Essay Plan for Peter Skrznecki Poems - Belonging

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We have to understand ourselves before we can truly belong. It is nearly impossible to feel a sense of belonging without understand oneself first as the knowledge of who you are determines where you feel you belong. Self assurance, acceptance and perception can arise from many different facets of life; family, culture, place and similar people, so in order for someone to start to feel a sense of belonging, it is essential that they connect with those aspects of their life first. In Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicle, he explores the difficulties of himself and other immigrants like himself in the poems ‘Migrant Hostel,’ ’10 Mary Street,’ and ‘Feliks Skzrynecki’ whilst trying to not only belong in a world where they were pre-determined to struggle to fit into based on their different culture but also understand who they truly are because of the struggle they endured. Ernest Hemingway’s ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’ expresses the internal desire of having a place where you can be yourself and belong. ‘A Hunger Artist’ by Franz Kafka delves into the idea that if you spend too much time trying to express how you define and understand yourself without truly knowing the correct definition, you can lead yourself to an even greater sense of not belonging. Through all these texts, audiences can see the importance of self acknowledgement in belonging. Paragraph 1 - Migrant Hostel: * When feelings of self-assurance and self-identity associated with belonging are taken away, feeling like you belong is difficult * “ Unaware of the season whose track we would follow” shows the confusion of being in a new place, and the lack of control and self direction * A HUNGER ARTIST: “Since it was not the hunger artist that was cheating, he was working honestly. It was the world cheating him of his reward” What he defines himself as prevents belonging as well as
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