In “Living with Music,” Ralph Ellison lives in his New York City apartment and is surrounded by many noises which are provided by his neighbors, associated drunks, and a singer. His apartment is so badly soundproofed that he can’t concentrate on his creation because of the noise around him. Ralph Ellison recalled that his music practice as a child had also caused great pain to his neighbors, and he resonated deeply in a war of decibels against the singer upstairs. Although Ralph Ellison moved out of the apartment away from the noise, he still misses living there because that experience made him realize the importance of music.

At the beginning of the essay, Ralph Ellison wrote “In those days it was either live with music or die with noise”. That sentence shows the influence and importance of music on people. The meaning of this sentence is how we distinguish between sounds. If we think of sound as music, we can enjoy and adapt to it instead of seeing them as noise and live in constant noise.

Ralph Ellison and Krukowski show some methods of reducing noises, and they both believe that noises are everywhere around us. In Ralph Ellison’s experience in a New York apartment, he fights noise with noise. Krukowski shows some New Yorkers use headphones to keep some noisy sounds outside their ear.