Mankind has an intrinsic need to belong or have a sense of connection to someone, something or somewhere. Belonging is a universal feeling of wanting to be needed and wanted despite similarities or differences. A sense of belonging can be formed from connections made with people, places, groups, communities and the world at large. Texts can explore many aspects of belonging. The novel, Romulus My Father by Raimond Gaita and the poem, Feliks Stryznecki by Peter Stryznecki are two such texts show the importance of a desire to belong.
Area of Study: Belonging Essay Community plays a crucial role in shaping an individual’s sense of belonging as it influences how the world and its people are viewed. Belonging is a perception. Perceptions of belonging vary depending on the personal, cultural, historical and social contexts that have shaped an individual’s views. Community is an overpowering issue in shaping a person’s sense of belonging. Peter Skryznecki’s poem ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ celebrates his father and documents the migrant experience of belonging in a new country and culture.
Romulus My Father: Belonging Essay by Adrian Fletcher What do you think are the most powerful influences that impact on an individual’s sense of belonging? An individual’s sense of belonging is the feeling of being connected and accepted to themselves or to a community. By far the most powerful influences that impacts on an individual’s sense of belonging are their relationships with other people and the individual’s own sense of self. This is demonstrated throughout the story of Raimond Gaita’s ‘Romulus My Father’ and through the techniques the memoir employs like mood, symbolism, imagery and pathos which clearly illustrate that relationships and the character’s sense of self affect their feelings of belonging both positively and negatively. The correlation between relationships and an individual’s sense of belonging can be clearly seen in the loving relationship between Romulus and his son Raimond.
Romulus My Father is set in 1950’s Post war Australia and is about a young boy and is family in their struggle to adapt to Australian life style. The book is a memoir written by the son after his father (Romulus)’s death. The book deals with not BELONGING to place and culture both of which are issues brought up in Looking for Alibrandi (Culture) and A Walk to Remember (place). The title of the book indicates it is about a person’s father, which can lead the reader to believe it will be about their life and the struggles they faced, in this book the main struggle faced was finding BELONGING in Australia. The main themes of the book
Practice Assessment Tasks Q2 Andre Lombardo ‘An individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their experience of belonging.’ Belonging transcends all cultural and physical aspects, ultimately relying on our own perception and attitudes in our interaction with others. This representation of belonging is seen in Raimond Gaita’s memoir Romulus, my Father, which focuses on exploring his father’s moral identity and their joint experiences living in Central Victoria as European immigrants arriving in the 1950’s. The main connections of belonging explored in the two texts are connections to place, in terms of landscape and community; as well as connections within relationships. These connections serve to enrich an individual’s sense of belonging to their community, environment and within their personal identity. Raimond Gaita’s memoir, Romulus My Father demonstrates how an individual’s
At the age of eighteen, after being forced from his uncle's home, my grandfather lived with friends, most of which were Italian, or in various rooming house throughout Ferntree Gully. During his young adult years my grandfather spent his free time carrying out favors for people. It was mostly for people from whom my grandfather could receive something in return. This is how my grandfather was renowned as a formidable opponent in the Fruit and Vegetable Markets of Footscray. Whilst working in Footscray he, like Romulus, learnt of the laziness and incompetence of Australian workers.
It is spoken by Raimond Gaita, at his father’s funeral. In an account that explores the effects of loss to an individual and how it influences individual acceptance, Gaita presents a strong link between characters who share the pain of loss, isolation, directly highlighting the security and lack of shared by those individuals who form a part of Romulus’ life. Growing up as a young boy from Yugodlavia, trying to adapt to the uncertainties of Australian culture, Raimond narrates the friendship, hardship and fight for cultural acceptance that defines Romulus’ life. Gaita
INTRODUCTION: Throughout life an individual can be influenced by the relationships they have with people. Friendships or familial relationships help to build character. A strong identity can be created due to these relationships. Romulus, My Father a memoir by Raimond Gaita, illustrates how a familial bond between father and son can lead to a feeling of acceptance, ultimately creating a sense of belonging. Not only do familial relationships impact on identity, close friendships can also influence an individual’s sense of belonging.
The husband is obviously not happy that the blind man makes his wife laugh more than he does while he is not even able to do so himself. At the end of the story, the woman acts very oddly when she wakes up and sees that the blind man and her husband are hand in hand and drawing the cathedral. When she says, “What are you doing? Tell me, I want to know”, “I want to know” (Carver 252) makes it seem as if she had authority over the two men and that she feels that something was going wrong that she wanted it to end. When a relationship begins, the two people usually watch each other carefully and always want to know what the other is doing, and to see if it will affect their new-born relationship.
An individual’s changing perception of belonging is able to be enriched and limited by their interactions with others and the world around them. The possibility of belonging both acts as a flourishing connection and a restrictive bond. This paradoxical nature of belonging is highly evident in Raimond Gaita’s memoir Romulus My Father and Stephen Daldry’s film The Hours. Both texts explore the protagonist’s network of relationships and examines how place is an intrinsic component for the foundations of an individual’s sense of belonging. Ultimately, Gaita and Daldry encourages the responder to reflect on the complexity and somewhat paradoxical nature of belonging within literary texts.