A not very technical Belonging essay. Skrzynecki. Tan. Winton.

A sense of belonging can emerge from the connections made with people, places, communities and the larger world. Does your study of Skrzynecki show this to be true? In your response refer to two of the poems set for study.

Belonging develops with time and permanency, allowing an individual to create connection larger than their own being. Although barriers sometimes prevent these connections, my study of Skrzynecki shows acceptance between the people and communities of Migrant Hostel, and the physical and global communities of Feliks Skrzynecki, as part of a poetry anthology ‘The Immigrant Chronicles’, The Arrival by Shawn Tan supporting this idea.

Skrzynecki describes the transient lifestyle endured within Migrant Hostel, and the difficulties found belonging within this residence through the collocation of ‘comings and goings’, coupled with the contrast of ‘Arrivals’ and ‘departures’. Migrating from Poland with his parents, entry to Australia was the dream of the hostels occupants, the subtitle of ‘Parkes, 1949-51’ indicating the length of time they had to wait to be allowed entry into the country. This subtitle is physically separated from the poem, emphasising their exclusion from the normal Australian lifestyle.

Yet, within this hostel, belonging was found through the grouping of migrants within nationalities. The use of active verbs ‘sought’ indicates their passionate and natural need to belong, emphasised when coupled with the word ‘instinctually’. Imagery of the ‘homing pigeon’ and the ‘birds of passage’ indicates their desire for freedom. This simile shows that they were trying to find their feet, and belong to something that was quite unlike their culture. The shared experiences of the nationality groupings, recognising each other by ‘place-names’ and ‘accents’ brought together the individuals to create their unique sense of belonging. – add alliteration, ‘hunger’ and ‘hate’.

The familiarity of its routine transience creates a sense of belonging in itself, emphasised through the use of the homelike word ‘doorstep’. Yet they are still barred from the Australian society that they long for, the prison imagery of the ‘barrier’ is a metaphor for their isolation and lack of acceptance within the global community. Migrant Hostel indicates Skrzynecki’s connection within the hostel, yet the longing to connect on a larger level.

The belonging within the poem Feliks Skrzynecki describes the filial connection between father and son, Feliks’ connection within his garden and his belonging with the global community. An affectionate relationship is expressed between Peter and Feliks (his step father), the possessive personal pronoun ‘My’ added to by the word ‘gentle’ shows the intimacy held by father and son. The listing of the adjectives ‘alert, brisk and silent’ indicates Peter’s perception of his father, the hyperbole of Feliks ‘sweep[ing] its paths/ ten times around the world’ emphasising his father’s belonging in his garden.

Yet as Peter grew older, the less connected he felt to his father’s society, and more in touch with the Australian culture. The syntax of ‘His Polish friends/ Always shook hands too violently’ puts emphasis on Feliks’ and his associates, excluding Peter from their belonging his inherited Polish culture; further insinuated by the alienating plural pronoun within ‘Talking, they reminisced’. This connection disintegrated until his Polish became only ‘Remnants of a language’, the metaphor symbolic of the pieces of Polish that he knew.

The reference to Caeser’s Gaellic War is symbolic of Peter’s deteriorating Polish, and connection to Feliks, as it reflects a dying language. Ending the poem with a metaphor ‘Watched me pegging my tents/ Further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall’ left Peter’s Polish belonging, and his filial belonging minimal, showing the transition over time of his personal belonging shifting. The poem Feliks Skrzynecki highlights the eventual separation between the belonging of two men, and their global ties differing whilst in the same community.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan shows also the importance of time and permanency within the development of belonging for migrants, the family fleeing from their town to a foreign land. This journey is initially shown in a foreboding manner, a double paged picture of a storm cloud towering over the tiny boat on which the father travels on. In this migration, the boat people are joined by a common cause, faces depicted similarly unhappy and faint from detail, their journey a necessity. A sequence of smaller boxes on a single page allows the events to seem lengthened, emphasising the hardship and duration of the journey endured.

Yet the father finds belonging in his new home, several contrasts established from beginning to end. Frames depicting the man first wary of the creature living in his room, are later shown with him fondly patting it. The happy faces of the family interacting make contrast to the unhappy countenance of the first sequence. Increasing quantities of close ups on the father’s face shows his easing into his new life, initially pictured in long shots insinuating his change in status within the community. This text indicates that belonging can be achieved over time, through perseverance, even through the most difficult of situations.

Permanency and time allows for the young couple of Tim Winton’s Neighbours to achieve belonging in their new neighbourhood, a simile displaying their initial feelings of being ‘like a sojourner in a foreign land’. An accumulation of verbs like ‘shouted, ranted, screamed’ indicates the shock experienced by the couple in their environment, a repetition of the word ‘young’ emphasising the little exposure they’ve previously had. But through the temporal imagery, and the direct movement of prepositions from ‘at’ to ‘through’, breaks down the barriers between the young couple and their Macedonian and Polish neighbours, whilst demonstrating a length of time passed.

The couple draw eventual connections to their neighbours, permanent garden imagery showing their thriving growth within the area. Yet, even with their acceptance, a listing of juxtaposed emotions provides a paradox, creating feelings of both comfort and isolation by being ‘flattered, claustrophobic, grateful [and] peeved’. The symbol of the ‘twentieth century novel’ depicts their connection to their old views, a new sense of belonging established as it is ‘abandoned’ for the birth of their new child.

Conclude.

A Frankenstein/Bladerunner Essay. Work in progress.

The gothic romanticism of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein highlights concepts that are also present within Ridley Scott’s tech noir film Blade Runner – Directors Cut. Scientific advancement, without adequate moral grounding, is a joint concern for both composers, the appeal to ‘play god’ and a disregard for natural creation is present within each context, yet motivated by different value systems.

Frankenstein, a Chinese box narrative, emerged for the first time in 1818; its main underlying focus being mans usurpation on the creator role, in reaction to experimentation conducted by Galvani and Aldini using electrical currents to reanimate the deceased. This directly paralleled in the novel through Shelley’s metaphor, the ‘dazzling light’ of sciences enhancement at the time, turning an oak into ‘nothing… but a blasted stump’, symbolic of the consequences of moral inadequacies.
The role of creator is played by Victor Frankenstein, obsession stirring him to ‘pursue nature to her hiding places’ and encouraging the eventual replication of life. This obsession is seen in the anaphora of ‘one thought, one conception, one purpose’, it highlighting the scientific drive of the time period. Constant reference to scientific fundamentals like the ability to ‘infuse a spark of being’ is turned to a gothic-like horror, Frankenstein keeping a ‘workshop of filthy creation’ indicates a definite warning from Shelley about this advancement of science. Isolating Frankenstein in a ‘solitary chamber’ corresponds its atmosphere and work ethics to that of the current industrial revolution, its small work spaces and productivity dramatically heightened during this time.

Compared to this isolated working of Frankenstein, which was purely for personal glory, the low angle shot of the Tyrell Corporation building allows Scott to stress the financial ambitions and power of Blade Runner’s replicant producer. Its 1980’s context brought with it a surge of economic greed, encouraged by the early 80s recession, and greater economic inequality. The use of the Voight Kampff test indicates the striking level in which science had progressed, it giving the ability to qualified Blade Runners, like Deckhart (Harrison Ford), to tell whether a being was human or replicant through observation of the eye. The created being had also developed significantly during the century between each texts production, a belief in physiognomy developing from the Frankenstein context where appearance reflected personality. The ‘perfect[ion]’ of the replicants in Blade Runner indicates not only the progression of our views on physiognomy, but gives an illusion to the IVF technology that was being developed at the time. This technology allowed scientists to assist in the reproductive process, like Tyrell can almost completely replicate life within the film, the replicants ironically being ‘more human than human’.

This scientific advancement created opportunity for scientists to interfere with natural reproduction in order to create their own artificial life, this usurpation of power allowing them to reach a god-like status. Within Frankenstein, an allusion is made to the Prometheus myth, likening Victor’s ability to reanimate life to Prometheus’ stealing of Zeus’ fire. Yet this artificial creation doesn’t allow a parental bond to form between creator and created, the hostile relations between Victor and the being eventuating to his destruction. Victor experiences immediate repulsion as the being takes life, symbolic of the period’s romantic’s repulsion of the effects of the industrial revolution, and the filial tie is immediately disconnected. Shelley represents within Frankenstein’s flee from his being, that man is incapable of recreating natural reproduction as man is ethically incapable of addressing the parental responsibility. The allusion to Paradise Lost on the novels title page, ‘Did I request thee, Maker, … to mould me man?’, shows the beings lament for his condition, the alliteration of ‘cursed, cursed creator’ again emphasising this unresolved pain between him and his maker. Paradise lost made a significant effect on Shelley as she wrote this book, having participated in several discussions with the author before Frankenstein’s publishing date. A great contrast is created between Victor and his being, through the use of natural, romantic imagery. The seasons linking with the emotions felt by the being, romantics of Shelley’s era would have associated and sympathised with the being, rather than Victor who initially took little pleasure in natural beauty, his obsession blinding him to the ‘ ’.

Unlike the romanticism of nature within Frankenstein, Blade Runner is almost completely devoid of nature and weather, its setting in constant rain, and the tech noir of its office atmosphere emphasising the darkness and artificiality of the community. A close up of Tyrell’s eye shows a reflection of the overpopulation, density and pollution of the city that he has created as a result of his scientific immorality. The basing of this city in Los Angeles in 2019 allows for this environmental destruction warning of Scott’s to have more impact, the time in which the audience is given to act on the issues addressed being minimal. Scott makes biblical illusions within the confrontation scene between Tyrell and the replicant Roy, naming him the ‘prodigal son’. The kiss before Roy’s murder of his maker also parallels the Judas kiss of betrayal from the Bible, highlighting the failed relationship between artificial child and parent. An irony is founded in both texts, the being and replicant both doing ‘questionable things’, yet draw more sympathy from the audiences, and in the case of Blade Runner the replicants experiencing more emotion than their human counterparts, a close up of Roy’s pain being shown whilst killing Tyrell instead of the actual murder taking place in front of the camera.


Both texts, Frankenstein and Blade Runner, effectively seek to resolve common issues that developed in their context as a result of unchecked scientific progress. The lack of moral guidance within each creators process allowed for their scientific research to go their beyond control, and led to the eventual death of both Tyrell and Frankenstein. Both of these texts indicate a severe warning from their composers to their audience, both of different contexts yet on a definite joint campaign.