Sense of Place

 Theresa Wellington- McGilton 

20 January 2021 

Place Response Paper

A Sense of Place 

    This week we were assigned Tim Creswell’s, “Defining Place” and I found it to be the most interesting out of the two readings. Throughout the text it reiterates how complex place truly is. The author talks of place being located and having a material visual form, but also places must have some relationship to humans/ the human capacity to have meaning. He goes on to talk about sense of place- describing personal/shared meanings that are associated with a particular locale. The most interesting piece of text for me personally was the sense of place section and I will discuss it further as I go on. 

As I mentioned before sense of place really grabbed my attention and now I will discuss its significance. The author claims that sense of place is the subjective and emotional attachment people have to a place. This was something I had to read more than once so I could fully grasp what point he was trying to get across. He described it well when he gave the example of successful novels and films evoking a sense of place- which means they give the reader/watcher a feeling that they know what it’s like to “be there” in that moment, in their shoes. I think that the claim made is very significant in the sense that without a ‘sense of place’ where would that leave us? I feel it clearly helps define us as individuals as well as peoples, cultures, and Americans. 

    One of the best examples the text gave on “sense of place” was the Twin Towers. When you hear about them 99% of us think back to 9/11. Why? Because we have an emotional tie there, we know what happened and how it affected us as well as the world around us. Another good example would be the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Like the Twin Towers we have an emotional tie there, it isn’t just a place on the map for us. We know the story behind it, making it significant to us.