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.
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