Practice essay: To ignite a sense of belonging an individual must feel they have an enriched association with other people, this can be regarded as the most important creation of an individual’s sense of belonging. The pinnacle of belonging is that of having a connection to people. However, our aspiration to belong is often constructed through our connection to our family, friends and our connection to the past. Peter Skrzynecki has emphasised the importance of people in our lives in the poems “In the Folk Museum” and “Ancestors”. Christopher Kezelos has shown our importance to belong in his short film “Zero” and how our sense of belonging to others either crafts inclusion or inflicts ostracism.
Belonging to a group or community can provide opportunities and disappointments To what extent do the texts you have studied support this idea? An individual’s happiness, security and identity are ultimately shaped by their experiences of belonging. Indeed, the experiences of a certain community group will have a profound effect, either negative or positive, on an individual’s sense of belonging. Peter Skrzynecki’s collection of personal poetry, The Immigrant Chronicle, particularly the personal and controversial St Partick’s College, which highlights the detriments of Skrzynecki’s school life on his sense of happiness, as well as the nostalgic Feliks Skzrynecki, which both explores and challenges Skrzynecki’s own identity and stability within his cultural community. Similarly, the 2005 short documentary The Children of Leningradsky directed by Hanna Polak explores how a sense of belonging can be derived from the interactions within an isolated community that has been excluded from the mainstream community.
The persona’s choice not to belong is again highlighted in the juxtaposition ‘walked… played… caught’ and ‘like a foreign tourist/ Uncertain of my destination / Every time I got off’. The verbs create a feeling of action and interaction but the discomfort and disconnection that the persona feels is bluntly described as the word ‘tourist’ implies that the persona is out of place. The dis-attachment is again
Mentioning where an individual sleeps conveys their innocence when an individual sleeps they are no longer in control and their mind takes over, they are innocent of their actions. Shakespeare demonstrates that when an individual destroys family ties they also damage innocence, the Secret Life of Bees mirrors the sense of familiar betrayal. Bythewood demonstrates the human need of an individual to have a connection beyond memory, this is conveyed through Lily speaking to her mother in heaven, "bet my hair must have annoyed you when it went off in 11 different directions." The use of speaking to her mother through her religion demonstrate her purity and innocence. T-Ray, Lily's father betrays her through lies, "god damn woman didn't give a shit about you".
“Explore how perceptions of belonging and not belonging can be influenced by connections to place” Belonging can be perceived in many different ways, and having a sense of belonging is essential to an individual’s life. Belonging creates a sense of connection and acceptance to people, groups, places, communities or the world itself, allowing the individual to have a sense of identity. The text “Swallow the Air” is a perfect representation of how concepts of belonging are portrayed and can be influenced by connections to place. Mays sense of identity is corrupted through damaging experiences, leaving May exposed and vulnerable. This sense of vulnerability creates a sense of isolation and displacement in society for May.
Migrant hostel portrays an image of the persona experiencing hardships towards his new lifestyle and loss of sense of self. Being placed in an institutionalised area displays many metaphorical boundaries and barriers towards the persona, a sense of confusion is evident as his loss of traditional culture and language is diminished and depicted as insignificant to society. The title “Migrant Hostel” a sense of temporary accommodation is echoed in the detached tone of “arrivals of new comers”. “Sudden departures from adjoining blocks” expressing the constant change of environment, relationships and identities of the
Just as the migrants in Skrzynecki’s poetry feel disconnected from the community and people around them, so too does the main character Walt Kowalski in the film Grand Torino. “Migrant Hostel” is a poem that describes the hardships faced by the immigrants that migrated to Australia after WW2 at the invitation of the government. The poem is central to an immigrant’s impression of the barriers and the negative perceptions of adapting to a new life within the hostel.
Furthermore, the poem’s fragmented structure, namely Langston’s prolific use of enjambment and unconventional syntax, reflects the protagonist’s dislocated sense of self, a consequence of his racist societies’ inability to embrace his cultural differences. Langston dissects the underlying assumption that communities support an Individuals development of own-identity, explored by his protagonist’s lack of stability of self, a result of his surrounding neglect, thus his sense of belonging is
She repetitively uses a word ‘chain’. This word appears as a metaphor along with others for example ‘inhale’ which suggests that the migrant is trying to breathe in all happy memories, security of their home. In the verse ‘a thick iron chain’, the chain is described like a border line between the states. Then, in closure of the poem, is the word chain used for a symbol of the door when ‘Then the chain was removed to let us through.’ Here is given an enormous importance. If this chain would not be lifted they would not be allowed to enter the mother country and all their effort and hopes to go back would be smitten.
“In unity lay the best promise of safety” embodies the repercussions of choosing not to belong as the mob mentality of Salem leaves the non conformist individual vulnerable. Ironically, the failures of a self imposed façade of belonging are raised through degrading imagery of “orphans wandering from house to house; abandoned cattle…and the stink of rotting crops”. The strength in character can override the innate desire to belong and the repercussions of non