Assignment 2: 3
Read at least 6 students blog short stories about ‘home’ and make a list of BOTH the common shared assumptions, values and stories that you find and look for differences as well; look to see if you can find student peers who appear to have different values then yourself when it comes to the meaning of ‘home.’ Post this list on your blog and include commentary please.
After taking a look through most of the essays addressing the sense of home for my student peers, I have noted a whole variety of aspects of this conception, which are different than my perspectives, has been explored. However, regardless the divergent facets of home we looked into, a common ground has also been identified. It is illustrated by our writings that home is defined by both conceptual and physical terms simultaneously.
Just like me, the ideas about home for some of my fellow students start from their childhood with something tangible involved. As children, their sense of home is naturally tied to the house where their family resided (Westerman; Lu). Here the sense of home engages not only the dwelling place but people, be it parents (Koivukangas) or sisters (Heathwood). However, from the ways they connect their sense of home with their relationships with their families, it seems to be “a feeling of completeness” they are referring to (Heathwood). You are home when you are surrounded by those loved ones who complete you (Heathwood; Wagner). This resonates with me as I maintain that a house cannot be made home without a family.
While I examined the way in which my understanding of home changes from “A man’s home is his castle” to “home is where my family is”, my student peers explored the change of the concepts of home in a different way. They seem to argue that the ideas of home ever evolve as we grow and change (Westerman; Lu; Koivukangas; Bachynski). It seems that most of them share similar experiences of moving out of their childhood home when they became adults. Then one may be aware that the childhood home “was my parents’ home but it was just my house” (Wagner). They also came to realise that one’s home is in a sense up to the individual him/herself to create and build up when you are independent of your family and getting adapted to real-life situations (Wagner; Chloe Lee; Higgs). However, it does not mean that homes are mutually exclusive. Instead, it is argued that both our childhood homes and our new homes are worth embracing and feeling blessed of (Walker; Bachynski). Such a notion corresponds with mine which in a way recognizes both my China home and Canada home.
Although some of my classmates emphasized the conceptual aspects of the sense of home by arguing that “home lies within my own thoughts” (Westerman) and that home is only “a state of mind” and “inside of every one of us” (Chloe Lee), the ways they defined their sense of home appear to contradict their denial of the connections between a home and a place. For example, both statements of “[r]egardless of where my home physically is, it has always been a place of acceptance, freedom, and love” (Westerman) and “[i]f you have both a place and a community and you are wanted in that place and you want to be in that place, then I would say that is a home” (Chloe Lee) demonstrate that the concepts of home always go side by side with physical spaces. In addition to geographical locations, the sense of home is also tied to relationships with people as shown by the portrayals of feeling at home such as “I can feel at home in many places, and so long as I feel safe and content with people that I care for, then I am home” (Westerman) or “Home is where I feel I belong and know that people there will say you belong to them, no matter the situation” (Chloe Lee).
Apart from the connection of the sense of home with places and people, the other intersection that conceptions and reality meet up and contribute to the idea of home is identified in the relationship between memories/stories and particular places/people. It is suggested that one of the main reasons why a place is remembered as a home is it holds not only fond memories such as one’s childhood (Lu; Westerman) but beautiful stories tied to the unforgettable experiences with other people such as your family (Koivukangas). In this sense, you can call one place home even if you are no longer living around there (Hui). As a result, both Hui and I celebrate Guangzhou as our common home even though neither of us resides there. Likewise, when some of my coursemates identified a country or a city as their homes, it is likely that what they actually feel belonged to is something intangible associated with that land e.g. its culture norms and values (Westerman; Izat) or a song such as the national anthem (Vernon).
From reading through my fellow students’ blog posts addressing their sense of home, an evolving and adaptable quality of the home conceptions has been identified. Their early notions of home is tied to their childhood homes as well as the relationships with their families that make them feel a sense of completeness. Such a concept, however, is destabilized as they grow up and become aware that they get to build up their own homes as opposed to their parents’ homes. Their ideas about what makes a home become increasingly fluid and conceptualized as they move around, no longer being confined within four walls (Higgs; Chloe Lee). However, my findings drawn from my student peers’ essays have shown that their feelings of home are always defined by both spiritual and physical terms. They engage specific places and people as well as the memories and stories they give rise to. It is evident that one’s sense of home is always situated in the intersection of something both tangible and intangible.
Works Cited:
Bachynski, Jenny. “Shifting: Assignment 2:2”. Canadian Studies: Exploring Genres through Canadian Literature. Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/470acanstudies/2016/09/28/shifting/
Heathwood, Bryony-rose. “2:2 ‘Home’ grows just as we do”. Bryony-Rose Heathwood’s English 470 Blog. Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/bryonyroseheathwood/2016/09/28/22-home-grows-just-as-we-do/
Higgs, Kaylie. “Is This Home?”. Creating Connections—Exploring the Impact of Stories on Identity, Place and People. Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/kaylieandautumn2016/
Hui, Lucas. “Blog Post 2.2 – “Home” Is Where the Heart Is”. ENGL 470A. Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/lucashui/2016/09/28/blog-post-2-1-home/
Izat, Alison. “2:2 Home Sweet Home, Country Sweet Country”. The Power of Stories Alison’s Blog—For ENGL470A Canadian Studies . Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/alisonsblogstoriesandremembering/
Koivukangas, Karoliina. “Assignment 2.2 Home?”. Karo’s Thoughts On Canadian Lit. Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/karoscanlit/2016/09/28/assignment-2-2-home/
Lee, Chloe Coco. “2.2 Home”. Chloe’s Blog for English 470–My Exploration of Canadian Literature | Winter 2016. Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/470chloe/2016/09/28/2-2-home/
Lu, Jenny. “2.1 Home”. English 470A Insights. Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/jennytlu/
Wagner, Hannah. “Assignment 2.3 – Stories of HOME”. A Look at Canada-Exploring Canadian Literature, Stories and Identity. Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/hwagner/
Walker, Madeline. “One Great City”. Canadian Studies—Reading (and Writing) Canadian Stories. Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/walkermad470/2016/09/26/one-great-city/
Westerman, Hannah. “Assignment 2:3”. Hannah’s Blog | ENGL 470 – Canadian Studies. Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl470westerman/
Vernon, Danielle. “Home”. Exploration Of Canadian Literature–Just Another UBC Blogs Site. Oct 2016. University of British Columbia Blogs. 2. Web. 03 Oct. 2016. https://blogs.ubc.ca/cdnlit/2016/09/28/home/