Essay about character from the novel "The Help"

essay about character from the novel "The Help"

Geography 124: Final Reflective Essay

Due: IN CLASS on Thursday, December 12, 2013

10 points

Below you will find the guidelines for your final writing assignment in this class.  You will also find a checklist.  Please fill out the checklist and staple this form to the back of the writing assignment you turn in on December 12. The essay is considered on time when it is physically turned in at 1PM. We will not accept this assignment by email.

“We form a sense of our-selves and a sense of our-places at a range of scales. The local scale is perhaps the most immediate and the most obvious, and it is at this level that we begin. At the local scale there are a range of possible (b)ordering mechanisms that define both our-selves and our-places….In my neighbourhood, my work, and my local leisure places I leave traces through my daily involvements and actions. In these places I not only contribute to their definition and meaning, but concomitantly generate my own sense of who I am and where I belong.” (Anderson, 2010 :119).

During the course of the semester we have asked you take a culturally geographical approach in order to think critically about the places around you and how you situate yourselves and other people within those places.  In a one page, single-spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman or comparable font with 1-inch margins, please address the following: 

Assignment:

Reflect critically on how a character’s sense of place is developed in the novel The Help.  Pick one character and detail how their identity is tied to a sense of place on both the local and national scale. Anderson contends that a dual sense of place can be experienced. Think about how these senses can simultaneously coincide and conflict with each other, and how sense of place can be both personal and collective.  In addition to critically engaging with the concepts of sense of place and scale, please introduce one other concept from the class such as but not limited to: (b)ordering, transgression, intersectionality, solidarity, collapse of compassion, trace-chain, gender, race, social class, intertexuality, cultural norm, human rights etc.  Please note we will have a class on 12/10 entirely focused on a discussion of The Help, so it would be good to come to that class with ideas on how you are approaching the essay.

Check List - Please initial when you’ve completed the following:

______ 1.    I’m submitting a one page, single-spaced, 12 point font assignment using

                  formal academic writing and appropriate academic citations (if citing

                  material).

_______2.  I used spell check and proof read my paper for grammatical errors – twice.

_______3.   I correctly used at least 3 terms that we covered in the course this semester, sense of       place, scale and one more.

_______4.   I reflected on one character’s everyday life as depicted in the novel

_______5.   I made an argument, and I supported my argument by using terms from

                  class material and/or readings.

_______6.   I completed the online SRTE for this course, found on ANGEL.

_______7.   I printed this paper, wrote my name and STAPLED it to my essay.