Essay Belonging, Romulus My Father

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Within a community there is a need to belong, and this sense is created by the people within it. Notions of culture and identity are two major concepts that lie within the conformities for an individual to belong. Alienation is often the outcome, if an individual does not fit the criteria for identity within that community. Romulus my father, a biography by Raimond Gaita, emphasises the importance placed on identity and how ones beliefs and philosophy’s can shape an individual’s potential to belong. Spirited away an anime cartoon by Hayao Miyazak shows how racial identity and physical traits of an individual can separate ones potential to belong. And that a sense of belonging can be earned through hard work and self-determination. The listening task Alice gives a thorough example of how the community itself can help and shapes ones culture and upbringing, and that individual communities are very different, in not only how they act but also what is normal. There is a universal need to belong within some sort of community; it comes down to the individual’s sense of identity and culture as to where they feel they belong. Romulus my father is a Biography, looking at how he grew up, with strong influences off his father that shaped how he looked at the world, and what kind of community he belonged to. Written in Gaita’s own point of view, he tells the story of his own upbringing. This is done in mature tone, from the beginning of the novel, there is a sense of understanding. Throughout the biography the reader can note Gaita’s sense of humour to underlay pathos and tragedy, his simple and direct writing form also displays his tone and understanding of what is happening throughout the book. At the start of the biography, the reader is shocked with a sense of non-belonging, ‘he fled, to return only for a month five years later.’ This foreshadows that the book does not

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