The Place and the Self
“To be human is to live in a world that is filled with significant places; to be human, is to have and know your place.” (Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness, 1976) The relationship between humans and place can be both blatantly simple and astoundingly complex at the same time. The place is a social product, created by the process of accumulating biographical experience from the ground up since the time we were conceived to this world. However, the place itself is a narrative, which helps us understand the world as well as how we fit into it. Our identities are shaped every single day by the people we meet, sights we see, and experiences we learn from, all found here in this place. The positions people hold in this world are also defined by what kind of spaces they have owned. Therefore, the place can be considered a way to name a person in their world or society. Every person has a different place in the world, so we all feel different about the places we possess. While people are able to create places, places are able to define different people and their differing circumstances.
The place is a dynamic setting that is constantly shifting and manipulating the self. The actions of a person in relation to a place will shape that place into something that has much more meaning than just a particular location. This naturally contrasts the concept of space, which is fixed and stable. Space, generally, has no significance to a person in any way other than maybe how it appeals to the person at first glance. What this means is that all spaces impact humans as if they were presented this space for the first time, even if it were presented many times. There is no change to how a person perceives or is influenced by a space. However, place changes when the movement inside of place changes. This movement is the pivotal difference between place and space. It encompasses any shift in the person being exposed, both mentally and physically. Similar
In the article Place, the author Patricia Price describes the place as dynamic, while the space is fixed and secure, expressing the contention explained above. However, in Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, the author Yi-Fu Tuan holds a contrasting idea in that place is a pause which is fixed, while space is dynamic. Defining space as simply where people live and work, Tuan supports an idea that the space is a symbol of freedom. Therefore, the movement of working and living makes the space dynamic. However, the place is a setting where people can show their own biological needs and personal values. Consequently, place is limited within these vacuous thoughts of an ideal world. While both contentions hold ground, it is important to consider the notion of home to further this argument, as home can be a setting of both space and place.
Home is where our family and friends are, but the homeland is where we grew up. Some people choose to leave their homeland as they mature, but homeland still occupies an incomparable importance within our hearts. It is here where we became who we are, where we gathered our childhood stories and experiences. On the other hand, there are many people that do not have any feelings towards their homeland, and some that even hate where they came from. The reasons why some people may hold such contentions are endless, ranging from traumatic experiences to long-term hardships endured. Thus, their homeland means nothing for them, and here we can see that the homeland has transformed from dynamic to fixed, where it is better to try and forget about such a setting all together and move on to the future.
The “home” however, is likely to mean everything for them as it is where their family is and what their current life revolves around. The movements of the person mainly exist inside of their home and therefore, the home must be dynamic, rather than fixed. Whether a place or space is dynamic or not still depends on people’s biological needs and personal values. I consider the place to be dynamic as it is based on the accumulation of human biological experience.
This contention naturally allows for the existence of broader definitions of place. In the article Place and Human Being by Jeff Malpas, the author asks, “Is our connection to place merely a residue of the way human beings used to live to a particular town, village or locality, and often having little or no experience of the world outside a certain narrow region?” To answer his question, I believe that because the place is changing and developing through the accumulation of human biological experiences, it is even possible for the place to exist outside of our physical world. A place such as heaven or hell, somewhere that always emerges in our dreams. The boundlessness of such a possibility makes the place even more dynamic.
The two processes that encompass all that humans can express: physical and mental, define and identify ourselves in the place. At first, place defines our positions in the real world regardless to the background. For example, different people have different roles in the society they live in; some people are doctors, taxi drivers, or students and so on. Therefore, their position in society is named by their own places surrounding their occupations. Some people will argue that for this point, their jobs do not only represent their places, but they also include their studying processes, living experiences, or influences from other people. However, these kinds of processes perfectly explain what creates the place: an accumulation of human biological experiences.
While our social status or identity is defined and named by the different places we own, people are also mentally defined by places. For example, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is a place called the Shire, which is the home of hobbits, the protagonists of the series. Whenever the Hobbits are left feeling like they are doomed, which happens countless times, the Shire always returns to their thoughts. Thus, the place “Shire” literally represents hope, fortune, and something dear to fight for. It is the place where the hobbits grew up, where they spent their entire lives, and where they experienced all their good memories. At such an earlier point before the tragedy in the story, the place is still defined by the hobbits’ memories. However, when the Shire is recalled when the hobbits are in danger, the place is given different meanings that begin to define the hobbits. They realize that what they are fighting for is what the Shire represents, the peacefulness, equality, and ideal livelihood. Therefore, the Shire not only represents the hobbits’ target, but also the hobbits themselves.
While space and place are clearly different as discussed, neither space nor place can exist without one another. Place for every person is growing and changing with the accumulation of geographical and mental experiences. I consider the room as a space because it happened in the past and people no longer existed there. It appears in every single moment during the accumulation of human experiences. For example, for a boy growing up, some places that he spent time at are considered as places while some are considered as spaces, all depending on how many memories he had with these locations. The reason that some rooms are considered as places even after the kid has matured and moved out is because his feeling and memories are still closely related with these places. He becomes nostalgic at all the toys he sees again, the rug he spent so much time playing on, and the bed where he fell from and chipped a tooth. Any sort of experience can be meaningful to a certain person and influence their physical and mental processes.
Some rooms are considered as spaces because though the person’s memories are still there, the memories have become subconscious, which do not usually come out during his life. Thus the room has transformed to become stable and fixed in the persons mind. The place is like a tall building where each brick is like each space that the place is built upon from ground up. Humans create places by accumulating mentally and biological experiences, and all the experiences are combined by all the spaces shown during our lives. Places define all people in this world no matter their past, location, or circumstances of their lives.
“To be human is to live in a world that is filled with significant places; to be human, is to have and know your place.” (Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness, 1976) The relationship between humans and place can be both blatantly simple and astoundingly complex at the same time. The place is a social product, created by the process of accumulating biographical experience from the ground up since the time we were conceived to this world. However, the place itself is a narrative, which helps us understand the world as well as how we fit into it. Our identities are shaped every single day by the people we meet, sights we see, and experiences we learn from, all found here in this place. The positions people hold in this world are also defined by what kind of spaces they have owned. Therefore, the place can be considered a way to name a person in their world or society. Every person has a different place in the world, so we all feel different about the places we possess. While people are able to create places, places are able to define different people and their differing circumstances.
The place is a dynamic setting that is constantly shifting and manipulating the self. The actions of a person in relation to a place will shape that place into something that has much more meaning than just a particular location. This naturally contrasts the concept of space, which is fixed and stable. Space, generally, has no significance to a person in any way other than maybe how it appeals to the person at first glance. What this means is that all spaces impact humans as if they were presented this space for the first time, even if it were presented many times. There is no change to how a person perceives or is influenced by a space. However, place changes when the movement inside of place changes. This movement is the pivotal difference between place and space. It encompasses any shift in the person being exposed, both mentally and physically. Similar
In the article Place, the author Patricia Price describes the place as dynamic, while the space is fixed and secure, expressing the contention explained above. However, in Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, the author Yi-Fu Tuan holds a contrasting idea in that place is a pause which is fixed, while space is dynamic. Defining space as simply where people live and work, Tuan supports an idea that the space is a symbol of freedom. Therefore, the movement of working and living makes the space dynamic. However, the place is a setting where people can show their own biological needs and personal values. Consequently, place is limited within these vacuous thoughts of an ideal world. While both contentions hold ground, it is important to consider the notion of home to further this argument, as home can be a setting of both space and place.
Home is where our family and friends are, but the homeland is where we grew up. Some people choose to leave their homeland as they mature, but homeland still occupies an incomparable importance within our hearts. It is here where we became who we are, where we gathered our childhood stories and experiences. On the other hand, there are many people that do not have any feelings towards their homeland, and some that even hate where they came from. The reasons why some people may hold such contentions are endless, ranging from traumatic experiences to long-term hardships endured. Thus, their homeland means nothing for them, and here we can see that the homeland has transformed from dynamic to fixed, where it is better to try and forget about such a setting all together and move on to the future.
The “home” however, is likely to mean everything for them as it is where their family is and what their current life revolves around. The movements of the person mainly exist inside of their home and therefore, the home must be dynamic, rather than fixed. Whether a place or space is dynamic or not still depends on people’s biological needs and personal values. I consider the place to be dynamic as it is based on the accumulation of human biological experience.
This contention naturally allows for the existence of broader definitions of place. In the article Place and Human Being by Jeff Malpas, the author asks, “Is our connection to place merely a residue of the way human beings used to live to a particular town, village or locality, and often having little or no experience of the world outside a certain narrow region?” To answer his question, I believe that because the place is changing and developing through the accumulation of human biological experiences, it is even possible for the place to exist outside of our physical world. A place such as heaven or hell, somewhere that always emerges in our dreams. The boundlessness of such a possibility makes the place even more dynamic.
The two processes that encompass all that humans can express: physical and mental, define and identify ourselves in the place. At first, place defines our positions in the real world regardless to the background. For example, different people have different roles in the society they live in; some people are doctors, taxi drivers, or students and so on. Therefore, their position in society is named by their own places surrounding their occupations. Some people will argue that for this point, their jobs do not only represent their places, but they also include their studying processes, living experiences, or influences from other people. However, these kinds of processes perfectly explain what creates the place: an accumulation of human biological experiences.
While our social status or identity is defined and named by the different places we own, people are also mentally defined by places. For example, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is a place called the Shire, which is the home of hobbits, the protagonists of the series. Whenever the Hobbits are left feeling like they are doomed, which happens countless times, the Shire always returns to their thoughts. Thus, the place “Shire” literally represents hope, fortune, and something dear to fight for. It is the place where the hobbits grew up, where they spent their entire lives, and where they experienced all their good memories. At such an earlier point before the tragedy in the story, the place is still defined by the hobbits’ memories. However, when the Shire is recalled when the hobbits are in danger, the place is given different meanings that begin to define the hobbits. They realize that what they are fighting for is what the Shire represents, the peacefulness, equality, and ideal livelihood. Therefore, the Shire not only represents the hobbits’ target, but also the hobbits themselves.
While space and place are clearly different as discussed, neither space nor place can exist without one another. Place for every person is growing and changing with the accumulation of geographical and mental experiences. I consider the room as a space because it happened in the past and people no longer existed there. It appears in every single moment during the accumulation of human experiences. For example, for a boy growing up, some places that he spent time at are considered as places while some are considered as spaces, all depending on how many memories he had with these locations. The reason that some rooms are considered as places even after the kid has matured and moved out is because his feeling and memories are still closely related with these places. He becomes nostalgic at all the toys he sees again, the rug he spent so much time playing on, and the bed where he fell from and chipped a tooth. Any sort of experience can be meaningful to a certain person and influence their physical and mental processes.
Some rooms are considered as spaces because though the person’s memories are still there, the memories have become subconscious, which do not usually come out during his life. Thus the room has transformed to become stable and fixed in the persons mind. The place is like a tall building where each brick is like each space that the place is built upon from ground up. Humans create places by accumulating mentally and biological experiences, and all the experiences are combined by all the spaces shown during our lives. Places define all people in this world no matter their past, location, or circumstances of their lives.
Revision
Before the revision of my persuasive essay, I want to mention one idea which inspires me from different ways. “When we get feedback, we often focus just on the negatives, and that leads us to think about revision as “fixing” things. Focusing on successes this explicitly and keeping a running list of them as well as your own explanation for how you achieved thosemeans that you are more likely to continue to practice them in the future, each time you begin to write.” I usually assumed the revision is literally like a way to edit and fix my essay, instead of a process of improving my writing skills. Because, I thought that there are only drawbacks of my essay are listed in the revision, so I can directly edit the essay based on the drawbacks in the revision without thinking by myself. However, the revision not only covers “negative “things, but also shows our strong points. By re-thinking our strong points and realize how can these points making the whole essay looks better, we will better understand our advantages and continue to practice, make it even better. Thus, whenever we check our essays, or other kinds of works, we should pay attention to two side, negative and positive. Moreover, the “positive” side of our essay in the revision also motivate us to beautiful our essay.
Top three HOCs:
1) Explaining concepts fully:
· How: Before I started to write this essay, I tried to think about the theme that the relationship between place and human as deep as possible, and I also tried to create some new ideas. Thus, I got so many new ideas, and a new way to consider the relationships between place and human, and the relationship between place and space. However, I did not make a really logically plan after I got those ideas, so when I was writing the essay, some new ideas just randomly came out, and leaded me write some ideas which are not really suit for the theme of the sentence. So, those ideas are not explained clearly in the essay, which make author feel chaotic and confused.
· Solution: At first, I made a list of my ideas, and then divided those ideas into different groups based on the main theme, because some small ideas seems as the extending of the main idea. Thus, this list of ideas helped me clearly see the relationship between different ideas, and able to logically plan my essay. The logical plan leaded me to explain my ideas step by step, and deeper and deeper.
· In the Future: I will make sure to logically and clearly organize my ideas before I start write an essay. Then, write the essay based on my plan about all the ideas I have, and then try to explain all of the ideas fully and orderly.
2) Showing clear relationships between ideas on a paragraph level and on a sentence level through careful use of transition words and phrases but also by explaining the relationships through explanation of the concepts themselves.
· How: This one is kind of similar as the previous one. After a tone of ideas came out my mind, I could not logically and clearly plan it in my essay. Thus, the relationship between different ideas became really complicated and chaotic. The complicated structure makes readers confused what I am trying to say.
· Solution: make sure clearly understand the relationship between different ideas first before I start writing. Otherwise, I should make a list of my ideas first, and then do the structure of the essay based on the order of my ideas.
· In the future: try to carefully use different transition words in order to make different paragraphs related to each other. Using the list of the ideas first to build the general essay structure.
3) Organization:
· How: when I tried to explain my ideas about the relationship between human being and place, I did not properly plan my structure and order. The sentences in the same paragraph are not properly connected to each other. Thus, the general structure of the essay is kind of chaotic, and the order of explaining the theme is not logic. Thus, the bad organization of the essay makes the whole essay become unreliable, because the ideas of the essay cannot convince readers.
· Solution: Same as the idea list, I should also build a structure for the whole essay first. The general structure of the whole essay leads me to plan my essay in a logic way. Thus, the proper organization and clear structure make the whole essay looks more trustable for readers.
· In the future: I should build the general structure of the whole essay in the very beginning when I decide to start writing the essay. Therefore, I can show my ides based on the structure I build in the beginning, avoid making some confusing points, or repeat a same idea for many times.
Top three LOCs:
1) Sentence structures.
· How: when I express and show my ideas through the whole essay, I did not pay enough attention to the structures of the sentence. Thus, sentence structures become really chaotic and unclear. For example, when I try to explain the relationship between human being and place, I also put the comparison between place and space in the same sentence. Those two big ideas appear in a same sentence means both of them must be really general, without enough specific arguments to make it trustable.
· Solution: I need to have a basic theme for each paragraph, and then I can arrange every sentence in the paragraph based on the main theme. Thus, I will not put too many ideas in a same sentence, and making it unreadable.
· In the future: have a basic theme of each paragraph in my mind first, and then write the sentences based on the general idea. Because all of the sentences are trying to explain the idea of the whole paragraph, it will be easier and more convenient for me to arrange my sentences’ structure if I have the theme of the paragraph in my mind. Therefore, I will clearly understand each sentence’s role, and efficiently explain my ideas through all the sentences.
2) Verbs:
· How: some verbs I use in the essay do not properly show what I am trying to say because I am not actually familiar with the verbs I used in the essay. The reason I used those verbs just because some verbs seems really advanced and fancy.
· Solution: clearly understand the main value of the verbs in our essay is not to make our essay looks fancy and advanced. On the other hand, the way to judge an essay is not based on how complicated of the verbs we used, is more about the ideas of the essay. Therefore, we can only accurately express our ideas if we are using proper verbs instead of just complicated and hard verbs.
· In the future: I will try my best to understand each verb I use in the essay accurately and deeply. I need to clearly understand that the way to check whether a verb in an essay is good or not is not based on how complicated it is. Oppositely, it is more based on how accurately it shows the main ideas of the sentence.
3) Word choices
· How: there are two kinds of word choices problems I have through the essay. At first, I misunderstood the way to judge value of the words we used in the essay. The value of the words is not depend on how complicated the words look like, but how accurately show our ideas. Secondly, I used some words that make the arguments of the essay become blurry and unclear.
· Solution: at first, I should try to understand every word accurately in order to use those words accurately in the essay. Secondly, I should choose a word which is able to show my idea clearly and directly. For example, I used “always “to describe that the place always define us in this world. Actually, there are different kinds of places exist in this world, and it is not accurately to say that all the places are able to define human being without any trustable proves.
· In the future: use the words which I am totally understand and familiar with, instead of looking for some uncommon words. On the other hand, keep my argument precious and rigorous.