History Main / TheCityVsTheCountry

[[caption-width-right:350:It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.[[note]]Guess which is which?[[/note]]]]

** The 2004 presidential election (the one where UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush was re-elected) in particular brought the "red state vs blue state" divide to the forefront (red and blue are traditionally - [[NewerThanTheyThink since the 2000 presidential election]], that is - assigned to conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats, respectively).

* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'' has this as its central plot with the Green Family being forced to move to Big City after losing their farm and havig to adapt to their new lives as urbanites.
** The story of Big City itself has shades of this; Big City was once Big Country, a rural farming town, but after the city was founded, it gradually grew larger and larger, swallowing up the country until the only remnant of the former rural town left is the Greens' family home, as family matriarch Alice refuses to adapt to city life or sell the only home she's ever known. The end result is a broken-down country-style home literally surrounded by a city.

* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'' has this as its central plot with the Green Family being forced to move to Big City after losing their farm.

[[folder:Film - Live Action ]
* In ''Big Business'', which is a [[InSpace 1980s update]] of ''Theatre/TheComedyOfErrors'', two hick sisters come to town to protest an EvilCorporation- that unbeknownst to them, their sisters (one of each set of twins was [[SwitchedAtBirth Switched]] ''and'' SeparatedAtBirth) work for. A rare case of one of them being more comfortable in the city and deciding to stay.

[[caption-width-right:350:It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.[[note]]Guess which is which.[[/note]]]]

Bob is a CityMouse who lives in a big city with lots of friends and loves to go everywhere. He's likely very independent and materialistic as well. Almost always against his will, he is moved to a much smaller area be it the suburbs or a small town. He will hate it because it's [[SmallTownBoredom boring]], there's nothing to do, and country people are completely different from city people. If it's a farm he'll resent having to help out on the farm. In the process he may learn [[TheSimpleLifeIsSimple how hard farming really is, or he may not.]] But by the end of the story he'll have learned AnAesop and come to like his new home, realizing it is much better than his old life.

[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

* Hideki from ''Manga/{{Chobits}}'' is rather eager to move away from the farm, specifically to get an education in order to avoid being a boring farmer for the rest of his life. When he first enters the city, he's quite amazed at all the technology and stuff. He even says that he can't wait to get [[TheInternetIsForPorn a computer with the internet so he can finally look up the fabled porn that he's heard so much about]]. Then he finds Chii in the trash in the back alley, wakes her up, and the plot starts up. All in all though, his country upbringing isn't treated as an issue.

[[folder: Fanwork ]]

[[folder: Film - Animated ]]

[[folder: Film - Live Action ]]

* ''Film/KingCobra1999'': Brad wants to move to the city because he doesn't want to remain a small town doctor, while his girlfriend Jo is comfortable to remain in the town they grew up in.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* This is the premise of ''Literature/BlackBeauty'' when the titular character ends up in London driving cabs. Of course it's completely justified since he's a horse and would be better suited living in the country.

* A standard bit in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels involves people from rural parts of the Disc (usually Lancre) heading for Ankh-Morpork. The most notable is Carrot, a big simple lad who is so mind-bendingly honest that he actually gets the city to work by his rules, at least a bit. There's also Imp y Celyn in ''Literature/SoulMusic'', who in the space of his first day is robbed when he tries to busk, extorted by the Musicians' Guild for performing without a licence, and has his harp broken, although that was an accident that could have happened anywhere. And countless bit-players who just keep their heads down and send some money home regular. In ''Literature/EqualRites'', Granny Weatherwax's immediate reaction to Ankh is that it's ''too big'' to be a city, but she quickly learns that people are people everywhere and they always need a witch sometimes.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Music ]]

* The video for The Script's "For The First Time" has a young Irish couple living in New York for work and missing Ireland. At the end of the video they buy tickets to move back home.

[[folder: Theater ]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** In the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E13SimpleWays Simple Ways]]", famous travel writer Trenderhoof, on whom Rarity has a crush, comes to town to see the "small town chic", but [[LoveTriangle becomes enamoured with Applejack]] and her rustic lifestyle (or, rather, with his own image of what rustic lifestyle is like), while [[AllLoveIsUnrequited Applejack sees him as a nuisance]]. Near the end of the episode Rarity, who has been preparing the Ponyville Days Festival and trying to show Trenderhoof that she is rustic too, finally decides to change the theme of the festival shortly before it's due to "[[TitleDrop Simple Ways]]", a ridiculous caricature of the rustic lifestyle, in a drastic attempt to win over his affection. Fortunately, Applejack sets her straight, both Rarity and Trenderhoof acknowledge their mistakes, and Rarity manages, through a lot of effort, to pull off the festival using its original small town theme.
* The ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "Town and Out": the Utonium family moves to the metropolis of Cytysville, only to realize that it can't compare to Townsville, their original home. It's rather strange, since Townsville seems like a pretty big city in and of itself.

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''Film/DocHollywood'' has a hotshot plastic surgeon on his way to a new job in Hollywood crash his car and have to do community service as a doctor in South Carolina.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''millenium@drumshee'' has English brat Emma get moved to the South of Ireland and not getting a long with the locals at all. She eventually bonds with a local girl on their mutual love of dogs and becomes happier there.

* On the flipside of the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' examples above, when the wizards arrive in Lancre in ''Literature/LordsAndLadies'', Morpork-born Ponder Stibbons says he bets there isn't a single delicatessen in the area. The novel ends with him deciding to stay there as advisor to King Verence, although later books reveal he doesn't.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

** Balki meets his cousin Bartok, a CountryMouse who became a CityMouse named Bart, and lost his old world accent and mannerisms. Bart comes looking for money, which Larry believes is Bart trying to take advantage of Balki, but Balki gives him the money anyway; this leads to an emotional moment as Balki wrote the check to "Bartok", as he doesn't know "Bart", and Bartok regrets losing touch of his old CountryMouse self.

[[folder: Music ]]

* Music/{{Blur}}'s "Country House" is about a businessman being so exhausted with city lifestyle, he's ditches the city for a quieter life in the countryside, which soon he gets fed up of.

[[folder: Theatre ]]

* One of Creator/HenrikIbsen's early plays, ''Theatre/StJohnsEve'', is based on this trope, with an urban lady moving to the countryside with her daughter, trying to steal the farm out of the hands of the true inheritor, her step daughter. This conflict is lampshaded throughout the play, showing just how different the mentalities were.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* The basic premise of the early ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' games involve a big city boy/girl who just moved to a rural town to inherit a rundown farm whose owner had recently passed away. The goal of the game is to settle down in said farm and try to restore it to its former glory, although the ''Special Edition'' of ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife'' allows the player to refuse the farm offer, which would leads to a game over.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Twilight Sparkle in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' is a LighterAndSofter version of this. She's sent from Canterlot to Ponyville in part to prepare for a celebration held there, but is also told to make friends while there. She resents having to do this, and focuses on work instead, but by the end of the 2-part pilot, she's warmed up to her newfound friends and wishes to stay with them.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* The Roman Republic often had a romantic view of the rural past, and one of the {{folk hero}}es of the early republic was {{Cincinnatus}}, who was elected dictator at a time of crisis, and called to duty while plowing. He reluctantly set his oxen in the barn, took up the reigns of government, solved the problem at hand and beat down the invaders. And after that, he humbly resigned his duties, went back to his farm to finish the plowing. Cincinnatus became an example of virtue for centuries (enough that he is still the TropeNamer of this plot device on this very Wiki).

* A standard bit in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels involves people from rural parts of the Disc (usually Lancre) heading for Ankh-Morpork. The most notable is Carrot, a big simple lad who is so mind-bendingly honest that he actually gets the city to work by his rules, at least a bit. There's also Imp y Celyn in ''Discworld/SoulMusic'', who in the space of his first day is robbed when he tries to busk, extorted by the Musicians' Guild for performing without a licence, and has his harp broken, although that was an accident that could have happened anywhere. And countless bit-players who just keep their heads down and send some money home regular. In ''Discworld/EqualRites'', Granny Weatherwax's immediate reaction to Ankh is that it's ''too big'' to be a city, but she quickly learns that people are people everywhere and they always need a witch sometimes.

* On the flipside of the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' examples above, when the wizards arrive in Lancre in ''Discworld/LordsAndLadies'', Morpork-born Ponder Stibbons says he bets there isn't a single delicatessen in the area. The novel ends with him deciding to stay there as advisor to King Verence, although later books reveal he doesn't.

** The 2004 presidential election (the one where UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush was re-elected) in particular brought the "red state vs blue state" divide to the forefront (red and blue are traditionally - [[NewerThanTheyThink since the 2000 presidential election]], that is - assigned to conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, respectively).

* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' Lila moves from a farm to the big city and the girls assume she'll be a country hick, only for her to immediately outshine them all in intelligence and style and become the object of all of the boys' affections. The girls still hate her but it's because they see her as a MarySue, not her country heritage and even they warm up to her after realizing she's not as perfect as she seems [[note]] her mother is implied to be deceased, her father is unemployed and they live in a run-down apartment in the low-rent district of town [[/note]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' Lila moves from a farm to the big city and is immediately resented and made fun of by the other kids. Resolved when she stays in the city and the other kids warm to her.

* Mostly averted in ''Series/{{CSI NY}}''. Danny likes to tease Lindsay about moving to New York from the country (Montana), but she can handle herself in the city just as well as any of her coworkers. And she sometimes teases him right back about being a city boy.

* The basic premise of the early ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' games involve a big city boy/girl who just moved to a rural town to inherit a rundown farm whose owner had recently passed away. The goal of the game is to settle down in said farm and try to restore it to its former glory, although some versions allow the player to refuse the farm offer, which would immediately lead to a game over.

* Hannah Gadsby is an out ButchLesbian who grew up in Tasmania, only to move to a more Metropolitan and Progressive part of Australia. She notes that small towns make her very due to the rampant homophobia she grew up around.

* Music/JustinMoore's "Bait a Hook" has a country boy expressing disdain for the new city boy that his ex has snagged, dismissing him with the line "He can't even bait a hook".

* In ''Film/BigBusiness'', which is a [[InSpace 1980s update]] of ''Theatre/TheComedyOfErrors'', two hick sisters come to town to protest an EvilCorporation- that unbeknownst to them, their sisters (one of each set of twins was [[SwitchedAtBirth Switched]] ''and'' SeparatedAtBirth) work for. A rare case of one of them being more comfortable in the city and deciding to stay.

* CountryMusic in general will have a strong preference for the country. Any song where a country boy moves to the city will almost always have that boy back in the country (or at least wishing he was) by song's end. A good example is the Music/WaylonJennings song "Where Corn Don't Grow" (CoveredUp by Travis Tritt later).

BlitzEvacuees is often a very specific form of plot B (and one of the few kinds where the city-loving characters in the country might end up going back -- after the war is over, of course). Compare {{Arcadia}}. There's a strong tie to NewMediaAreEvil too, the city representing new media in this case.