When learning about what root shock is, I thought it was interesting how “the restored geography is not enough to repair the many injuries to the mazeway” (14). Then I thought about how attached I was to things when I was little. When my parents threw out our old microwave and replaced it with a new one, and when they replaced our windows, I was really upset and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was probably overreacting, but I can imagine that that’s how the people who experienced root shock must have felt. I didn’t think it would be such a big deal when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, but then I thought about how upset I was when the sunflowers I grew got too big and then disappeared one day. I felt betrayed when I found out my mother gave them away and then they were eaten.
I thought it was interesting how poorer, industrial neighborhoods occupied the center of the cities, while the wealthier, more residential neighborhoods. It reminded me of the chapters of Nancy Foner’s book I had to read in Seminar 2 about how people of every race were trying to follow the White people, in terms of living space. Whites, on the other hand, were trying to move away from everyone else, and everyone was trying to move away from the Blacks. This also reminded me of the articles I had to read about how Prospect Park was divided. The article said that on the pretty west side of the park, there are mostly American-born, white people, and half of them own their own homes. Most people had earned at least a bachelor’s degree, and more than half of them make more than $60,000 a year. On the east side, nearly half of them were born outside of the United States and make under $30,000 a year.