Ralph Ellison�s Invisible Man could highlight themes from almost any section of the course. In this quintessential African-American coming of age story, as in many city poems and novels, the �fall� from the idyllic countryside into the corruption of the city mirrors the main character�s journey from naïve innocence to disillusioned wisdom. We used a selection from the text that focused on tenants rights, and the way a single man used the disempowerment of an older couple as they are evicted from their home as a opportunity to mobilize his people towards active, collective change.
 
 

      Through a glance at the Eastern European Jewish community, Isaac Bashevis Singer�s The Cafeteria asks the question, what happens to the past when immigrants begin life afresh in New York City? In the story, the cafeteria becomes a liminal space between the old country and the new, the past and the present. The trials and traumas of life in Europe (the holocaust, in particular) does not die; its distant ghosts wander still on the streets of New York.
 
 

       James Baldwin�s Sonny�s Blues, the story of two estranged brothers in Harlem, illuminates issues of the ghetto, drugs, loneliness, and art. Through music, Sonny learns to express the terrible suffering he has experienced during his bout with heroine, and his older brother comes to understand that he must learn to listen and to feel. Sonny�s music will set him free so he, in turn, can help to save his brother.
 
 
 

      The Lesson, by Toni Cade Bambara, tells the story of a teacher who brings her Harlem pupils to F. A. O. Schwartz to witness first hand the injustice of their situation and the disparity of wealth in their city. The power and exuberance of this story lies in its point of view; told from the perspective of a young,defiant junior high schooler, Bambara captures the humor and horror that this child experiences in the course of her journey downtown.
 
 
 

       �The Indian Wants the Bronx�:  In this one-act play, an Asian Indian lost in the city is harassed by two teenage trouble-makers.  The Indian is trying to get to his son in the Bronx but cannot speak English, and the boys� mockery includes crude attempts to teach the Indian some English.  The scene escalates to mild violence that leaves the Indian terrified, still lost, and completely alone at the end.
 
 
 

       The Bluest Eye:  This excerpt from Toni Morrison�s novel explores the relationship between landlord and tenant and between renter and owner.  It also addresses the gaps that often exist between cultures within a city in the example of the European immigrant store owner who is incapable of understanding the poor little black girl who comes in for some Mary Janes as well as the culture that could create such a child as Pecola, who eats the Mary Janes in the hopes of becoming Mary Jane � blonde and blue-eyed, so that she can be loved.