unostentatiously, to succor the unfortunate.”
He has not yet mentioned the many charitable people who rest while others party, and who wake early to help the needy without drawing attention.
The narrator introduces the theme of hidden charity.
“After having divided their good things with their brethren, after having poured balm into hearts chafed by sorrow, you may see them enter the churches, while wearied vice sleeps upon eiderdown, to offer up their prayers to God, and to thank Him for his mercies.”
After sharing their possessions and comforting the sorrowful, they go to church to pray and give thanks, while the tired wicked still sleep in comfort.
Describes the routine of the charitable.
“And the Almighty, angered by the hard-hearted selfishness of men, witholds his threatening hand.”
God, provoked by human cruelty and selfishness, holds back his punishment.
The narrator suggests that charity may avert divine wrath.