Belonging

Belonging Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of everyman We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun Belonging Connections to people create a sense of belonging Self perception / challenges (conflict of perspective) Connection to a place can create a sense of belonging Places (indigenous people & belonging to the land) Individual such as migrants may face obstacles in settling into new lives and countries which raise issues of belonging to their newly chosen place Feel detached from their place of birth / greater sense of belonging to different places A sense of belonging comes through connection to groups and communities Communities provide a sense of belonging based on acceptance, understanding, common goals, love friendship and recognizing our similarities in perspective Based on religion, race, culture, politics, family, class, age, gender, education Motivation for belonging The desire to belong can be seen as a universal human experience A connection to the larger world is important to a sense of belonging Our world is often said to be shrinking with continued technological advancement creating a global community bringing people together across nations. Global citizen Belonging can enrich our identity and relationships and can be lead to acceptance and understanding Connections to people may bring spiritual, emotional, intellectual, psychological or physical enrichment Belonging provides opportunities for gaining exposure to new ideas, different perspectives, tolerance, the acknowledgement and approval of others, confidence and self esteem An individual can challenge or enrich a community or group Group to which they belong is also influenced by each individual An individual can challenge the ideologies of a group which may lead to conflict, also resulting in the group gaining new ideas and fresh perspectives. Some individuals will choose not to belong Belonging can have negative repercussions for the individual Abusive damaging a person’s self esteem Deep attachment to a place preventing a person from moving on and progressing Teenagers feeling disconnected from family and school joins a gang and engages in crime The biggest negative impact on the individual can be found in our connections to groups and communities who ironically can also have the greatest benefits to the individual _Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 1943_ BELONGING takes place in the third stage of the pyramid Area of Study: Belonging Perceptions and ideas of belonging or not belonging are shaped within personal, cultural, historical and social contexts. A sense of belonging can emerge from the connections made with people, places, and the larger world. Consider aspects of belonging in terms of experiences and notions of identity, relationships, acceptance and understanding. Texts explore the potential of the individual to enrich or challenge a community of group. They may reflect the way attitudes to belonging are modified over time or represent choices not to belong, or barriers which prevent belonging. In engaging with the text, a responder may experience and understand the possibilities presented by a sense of belonging to or exclusion from the text and the world it represents. How the concept of belonging is conveyed through the representations of people, relationships, ideas, places, events, and societies that they encounter in the prescribed text and texts of their own choosing related to the Area of study Assumptions underlying various representations of the concept of belonging How the composer’s choice of language modes, forms, features and structures shapes and is shaped by a sense of belonging Our own experiences of belonging Our won ways of perceiving the world through texts The ways which exploring the concept and significance of belonging may broaden and deepen their understanding of themselves and their world The Anthropology of Belonging / the Need for Social Inclusion The Evolution of Belonging: The threat of social isolation and the need for groups Evolution has instilled in us a powerful desire to be part of a group and while our world has changed, and while our social ties to others have become less personal and more complex, social connection continues to be crucial to the quality of our lives. The Pain of Being an Outcast While some people react to their new status as social outcast more radically than others, rejection is universally experienced as negative and painful, and this experience affects the whole of our behavior, emotion, perception and cognition. The reason for it, the desire to belong is equally universal. More on the Evolution of Belonging Meeting new people; we analyse whether a person is capable enacting their respective friendliness or enmity. Some suggest that we universally perceive social groups along these two dimensions, warmth (friendliness) and competence (can they enact their unfriendliness). The East and the West Western emphasis on the self as an independent and autonomous entity has seemingly led to a specific set of expectations in terms of belonging. Westerners seek loose and broad types of belonging. This in contrast with the secure and tight type of belonging one might seek in a society that emphasizes interdependence and social harmony such as Japan. While westerners consider it rude to not address a stranger, easterners consider caution and minimal contact the most appropriate response when meeting a stranger. When ensuring their membership to a group, westerners’ motives and meta-expectations fit with their philosophy of the autonomous self. They tend to see the interpersonal relationships within the group as a matter of individual choice and control. They are confident, optimistic and trusting, until proven wrong. Easterners on the other hand, prioritize social harmony. Interpersonal relationships are more important to them than truth and they don’t mind saying something different under different circumstances. They know and accept that others will do the same. Trust, to them operates in the context of relationships. Conclusion Our need to belong to a group is and always has been, crucial for our survival. We are deeply social creatures and social banishment is still exceedingly threatening to our wellbeing. Our desire to belong to a group, to know and to be known is universal. Cultural differences apply only to the ways in which the desire to belong is enacted. The desire to belong itself, the fear of rejection and the pain of social rejection is universal, shared by all of us. A sense of belonging denotes self-image about who and what we are Belonging relates to personal and social identity which can involve experiences, relationships as well as attitudes and values A need to belong is hot-wired into the human brain, an instinctive trigger that promotes unity within a group and social cohesion Belonging is shaped via relationships between people, places and things Individuals can feel weakened or empowered depending on their sense of social inclusion or exclusion Belonging can equate with feelings of security, stability and companionship An absence of any sense of belonging can generate feelings of inferiority or unworthiness; making someone feel that they a social pariah or outcast Negative self image can be caused by prejudice connected with class, gender, race or majority held attitudes The absence of any sense of belonging can generate physical, emotional and psychological illness as well as feelings of alienation, disaffection, estrangement, dislocation or isolation Migrants and refugees often feel a loss of identity and an absence of belonging A strong sense of belonging can result from shared experience, or a link with community or place Perceptions of belonging and social identity are generated by our connection and allegiance to family, culture, religion and nation Inclusion can be empowering but exclusion can be debilitating The need to belong can promote social conformity and uniformity A sense of not belonging can lead to displacement, dislocation or anonymity Migrants and refugees often feel a sense of alienation and marginalisation Humanity is linked by a social imperative to be connected and included within a larger social group A positive sense of belonging is often signified by feelings of social cohesion and mutual protection and thereby a strong sense of identity Positive self-image results from experiences that give a clear understanding of social expectations, attitudes and beliefs Social isolation can result by a refusal to comply with rules or endorsed codes of behaviour The socialization and enculturation process through family, community and friends begins at birth and continues throughout life Social alienation, especially for migrants and refugees, has become a contemporary phenomenon as well as a popular literary theme _About Peter Skrzynecki – an Australian pot of polish-Ukrainian descent_ Timeline 1945 – Peter Skrzynecki was born in Germany 1949 – His family immigrated to Australia 1967 – Start of his publishing career 1975 – His third book Immigrant Chronicle was published by University of Queensland Press Immigrant Chronicle His European background His experiences as a migrant in Australia The problems associated with being an exile The problems associated with his parents’ dispossession The difficulties, such as racism, bigotry and resettlement, encountered by them and other immigrants in trying to assimilate to a new life in a new land Migrant Hostel – Parkes 1949-51 10 Mary Street St Patrick’s College Feliks Skrzynecki Postcard In the Folk Museum Ancestors Key Issues in Poetry Persona: The person or I who tells the story like a narrator and should not be confused with the poet who wrote the poem Simile: A comparison where one thing is said to be like another (like & as) Metaphor: A comparison in which one thing is said to be another (something was some things) Symbolism: A thing that represents or calls to mind something more than itself (dove symbolizes peace) Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds in a poem to achieve emphasis or to convey mood or emotion (beaded bubbles winking at the brim) Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds in a poem to achieve emphasis or to convey mood or emotion (Please-niece-ski-tree) Onomatopoeia: words that imitate sounds (splash, crunch, drip, hum) Tone: relates to the way in which a statement is made. It can show the poet’s attitude towards the subject of the poem, or its audience Rhyme: the beat created by the syllables in a poem Imaginary: an imaginary picture created in the reader’s mind based on the poem’s descriptions Senses: the five senses – sight, sound, smell, touch and taste Using all of the senses rather than just sight makes for a more complete poem Personification: when something that is not human is given human characteristics (the desk squatted at the front of the room) PETER SKRZYNECKI, IMMIGRANT CHIRONICLE Perceptions and ideas of belonging, or of not belonging, vary. These perceptions are shaped within personal, cultural, historical and social contexts. A sense of belonging can emerge from the connections made with people, places, groups, communities and the larger world. Within this area of study, students may consider aspects of belonging in terms of experiences and notions of identity, relationships, acceptance and understanding. Texts explore many aspects of belonging, including the potential of the individual to enrich or challenge a community or group. They may reflect the way attitudes to belonging are modified over time. Texts may also represent choices not to belong, or barriers which prevent belonging. In our responses and compositions students examine, question, and reflect and speculate on: How the concept of belonging is conveyed through the representations of people, relationships, ideas, places, events, and societies that we encounter in the prescribed text and texts of their own choosing related to the Area of Study Assumptions underlying various representations of the concept of belonging shapes and is shaped by a sense of belonging Our own experiences of belonging, in a variety of contexts The ways in which we perceive the world through texts The ways in which exploring the concept and significance of belonging may broaden and deepen our understanding of ourselves and our world FELIKS SKRZYNECKI 1975 PERCEPTIONS WITHIN CONTEXTS The means by which perceptions are shaped within a personal context Filial devotion: the emotional connection between a father and son influences perceptions of character Paean form (song of praise) establishes laudatory tone, characterizing filial connection “ Cultural context Accumulation in third stanza establishes the father’s cultural identity Tension between Australian and Polish cultural identities in final stanza. Constructed using the vehicle of language as definer of culture and the implicit metaphor of encampments increasingly removed from father’s cultural ‘place’ “ Historical context Polish diasporas during and after Second World War Historical allusion establishes context: forced labour camps in Germany under Nazi occupation of Poland during Second World War “ Social context Father’s Polish friendships are informed by cultural identity. Accumulation in third stanza establishes shared experiences; these inform friendships Connections between friends are informed by connections with earth and place Bonds of experience – particularly adversity – provide empathy, understanding, unity and strength The connections made with people Father’s connections informed by cultural understanding and shared experience. Accumulation in third stanza In contrast, son's dislocation from place of birth, combined with perceived cultural isolation as migrant, results in perceived lack of connection with social and cultural groups: "happy as i have never been" The connections made with places Father's distinct connection with place provides identity, intimately connected with natural growth. Simile in second stanza, 'fingers with cracks,/like the sods he broke' Hyperbole in opening stanza, in conjunction with emotive language and simile 'loved his garden like an only child', create intimate connection with garden as place of growth, provision and abundance Cultural identity informed by geographyic allusion: 'His Polish friends always shook hands too violently' Strength of identity that emerges established through hyperbole Father's connection with place of birth is maintained, despite exile, and consequently his perceptions of self and identity are intact The connections made with groups Father's social groups are informed by cultural identity. Accumulation in third stanza establishes shared experiences; these create bonds in the wider group Connections within social group are informed by connections with earth and place Bonds of experience - particularly adversity - probide empathy, understanding, unity and strength The connections made with the larger world Microcosm of identity in place and smaller social group translated to wider context, through metaphor and hyperbole: 'he swept its paths/ Ten times around the world IDENTITY, RELATIONSHIPS, ACCEPTANCE AND UNDERSTANDING Experiences and notions of identity, relationships, acceptance and/or understanding ENRICHMENT AND/OR CHALLENGE The means by which the individual or group enriches or challenges a community or group ATTITUDES The way attitudes to belong are modified over time NOT BELONGING Choices not to belong, or barriers which prevent belonging ENGAGEMENT WITH THE TEXT The sense of belonging to, or exclusion from, the text adn the world it represents Closer look into Feliks Skrzynecki The title of the poem is dedicated to the poet's step-father, Feliks Skrzynecki about his fond feelings of him with simple, emotive and possessive language. He rejects the lessons that his father gives to him. Since his father is a migrant, he will never belong so he would continue his individuality and integrity Poem Analysis eyes - window to the soul integrity - softness, clarity of soul metatextual Language - fundamental vehicle for cultural belonging that has been passed on through family 'Spent years walking its perimeter' Commandable simile & hyperbole are used to explore how the father poured his heart/ shows his intimate connection with the garden that represents his identity. He resists assimilating to the Australian way of life and instead keeps his cultural identity alive. He belongs to the Earth. Cultural identity is shared by father, contributing expertise to group. 'like the sods he broke' this simile reveals the safety and security that can be acheived by physical labour. He has created a place to belong by surrounding himself with rewarding physical activity. 'I often wondered how he existed on five or six hours' sleep each night' resenting time passing without control and it is also a synecdoche(the parts represent the whole) Paean : song of praise - sense of belonging itself, connections between the land In 'Talking, they reminisced', the exclusive pronoun 'they' shows that skrzynecki feels isolated and excluded from his polish history. A tone of reflection is apparent in the verb 'they reminisced' which shows that feliks keeps the past alive and resists assimilating into the Australian culture and instead he recreates a refuge out of his garden to live in. 'Five years of forced labour in Germany' Feliks reminisces about his war time experiences in the world war II labour camps which affects his ability to belong in a new country. He holds on to the past by discussing these memories with his Polish friends. 'dancing bear grunts' implying that the manner of the department clerk was not even like a human that he is described as a creature trained to perform as an animal. bestial and direct speech establishes accuracy and credibility in observation and contempt. This also contributes to intimacy of first person being reinforced. Bureaucrat conspicuous for ignorance, lack of understanding (empathy), bigotry "Did your father ever attempt to learn English'" The reader is positioned to be critical of the Department clerk who 'grunts' at them and feel sympathetic to the plight of the Skrynecki's who were forced to endure such ignorance and arrogance. The incident reveals an unpleasant aspect of Australia's response to migrants Rhetorical question a cliche, establishing ignorance. Anonymity of description establishes lack of identity in clerk, in contrast with father's robust character description 'bordered by golden cypress' Vivid imagery creates an evocative picture of Felik's haven - his garden. 'I forgot my first Polish word. He repeated it so I never forgot' (final stanza) - polish heritage Skrzynecki is intent on belonging to the culture he is growing up in. He stubbonly focuses on his studies, to the detriment of his polish education. Skrzynecki's bitter tone reveals the building resentment he felt for Feliks at the time. He realises dislocation with adolescence and movement away from cultural identity. Loss of language signifies loss of cultural identity 'Caesar's Gallic War' The classical allusion is ironic as Skrzynecki is getting a grounding in a dead language, latin, while ignoring the enriching and fulfilling 'lessons' that Feliks is fighting to instil in him. 'Hadrian's Wall' The metaphor of the wall represents the growing distance between Skrzynecki and his step-father. Skrzynecki is unable or unwilling to stop the cultural and personal gulf forming. He is becoming an educated Australian and belongs to a different context of time and place. -> Possible alienation in responder a consequence of intimacy of portrayal of father. Responder excluded from privilieged fater/son relationship' -> Lack of empathy for migrant experience in Australian audience' -> Cynicism in persona alienates responder' POSTCARD 1975 Migrant Hostel Parkes, 1949 –51 In this poem the sub-heading is included to give the responder the time and setting of the poem. The poem’s structure is four stanzas each organised around a single sentence. There appears to be four main ideas in the poem, all connected but each representing a different aspect of the experience. The punctuation, with dashes and colons suggests conversation speech. Most subtle is the irony of the title, for a hostel (in the derivation of the word) is a place of hospitality and kindness. The first stanza establishes the strong sense of anonymity with the numbers of migrants entering and leaving. This moving is constant and on a huge scale. The words comings, goings, arrivals and sudden departures emphasise this. The migrants arrived in Parkes by train and go by bus to the hostel complex. The personal pronoun us is used in this stanza voices the poet’s personal experience and proves of his involvement in the situation but in this memory of his childhood incarceration with his family, the poet emphasises the general experience of migrants rather than isolating the particular circumstance peculiar to his family or himself. He also implies the loss of individually and identity resulting from this institutionalisation. The rhetorical inquiry Who would be coming next underlines the uncertainty, shock and surprise of the migrants who were forced to come to the hostels and alienated from the rest of the population. In the second stanza, the simile of the homing pigeon is used to describe the situation where nationalities sought each other for the sake of emotional and physical security. The image emphasises the instinctive behaviour of people in this situation and their feeling of vulnerability as they find identity recognised by accents like the bird itself Circling to get its bearings. The memories of hunger and hate that separates them at night implies the enmity that existed between the Europeans and couldn’t divest their old national grievances in this new country. In the third stanza the poet alludes to the length of is family’s stay at Parkes like birds of passage. This recurring simile from bird-life marks the transition to a more personal, although still collective reminiscence. In this comparison, Skrzynecki evokes the sense of being in limbo between two worlds which characterised the hostel dwellers’experience. The fact that this extended to a period of over two years subtly emphasises the suffering of the inmates. Unnaturally, they can only sense the changes In the weather but were unable to respond naturally as birds would. The uncertainty as to the time of their coveted departure and the obscurity of where they would go at the mercy of the dehumanising bureaucratic administration process is the theme. Whose track we would follow is phrase that also suggests that they were on a journey, this was not the destination and they were en route to somewhere else. The final stanza emphasises their sense of separation. The barrier at the main gate closes them off from the outside world and is symbolic of their feeling of alienation. The highway is symbolic of their route to a new life from which they were prevented. The barrier rises and falls, a constant reminder that they are not wanted and highlights their separation from the real world and their feelings of shame. The barrier is compared to the oppressive judgemental finger of authority in the simile like a finger / Pointed in reprimand or shame where the migrants can go to an fro but need its permission evident in Needing its sanction. This violation of the migrant’s freedom implies their utter sense of entrapment as they had travelled the world to find freedom and were treated against their hopes. The poem concludes with the extension of the theme of their sense of their precariousness of their existence and their concomitant confusion about their identity. The ambiguity in the last two lines That had only begun / Or were dying emphasises the absence of the experience of fulfilled life in a hostel only the possibility of new opportunities for the young and of a sense of loss for those whose lives had been determined elsewhere. Skrzynecki also implies that their future Australian dimension was at the time an unknown quantity of which they had only brief glimpses, like new-born babies and their old lives, their European cultures and identities were slipping away from them. Although the poem is critical of the migrant hostel, the criticism is admirably restrained and controlled largely through the adoption of the first-person plural, extending beyond and even his family, to emabrace a general experience. Post Card A post card is a simple thing but the poet uses this ordinary, commonplace object to evoke matters of greater significance. The post-card view of Warsaw, the Polish capital, also places the speaker’s experiences of the city, and of his attachment to it, in a particular context. A post card at once idealises a location but with its size and character also diminishes it. Skrzynecki ingeniously conveys his contradictory feelings about Warsaw by concentrating on a post card of the city and its affect on him. This poem is divided into three sections which firstly deals with the arrival of the post card which prompts memories and a relationship with the city that poet has not yet acknowledged and asks questions that he does not wish to answer. The final section forces the confrontation and the poet acknowledges that his heritage must be faced. In the first stanza of the first section, the usage of the word haunt immediately suggests that the post card is notable, that it has significance for the poet because it has connotations of ghosts or ideas hanging around that are unwanted. Since its arrival – and haunt emphasises the discrepancies in his emotions. The irony here is that post cards are usually the cause of excitement and anticipation as the recipient eagerly and quickly reads it, but Skrzynecki is haunted by it. The usage of the personal objective pronoun me gives the poem a personal feel. The card depicts an old part of Warsaw sent by a friend to remind the poet’s parents of where they came from. The second stanza gives a simple description of the phot on the post card. The poet unusually pores over this subject and meticulously notices its every feature from the Red buses to The river and its concrete pylons and the sky’s brightest shade. The colours in the post card are unnatural and his unfamiliarity with Warsaw is emphasised when he cannot tell whether something is a park. He’s irresistibly drawn to the images though there’s nothing extraordinary in the picture. The poet however, is struck by the moment. The usage of the personal pronoun I in this stanza gives the effect of the poet’s direct conversation with Warsaw as he converses with it in the second person, I never knew you. The following Except in the third person emphasises the poet’s sheer distance and detachment in his life from the city. His confession doesn’t diminish the sense of his appreciation of the Great city and his bitterness at its destruction and the brutal deaths of its citizens implied in Its people massacred / Or exile – You survived. Notably he addresses the city in direct speech you, in the second person. The lines They shelter you, defending their country as they defend the patterns, condemn your politics (Communism), but still cherish your old religion are all profound patriotic imagery of the Polish migrants living Half a world away. These people are the dying generation attempting to preserve the allegiances and customs of a society and culture that has been annihilated. The White Eagle is a symbol of the country’s freedom. The second stanza establishes the conflict which lies in the question which ends this stanza What’s my choice to be' He emphasises that both his parents will be proud and speak of their Beloved Ukraine and will be lost in their own memories. The third stanza focuses on the poet’s recognition of the city’s offers but concludes that he cannot give it more than eyesight and praise; his response will not come from his heart. This stanza also ends with a question reinforces the poet’s conflict to acknowledge his connection and loss with the city. The third section brings attention back to the post card which stimulated the poet’s refection on his heritage. Suddenly he is confronted by the inevitable acknowledgment but refuses to answer / The Voices / Of red gables / And a cloudless sky. He cannot ignore the fact of his heritage. Skrzynecki leaves the dilemma unsolved as in the line Whispers: / “We will meet / Before you die”suggests a fleeting acquaintance or perhaps a joining in union. But when the tree whispers to him it signals the end of his insularity as he reconciles with his past and now belongs to a group, he is complete. This poem concludes that Skrzynecki comes to grips with the fact of his heritage which cannot be isolated since it was this isolation attempt that was the source of his unhappiness. This poem implies that a physical journey causes a journey and emphasises the consequences of it whether the undertaker liked it and what would they have done in retrospect. It is implied that a physical journey sometimes result in the loss of heritage as in migration which is often very hard to reconcile with. The adaptational consequences of migration are also underlined in this poem. How has your study of this poem contributed to your understanding of physical journeys' You are evidently meant to speak for yourself in answering this one. An honest answer might be ‘It hasn’t’, but I guess that wouldn’t gain you good marks. Perhaps start by clarifying what you take ‘physical journey’ to mean. Obviously it is something that involves moving from place to place, but a moment’s thought will tell you that not every such movement qualifies. The word ‘journey’ normally means travel undertaken deliberately and over a substantial distance. The wording of the question seems to assume that ‘physical journeys’ form a branch of learning susceptible to greater or lesser ‘understanding’. A dubious assumption IMO. There are so many different kinds of journeys, undertaken by different kinds of travellers, to and from different places, over different distances, with different amounts and kinds of baggage, and with different aims, purposes and results, that generalising about them is scarcely possible. That in itself may be a point worth understanding about physical journeys, however it’s not a point made by the poem 'Post card'. To make better sense of the question, you need to relate it to the journeys referred to in the poem, or at least to journeys of the kind referred to. The poem contains no direct description of any physical journey. The nearest it gets to the subject is to mention the arrival of a post card, presumably sent by a traveller, and to make a theme of the fact that some people now old (including the poet’s father) who migrated to Australia from Warsaw retain vivid and proud memories of that city as it used to be (the ‘Old Town’), even though its fabric was destroyed in the second World War, and has not been restored to its former style. I imagine you didn’t need to be told by the poem that people who have migrated from one country to another, and who have not made a return visit, often retain fixed, romanticised memories of their old country which become out-of-date. Nevertheless, to earn marks, you might have to play dumb and say something to the effect that the poem really highlighted that aspect for you. You could perhaps add (speculatively) that it may be because the people referred to in the poem made a journey half way round the world that they preserve so strongly their memories of their Warsaw Old Town heritage. Had they stayed at home and survived there to witness the city’s destruction by the Nazis and its rebuilding in colourless Communist cell-block style, they might have let those memories go sooner. Then, if you are prepared to take a risk to go for gold, you could develop that idea by pointing out that in the poem it is not just people who have journeyed half way round the world. A meme [look it up in a dictionary, e.g. using [www.onelook.com]], namely the image of the Old Town, has travelled with them, thereby prolonging the meme’s survival. And now that meme has made the journey again by hitching a ride with another carrier, a post card. I’m not suggesting you should devote much of your answer to the theory of memes (especially if you are unfamiliar with it!) but you might make some comment about the importance of focusing not just on the people who make migratory journeys, but on the cultural ideas and mindsets they bring with them. How does Skrzynecki use personal pronouns in this poem to describe the impact of physical journeys' Again this question only makes sense if confined to the particular physical journeys to which the poem relates. With regard to pronouns, the first thing to notice is that (except in the last five lines, which I am ignoring because I can’t see the sense in them, and they seem superfluous) the poem is written in the first person, i.e. in the voice of the poet, or at least in the voice of a persona who is the speaker. So, as you would expect, it contains a fair number of first person pronouns. ‘I’, ‘my’ and ‘me’ are used six times, four times and once, respectively. Nothing particularly unusual about that, in a first person poem of this length. More unusual, and probably part of what the question is getting at, is that the speaker, who declares that, before the arrival of the post card, he (I’m assuming that the speaker’s gender is the same as the poet’s) never knew the Old Town of Warsaw except ‘in the third person’ (meaning only as an ‘it’ described to him by others), is so haunted by its depiction in the post card that he begins personifying it and addressing it in the second person. The second person pronouns ‘you’ and ‘your’ are used that way six times and twice respectively. How to relate that back to the ‘impact’ of the physical journeys the subject of the poem i.e. the migration of the speaker’s parents, and – if you go with the meme idea – the journeys of the meme' The word ‘impact’ can be understood as broadly synonymous with ‘consequence’. The way the speaker addresses the Old Town directly as ‘you’ shows that he feels it to be a ghostly presence strong enough to be addressed that way. Moreover he feels that its ‘voices’ are demanding something of him, though exactly what is not made clear. After some rhetorical mental protest, he chooses to refuse to answer them. All this implies a description of the ‘impact’ in terms of both what it amounts to and what it falls short of. Thus on the one hand, the speaker’s surprisingly strong emotional response to the Old Town depicted on the post card suggests that he has been in some way predisposed to respond that way. You can speculate that the speaker’s predisposition is due to the speaker having been raised by a migrant father who held dear his memory of the Old Town, and whose attitude has been unwittingly absorbed by the speaker, or is due to the speaker having been heritage-deprived by an upbringing in the young country Australia, and so having an unrealized hunger for ancestral heritage; or perhaps due to a bit of both. On the other hand, the fact that the speaker ends up rejecting the ‘voices’ is evidence of a limit to this impact of the journeys. The speaker recognises that continuing nostalgia for a vanished Old Town, or pretence that it still exists, is a recipe for ‘despair’. He chooses instead to look forward. The meme proves unable to extend its impact to the next generation. Its survival is only ‘in the minds of a dying generation’, and it is destined to die with them. {draw:frame} {draw:frame} more to be seen; http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/raps/immigrantc/tsm3StAdv.htm discuss how your prescribed text and 2 texts of your own choosing explore the concept of belonging http://www.dentistry.usyd.edu.au/student/bdent.php http://www.usyd.edu.au/documents/future_students/atar_conversion_table.pdf http://www.usyd.edu.au/future_students/international_undergraduate/admissions/entry_requirements/ug_acad_req2010.pdf Feliks Skrzynecki This poem is a tribute to the dignity and stoicism in the face of loss and hardship to the poet’s father Feliks whose physical journey from Europe to Australia, from one culture to another, echoes through the poem and it’s clear that the impact of the journey is as strong for the son as for the father. This poem highlights that the hardest thing about physical migration is whether to keep or let go of the memories as migration allows the person to destabilise both physically and mentally. The poet deals with the emotional consequences of the physical journey. The poet’s attitude is immediately apparent in the first stanza in the use of gentle and the possessive pronoun my which precedes it. The adjective gentle sets the tone of the poem and reveals the poet’s perspective of his father as one of love and admiration. The comparison with the Joneses suggests that Feliks is his own man and only wants to do ordinary things well. The simile like a only child shows the extent of love and devotion to the garden as Feliks walks around it and in a hyperbole sweeps its path / Ten time around the world, as if he is reliving his journey across the world and identifying and confirming his place in the new country. But in the second stanza the poet narrows the focus from the man in his garden to the darkened cracked hands, powerful images of hard, physical labour. The sense of his action is carried by the verbs broke, existed, turned and rolled. The inversion of the usual sentence order in these lines emphasises the actions. There is real admiration and awe in the son’s attitude to his father. The third stanza shifts to the sense of the child feeling detached form his father’s heritage. The stanza introduces Feliks’ Polish heritage and suggests a life that the poet knows nothing about. There’s an implication that the Poles can share something but from which the son is excluded evident in I never got used too. The poet can share the cultural traits and memories kept alive from their family discussions but these are alien to him. The words violently, flowered and slaughtered imply that Feliks’ previous life was full of action and hard work, robust and physical. Yet the poet describes with poignancy the softness of his eyes that have never been dulled by the suffering of the forced labour camp in Germany during the Second World War. The emphatic never in the concise fourth stanza reiterates this poignancy and the son’s admiration for his father’s stoicism. The father has suffered as well as endured evident in twice / They dug cancer out of his foot as dug reflects the severity of the surgery on his foot and ironically related to the metaphor of gardening. The surgery hasn’t dimmed the father’s love and contentment with his life emphasised in his stoic response “but I’m alive”. Indeed after the trauma of war, labour camp, displacement and migration, a cancer in his foot would seem a small thing in comparison. The fifth stanza establishes the maturing of the poet as he remembers the language of his parents and uses it at the opportune time to defend his father in the face of bureaucratic complacency and ignorance emphasised in his degrading question “Did your father ever attempt to learn English'” the son’s contempt of this prejudice is evident in the image of dancing bear-grunts implying that the clerk was an animal showing no humanity. This stanza highlights the son’s continuing loyalty to his father and hints to the son’s own journey where the impact of his parent’s heritage begins to affect him. The subsequent stanza reinforces the father’s contentment with his life by evoking beauty in the visual imagery of the garden and its colours. There’s a harmonious atmosphere as Feliks enjoys the garden he created, smoking and watching stars. His contentment with his own haven and with his journey is emphasised but the poet realises that although he loves and admires his father, he has never been content Happy as I have never been and is full of regret for a way of life he will never know nor fully understand. The final stanza changes the poem’s focus to the son and his life revealing his loss of his inherited language altogether I forgot my first Polish word. This loss is in a sense the loss of his parent’s heritage, thus is the impact of the journey. The father is driven to keep it alive in his son but the final metaphor Hadrian’s Wall demonstrates the inevitability that the son will move further away from his father’s heritage in this new land of which his father is silently aware but unable to change his son’s course. This poem depicts the consequences of a physical journey and how experiences are different for each individual on the same journey. Kebin Rudd in relation to 10 mary street Spirited away - haku (negative belonging) does not belong, forced to change identity, positive belonging, negative belonging 1) PICK 2/3 central themes 2) Choose 2-3 poems that strongly show said themes 3) FIND a related text that shows the chosen themes 4) Using the themes, construct, reform and shape a thesis Inside an Outsider".Basically about a Chinese teenager who wants to form her own identity( as in "belong to herself" so to say) but both her Asian culture and the Australian society she lives in are forcing her to conform to their own rules. So she's getting pulled both ways.Her mother wants her to succumb to traditional Asian customs but the Australian society in which she resides has a different set of rules set out for her. How about when Haku loses his home and must find somewhere else to belong which ends up being Yubaba's bath house' this indicates a physical sense of belonging, which is in fact the Kohaku river, which has now been replaced by apartments. So maybe this indicates he's replaced by the greed of humans. So one does not always deserve what he receives. and to add to the names, even though he is not the main character, Haku has lost his sense of identity which connects to the common Japanese belief that their soul is reaped when one loses their identity. So in conclusion, I think haku is one of the strongest points in relation to belonging in a negative way, that poses food for thought. That his sense of belonging has been so badly tarnished, he turns to power to fill this void, to steal the gold seal - which again points to greed - the way he's been treated is how he is now treating others. This could be because Yubaba is the person who has stolen all the power he has over his life. Haku has been reaped of spiritual, physical and mental belonging so when Chihiro, through all of her experience throughout the movie, through mental and spiritual maturity, has created a portal through which she aids him, she remembers his name and therefore he gains the most important aspect of belonging back, his spiritual one, his soul. So now it doesnt matter where he is physically, he know who he is. I think religion should also be of note in this movie as buddhist religion is probably where the concept of the name being attached in some way to the soul. So a sense of belonging to a religion in the spirit world and the every day world is unanimous. Humans are inherently in search of belonging, something vital to our existence. A sense of belonging emerges from acceptance, understanding and identification. This process grows through relationships - manifested in groups based on socio-economic status, appearance, religion or nationality amongst other criteria. Yet, as the criterion upon which these groups are based is in constant flux, we in turn are consistently forced to alter our identity. As our need to belong is rivalled by our need to assert our individuality, attempts to achieve a sense of belonging through exterior groups will ultimately result in ambivalence. Therefore, it is only through reflection, in which conformity and differences are non-existent, can we fulfill our intrinsic need to belong. The concept of belonging deals with acceptance as well as dejection. This notion is clearly portrayed through the texts the aspect of belonging is explored in greater depth than that of not belonging, evident in the texts . . . Belonging is an inherent human condition in which we strive for acceptance and comformity, which in turn may both unite and destroy us. Belonging is an inherent human condition in search of acceptance and conformity which supports the realism of two foregone, positive and negative, to both unite and destroy us. A sense of belonging protects us from alienation and reinforces our self-confidence when accepted, understood and identified as an individual from people group. This process grows through discovering similarities within the society. Nevertheless, it can be stated that the perception of self or of others directly determines whether to belong or not belong. Therefore it is not only the people who do not fit can become excluded, and more likely based on an individual's choice. Individuals might rather choose to not belong more appealing then joining them. This notion is clearly portrayed in Peter Skrzynecki's poems, Feliks Skrzynecki and 10 Mary Street, compared to the feature articles "Sorry" speech given by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the aboriginal people who experienced mistreatment and film Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki that explores both positive and negative belonging in fantasy world, Yubaba's bath house. The concept of assimilation to a new culture is explored in the poem by Peter Skrzynecki "Feliks Skrzynecki". This poem aims to portray the relationship between father and son with reference to belonging and connection felt to a new land. The poem explores personal feeling of belonging by using first person narration throughout the poem. "My gentle father", the first line of the poem relates to arousing response from the audience of sense of belonging in a family or relationship. ON the other hand, the aspect of not belonging is explored in greater depth than of belonging as shown in the third stanza. It explores the poet as a child feeling detached from his father's heritage. The poet feels alienated from Feliks' Polish heritage. Skrzynecki's bitter tone, "I forgot my first Polish word", the loss of language signifies Skrzynecki's realisation of dislocation with adolescence and detachment from cultural identity. The metaphor of the "Hadrian's Wall" supports the idea. It is therefore, shown that Skrzynecki is unwilling to stop becoming an Australian. His father fails to prevent his son from becoming assimilated. "Sorry" speech by Kevin Rudd was a formal apology given for the Aboriginal community in Australia in 2008. It supports notion of assimilation to "Feliks Skrzynecki" by standing at a third person's position, understanding and apologising by saying "We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families...". It portrays the loss of belonging to the land unintendedly when it is expected for all to have a choice to belong. His speech encourages reconciliation and belonging of the aboriginal communitiy. The audience receive deep impression by the use of anaphora supported by the phrase "A future" which shows the speech is moving forward from the past and the repeated quotes that occur in the speech. "We apologise" and "we say sorry" gives an impression of attempt to truely understand the audiences'sorrow. Even if the protagonist intends to belong, there are two contrasting varying results. Peter Skrzynecki's "10 Mary Street" supports one of the two which is positive belonging. It also links to the idea of belonging to a land. It portrays the integration of Skrzynecki's family and shows the strong connection with the land and the sense of belonging in Australia. Imagery was used to explore the poets home letting imagination with the description. Peter feels the sense of belonging to the garden and "ravages" it like a "hungry bird". The poem relates back to Kevin Rudd's speech with the phrases "tendered roses and camellias like adopted children" showing the existing strong connection between the people and the land, and the aboriginal people and Skrzynecki family. The quote "Tended roses and camellias, like adopted children" also supports the notion. Simile is used to portray coneection and care to their home that shows the deep connection to them that they treat them like their adopted child. Still, the quote "still too-narrow bridge" acts as a barrier that connects two cultures. The sense of change and assimilation is reinforced by the use of phrase "like bursting at the seams". The sense of change and assimilation can be forced resulting in negative belonging explored in "Spirited Away" by Hayao Miyazaki where Haku is lost from where he belonged and alternatively finds a place to belong, being Yubaba's bath house. A physical sense of belong is discovered here which is shown by the Haku's story that he cannot remember that the Kohaku river, haku, which has now been replaced by apartments indicating that he is replaced by the greed of humans that led him to a disastorous advanture. He is brutally removed from where he belonged and also lost his personal belonging in himself when Yubaba takes control of him by taking and changing his name which connects to the Japanese belief that the soul is reaped when one loses identity. Haku places the strongest points in relation to belonging in a negative way. Ultimately these 4 texts are closely related to the sense of belonging where individuals should be able to have a choice whether to belong or not. Feliks Skzynecki and "Sorry" shows the consequences in relation to presense of choice to belong. 10 Mary Street and Spirited Away explores the positive and negative way of belonging also relating to the notion. Through all the different contexts of the content and texts, belonging has still been a dominant and important theme throughout them, represented by a variety of different techniques to communicate the theme of belonging to the audience. Belonging is an inherent human condition in which we strive for acceptance and security through others. A sense of belonging is vital for our survival and existence, as belonging reinforces our self-confidence and protects us from rejection. People group together to protect themselves from oppression and ostracision but in doing so, others are effectively rejected and alienated. To belong or not belong can be based on the perception of self or of others. People belong if they have similar interests, values, heritage, place, points of view, socio-economic status and culture. People who do not fit these subtle but strict criteria can become excluded, but the criterion is not fixed allowing for opportunity to belong elsewhere. It is therefore, not possible to completely not belong based on select criteria, and more likely based on an individual’s choice. People can decide not to belong to groups that they typically would fit into, as they might find the choice to exclude that group more alluring then actually joining them. As people change and grow we start to develop our own set of values and codes to which we conform. These values are developed throughout early childhood and into adulthood through personal affiliations and experiences with the groups we belong to and get rejected by. This basic philosophy is first affected by family and cultural groups that a person is indoctrinated into. We learn to judge and alienate people who are different in any means to ourselves. Mainly in terms or height, weight, skin colour and culture, it would therefore appear to be an intrinsic aspect of humanity. In Ben Folds’ One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces (One Angry Dwarf) and Philosophy he conveys his experiences of being bullied and ostracised as a child at school because he was physically different from his peers. But it was because of this exclusion that he became enveloped into the music... Definition: belonging is an umbrella term for the ways in which we associate, interact and relate to one another as human beings. Arguments Belonging is a fabrication of the imagination; a pathway to social superiority. Belonging is a battle between what is right and what is easy. To belong is to desert what is true and natural. We gain safety in numbers but attain integrity as an individualist. Belonging is a superficial term used to make people feel ashamed if they do not wish to conform. Conformity both unites and destroys us. Belonging was, is and will be an invisible force spreading throughout the entire world. (more like a first sentence of an essay, then expand it and get specific) A sense of belonging comes from a sense of identity Self knowledge is the doorway to belonging To know the self is to belong Belonging comes from within rather than without We belong when we fell connected to others and the world An inner sense of connection leads to an external sense of belonging Self understanding is the key to belonging Feeling connected to the world is an inner experience A sense of the psychic wholeness is the pathway to belonging A metaphysical sense of communion transcends all physical connections The natural world is the doorway to heaven We choose whether to belong or not An intrinsic sense of belonging transcends all external connections Belonging is about choosing who we are and where we want to be The desire to belong is a driving force within us Belonging is about self acceptance To belong is to be A sense of belonging begins instinsically and spreads out into the world We cannot belong until we understand ourselves A sense of belonging stems from a sense of inner wholeness An inner sense of balance allows the individual to belong harmoniously in the world Ideas about belonging Similar interests can get you to belong People can enrich a group Desirable to belong Sense of stability and support gained A sense of family can be gained without any blood relations Giving disadvantaged people a chance to belong and feel connected in just one area can bring all round life improvement By representing the problems faced by people who didn’t belong, the show has helped to build a bridge between the homeless community and the rest of Australia. (specific to a text we studied) Finding your own sense of identity by belonging to a group Finding a positive sense of belonging can help and individual to move on from negative groups they may have belonged to. When looking to belong, we seek trust and affection as well as a way of building our confidence Everyone can benefit from belonging Different people can achieve connection through music (specific to a text we studied) Each individual is valued as part of the group. The individuals within the group matter more than the group itself. Techniques used to convey ideas about belonging Ø Colloquial language Ø Emotive language (gives emotions to readers) Ø Repetition of words Ø Listing Ø Use of short sentences Ø Intertextual references Ø Use of adage (proverb/wise saying) Ø Extended metaphor