Response to "To Da-Duh, in Memoriam"

This short story reflected upon the opinions of people who were not accustomed to urban life. In this case, the grandmother of the narrator, named Da-Duh, did not like New York City, and it was implied not so subtly that Da-Duh was very uncomfortable with the cacophony coming from the streets. This was shown when the narrator described her grandmother after they left the city. She said, "As soon as we left Bridgetown behind though, she relaxed...." I think that this was a sign that she was very uneasy in even the slightest part of a city like NYC. I found it very interesting that Da-Duh had a stronger interest in different types of sugar canes to the point where she showed her granddaughter, the narrator, all of the different types of canes that were in her orchard. Da-Duh's orchard was outside of her house, and she lived in more rural environment that I don't think was in the US. Throughout the story, though, Da-Duh slowly starts to develop and interest in New York City after the narrator starts describing snow. I was really pleased when I read this part. When the narrator tried to send her a postcard of the Empire State Building, however, Da-Duh ended up dying before she could recieve it. Apparently the English sent low flying planes over her Island, and she was the only one who didn't really seem too worried. Of course I knew she was going to die, because the story was dedicated to her. I think that Da-Duh  represented one of many people who were afraid of the city, because of the major advancements in technology that occured during the 1930's when this story took place. Her granddaughter, the narrator told her everything she knew about all the cool new inventions that were made to make people's lives easier. Urban life was obviously very different from where Da-Duh enjoyed living and lived most of her life at. She enjoyed simple things such as sugar canes, and she was very opinionated on what people do to sugar to turn it into candy. Of course, candy started to become very popular during that time because people were starting to figure out how to make candy out of the canes that Da-Duh loved to view. I think urban life back then was a time when younger people were constantly evolving with the technology that was being made. Da-Duh's family obviously moved to the city, while she stayed in her rural town. Though she was impressed by how tall the narrator was describing the buildings in New York City, she still belived that she was safer away from urban life. The 1930's didn't really threaten the citizens of NYC, because people didn't really master flying airplanes; maybe for a small town, but not like a growing city as large as NYC.