2013 Hsc Belonging Romulus My Father and Dances with Wolves

909 Words4 Pages
A sense of belonging is created is from our connections with the people, environment (including animals), groups, and communities linked by context. Belonging is fundamental for a human to function in a society. There are different ways and levels to belong, for those who belong they feel safe and content and for those who do not and cannot fit into their surroundings are faced with problems of alienation and loneliness; constraining belonging creates a deeper sense allowing a common humanity to be found with the larger world through similar experiences. Raimond Gaita’s novel ‘Romulus My Father’ () and Kevin Kostner’s film “Dances With Wolves” () explore the challenges of trying to keep previous connections and belong (and survive) in an entirely new society and culture, significantly different from their former land, or upbringing. In both Romulus and Dances with Wolves, land is central to belonging as people are products of their environment. In the harsh Australian country and Great Indian Plains, each character must learn to adapt and survive. When Raimond and his father Romulus migrate to Australia from Romania post World War II, they find themselves in “sheep-grazing country”, a completely different environment with different people unusual to them. “[Romulus] longed for European Society, saying that he felt like a ‘prisoner in Australia.’” (169). This comparison of European and Australian culture alerts the reader to the struggle that Romulus is having in belonging to this place, and this can be related to the fact that he spent so much time in Romania, and refuses to change his ways, “In his [Romulus’s] sighs I heard our isolation.” unlike Raimond who is able to accept the landscape and people for all the harsh aspects because he has been brought up here from the age of four years onwards. Australia is all he remembers and after his experience on the
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