My network graph illuminates the connections Given had with people in his circle. We are able to see the separation there was within his community. The short story I read, Given by Jesmyn Ward, mentioned numerous times how separated Given’s community was. Given’s father, pop, warned him not to get too friendly with them because they saw him a certain way. It seems as though one of the main reasons Given hung out with his white teammates, was because he was a football player. He was exposed to different kinds of people and ran in more than one circle. We see this separation because to our knowledge, Given’s family hasn’t come into contact with any of Michael’s family or acquaintances. It is apparent in the network graph because the only connections between those two families are Michael and Given. Some limitations are the fact that we don’t actually know if those two different sides have come into contact before. It also limits our ability to tell how strong of a connection each of these nodes had. Given might not have had such a strong connection to these boys and just wanted to fit in or make new friends but we can’t know that for sure.
