Learning the development of Southern culture or identity might help students to understand the real world they are living in or studying in, which is part of what they need to grow up as mature people who are caring for their region, country, and the global society. Reading Southern literature would be a good strategy to this project because it could give students a detailed description of southern people and their real lives. Reading the literary work, I realized that there is a deep gap in the living conditions even between white people. The novel, Bastard Out of Carolina shows readers how poor white people like Bone’s family live a harsh life and attain their self-identity in relation to their cultural heritage. In contrast, the novel, The Moviegoer, shows the lives of richer white people and how they feel about themselves and their places and cultures.
If this project correctly promotes students’ right understanding of the South, it might help to change the region, and the country containing the region to a right direction. When they understand the people living with them and their lives, students could make a better choice regarding public policies. For example, healthcare reform bills should have different impacts on people’s living conditions, depending on the living conditions of the people. Understanding different living conditions of people could give students a balanced view to understand the importance of such a reform policy, free from a bias coming from a simpler understanding of the society. Understanding poor whites, rich whites might be able to appreciate the importance of the reform bill as President Obama emphasized in an article of the New York Times http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/the-last-piece-in-place.
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