Literature Coming to Life - Historical Context of Here by Richard McGuire

In the words of E.M Forster, "What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote." For many, literature is experienced in the context of our own minds, but in some cases, literature based on real life, real places, and real events can come alive for us in seeing the actual places and perspectives in which the literature is based.  For the Unreliable Narrators Chapter of the National English Honor Society at Collier High School in Wickatunk, New Jersey, students were able to do just that.

The 2014 graphic novel, Here, by Richard McGuire, now a 2024 motion picture directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, is set in historic Perth Amboy, New Jersey.  The story is about the events that occur on a single spot of land, specifically the living room of a house, and the people who live there over a period of time from the distant past into the future.  This house overlooks the Proprietary House in Perth Amboy, the only governors’ mansion still remaining from the thirteen colonies, which has undergone many changes, ownership, and purposes throughout the years and is currently a museum.

Our NEHS students were able to live the experience of the graphic novel Here, from a real life perspective.  After reading the novel, the students took a tour of the Proprietary House, once home to William Franklin, a New Jersey governor and Loyalist, and illegitimate son of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. They learned about the history of the area, which is reflective of the events in the graphic novel and even got to take a picture in front of the house that the book is set in.  Students then toured the St. Peter’s cemetery and church, where many of the prominent historic families of the area are buried.  There were tombstones dated back to the 1700s and students were even able to see the grave of Thomas Mundy Peterson (1826-1904), the first African American to vote in any election.  Many of the students had also recently completed reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman in their English classes and were able to compare the graveyard in the book to the one that they were touring, noting the bare, unhallowed ground where supposed witches were buried.

Students really enjoyed the trip and the connections to the literature they had read, have the opportunity for the literature to come alive for them. They enjoyed seeing the history behind what they had read.  “I found the history rich and enduring and the museum well preserved,” said junior NEHS member Muhammad.