Summary

In “A Ride on the New York Subway” by Vivian Gornick, the writer describes riding the subway in New York as a nightmarish, grotesque experience, in which the subway becomes like a monster which entraps the passengers in its cramped stomach.

She narrates a recent ride with the subway from Times Square to Bronx, an experience that she has not had since she was a teenager and lived in Bronx more than ten years earlier. The writer notices that she is the only white woman waiting for the subway. Most of the passengers are either African-Americans or Puerto Ricans from the working-class, who work factory or clerk jobs.  

The subway is very dirty, filled with litter and graffiti dating many years back. The writer cannot imagine how people can travel and live in these conditions.  She looks at the people, at their clothes and their expressionless faces. She notices an African-American in a red shirt with a cigarette in his mouth, a Puerto Rican woman dressed in pink and other passengers....