Belonging_Essay

Belonging is a universal concept that appears simple and yet holds complex truths about humanity. It is the state in which an individual holds a place of purpose and is valued for one’s own intrinsic identity within a group or relationship. An individual sense of belonging can be formed directly by family and ancestral links and sharing morals and ideas with others. It is through these key factors that an individuals personal identity is developed and therefore inevitably their sense of belonging. The poems by Peter Skryznecki, St Patrick’s College, Feliks Skryznecki and Ancestors, show how these values create a sense of belonging. These ideas are also conveyed in the texts Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir, and the short story The Lost Salt Gift Of Blood by Alistair Macleod. Shared morals and ideas can allow an individual to find a sense of belonging to others. Peter Skrzynecki’s poem St Patrick’s college shows that religious ideas in particular can form a community to which an individual might belong. The recurring motif of Our Lady represents religion; the personification “watched with outstretched arms” shows how Peter is being accepted into the religious community. The simile “Like a Foreign tourist” conveys a floating limbo, suggesting he is unable to create a sense of belonging not only within the school but outside it as well. He “could say the Lord’s Prayer in Latin, all in one breathe.” shows that rather than establishing an intrinsic sense of belonging, Skryznecki merely obeys instruction and tolerates the enforced community thrust upon him. The last line of the poem, using light imagery, “Darkness around me… before I let my light shine” shows that religious protocol and enforced community means nothing and only establishes a surface or superficial sense of belonging. This shows that it is only when you individually accept, in a proactive action, those morals and ideas that you truly belong. Shared morals and ideas can also contribute a sense of belonging outside a religious context. Dead Poets Society shows how a philosophical rather then religious morals and ideas can create a sense of personal identity and therefor a sense of belonging. The use of close-up camera angles positioned on Todd’s face at the beginning of the film illustrates through his expression his insecurity and fear that what he might say will be meaningless. Bridging shots are utilised by the director to contrast the regiment and conformity of Welton Academy juxtaposed with the exhilaration and personal growth within Keating’s class. Through the film, Keating pursues his zealous methods of teaching to inspire the boys to “seize the day”, to reject their pre-existing support of realism and conformity and discover their own voice. In an extremely pivotal scene, belittlingly high camera angles focus on Todd as he admits that he does not have a verse to contribute. Keating empowers his crushed student and instills in him a newfound sense of confidence and by sharing his morals and ideas he is able to create a sense of belonging for his students and between them. In the final climatic scene, Todd displays this new sense identity, climbing atop his desk to salute his fallen teacher who changed his life. “O Captain, my Captain!” This time, a low angle shot focuses on Todd as a triumphant score plays in the background, emphasizing his new sense of belonging. This shows that morals and ideas are important in creating a sense of belonging, a universal desire of humanity. Another important influence on individual identity and therefore there sense of belonging are family and ancestral links. This is shown in Peter Skrzynecki’s poem Feliks Skrynecki. The poem shows Feliks' choice not to belong or completely immerse himself into Australian culture. On the surface he seems to fit into the Australian lifestyle yet he has a deeper connection to Polish culture and Poland. The metaphor: “Kept pace only with the Joneses of his own minds making.” creates a sense of belonging to Australia as only being surface deep as it uses an Australian idiom. It also shows his choice to maintain his own cultural and moral compass rather then assimilating to Australian society’s moral compass. The narrator tries to belong to a country he never knew and only belongs in the aspects, which have been unknowingly passed down to him such as the bloodline and language. The symbolic allusion; “stumbling over tenses in Caesar’s Gallic war…Like a dumb prophet watched me pegging my tents further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall” shows the sense of growing alienation he feels form his father as well as his heritage. An allusion to separation (Scotland and England) and ‘stumbling’ shows his inability to speak or talk about it to his father. The reference to the bordered Golden Cypres reinforces the appearance of belonging as it is a shallow rooted tree but how Peter is unable to immerse himself into Australian Culture. The complexities with creating a sense of belonging is seen in this text clearly, as you create a greater sense of belonging within a community it is often inevitable to isolate oneself from another. Alistair Macleod similarly emphasizes the importance of family in the development an individual sense of belonging. In the short story The Lost Salt Gift of Blood, the characters experience a collective yearning to be with one another which provides the fundamental basis of the boys sense of belonging, and consequently the father’s inability to infiltrate it. The example is given of the time when John went to stay in Toronto, and his traditional encasing becomes evident as ingrained and irreversible to his personal psyche – “when I was in Toronto says John, ‘no one was ever up before seven, I would make my own tea and wait. It was wonderful sad.” John’s grandfather confirms this mutual yearning for one another – ‘like us had no moorings, lost in the fog… nigh sick unto our hearts we was.’ This simile presents the gaping hole felt in a family when an essential member is missing; the true evidence that one belongs. The effect of Macleod’s description is the realization that John cannot be removed from the place and people which he knows, and to which he belongs, not even by his biological father. A consequential sense of grief is expressed, a lamentation of the father of never having made this spiritual connection with his son himself. This shows that family is one of the most import influences in forming an identity and there for a sense of belonging that humanity is constantly striving for. An important aspect of belonging is accepting and acknowledging ancestral links. In Ancestors we see how the persona felt about his past and how disconnected he was from his ancestors. The poem Ancestors is riddled with rhetorical questions, highlighting the all-encompassing nature of the persona’s disconnection from his past. This is further compounded by the words “who are these shadows….what secrets…where do they point to…why do they never speak....why do you wake” This poem showed how his disconnection from his heritage and custom had lead to repudiation because of his unfamiliarity with where he was from. In the poem we also see that the “bearded men” in his dream had accepted each other and this shows how they all had a sense of belonging, shown by the body language “standing shoulder to shoulder”. This further compounds the notion that acceptance of ones family and ancestors is necessary in the search for belonging. The landscape of Skrynecki’s dream is arid and barren, symbolic of his sense of cultural isolation and of not belonging. The landscape he creates is rich in sensory descriptions “grasses and sand… mud” conveying the primitive form of belonging that is formed between ancestors. Dreaming allows us to reflect on where he has come from in his search for a sense of belonging. His dream is a metaphor for his reflections, which focus on identity and how his family’s immigration has interfered with the formation of his identity. It has interfered with the significant process of forging an identity through the vital element of communication. “who are these shadows/that hang over you in a dream'” He ponders the effects of moving to Australia as a child and the subsequent impact on his maturity. This indicates that in order to belong one must acknowledge and choose whether to embrace or ignore the embedded sense of identity given to oneself from ancestral or family links. An individual sense of belonging can be formed directly by family and ancestral links and sharing morals and ideas with others. It is though these key factors that an individuals personal identity is developed and therefore inevitably their sense of belonging. Peter Skryznecki’s poems, Feliks Skrynecki, St Patrick’s College, and Ancestors convey this message by individually exploring the effects of relationships and ideas in Peter’s life and how his sense of belonging was formed and tested in a secular and familial sense. Dead Poets Society and The Lost Salt Gift Of Blood also show the struggles to belong, through these struggles the characters are able to explore and create a strong sense of identity. Belonging is a universal concept that appears simple but holds complex truths about humanity. These complexities, arising in the form of family and ancestral links and the sharing of morals and ideas, lead to and heavily influence development of a human’s sense of belonging.