Strictly Ballroom Speech

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Belonging Speech Goodmorning/afternoon, thank you for inviting me to the 2013 United Nations International Youth Forum. My name is Damon Salvatore, please call me Damon. I’m a year 12 student at Illawarra High School. Today we’re looking at how an individual’s sense of sense of belonging can be affected by others, and vary within communities and the macro world. There can be positive and negative effects on ones sense of belonging, we will explore these ideologies through the film Strictly Ballroom by Baz Luhrmann, and through the poem Hospital Evening by Gwen Harwood. Firstly we will briefly look at what belonging means, and then we will also briefly look at the plot of Strictly Ballroom and Hospital Evening, after that we will explore the isolation, and then we will look at how one only needs an environment to belong, and finally we’ll examine the regular changes in one’s sense of belonging. Belonging is a concept which refers to one being accepted and comfortable in a distinct group or environment. However, determining ones sense of belonging can be challenged by the barriers that are created by societies. To fully belong one must be accepted by the wider group. It also requires conformity, in order to be bound by common ideas, values and perceptions. If one does not conform then this can result in alienation, isolation, and exclusion. Therefore belonging can have a positive or a negative effect on an individual. Strictly Ballroom is about a man who breaks away from the ballroom group, because he believes in dancing his own steps and he does not obsess with winning like most people. This results in alienation until Fran. Fran never truly belonged to the ballroom group, and she also believed in dancing their own steps. Together they overcome many barriers and find that there are many different places and groups that one can belong in. Hospital Evening is

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