Belonging

The idea of belonging is an important and fundamental value in our lives, it makes you feel part of something. The perceptions of belonging most commonly come from the connection made with people and places. This idea is represented particular well in various ways throughout the film Billy Elliot directed by Stephan Daldry, the anthology ‘immigrant chronicle by Peter Skrzynecki and the short story ‘ Belonging Is More Important Than Walls’ by Isabella May. Each of the texts has a wide range of ideas on how belonging is created though those texts. When a group of ‘new migrants’ moves to a new society, their sense of belonging will be challenged because of lack of understanding to the new place. The anthology ‘immigrant chronicle’ represented that how a connection to place may influence a sense of belonging. In ‘Felix Skrzynecki’, Felix’s attempts to create a sense of belonging in his new country are portrayed in his attitude to his garden. In the first stanza, the simile of he ‘loved his garden like an only child suggest us the strength of his attachment to, and obsession for the garden. Together with the simile in the description of Felix’s fingers ‘with cracks/like the sods he broke’ shows Felix sense of belonging to the soil. Through the hyperbole swept its paths/Ten times around the world. It conveys his work ethic shows how much he loves his garden and how much he can get a sense of belonging made with his garden. In the third stanza, ‘About farms…Five years of forced labour in Germany. Helped us builds image of stoicism, establishes a sense of belonging and details of shared experiences in their homeland. Lawns-geraniums younger/than both parents helped us builds a image of peace and appreciation, the iconic of AU background. In ‘St. Patrick’s College’, the poet used lots of symbolism created sense of not belonging in the opening stanzas. His mother’s decision to enroll Peter in a private Catholic school establishes her hope that this will provide a way of belonging in Australian society. We can find that through cliché, ‘What was best’. The struggle to fit in to the new place and society is conveyed in Peter’s first experience of the school. The symbol of ‘Our Lady’, the statue of the Virgin Mary, for most people represents a sense of acceptance. But Peter sees uncertainty, darkness and unwelcoming surrounding her. This is symbolically represented through his description of the statue’s face, ‘outstretched arms, overshadowed by clouds.’ The simile ‘Like a foreign tourist’ straightly shows the alienation Peter feels about the place even though he have experience for eight years. Repetition of ‘eight years’ was repeated to emphasis the length of time. At the last stanza, ‘With closed eyes…out of Edgar Street for good’ tone of uncertainty tells us that nothing has changed; he still does not fit into that area and community. In each of the poems of Skrzynecki we can see a common idea about belonging: that it is emerge from connection to place. The film Billy Elliot is dealing with same sort of idea:____________________________________________3_______________ ____________________________________________. Throughout the film, this aspect of belonging was mainly shown by portrayal of relationships between Billy and Mrs. Wilkinson, Jackie, Michael. In the scene where Jackie first finds out Billy dances ballet, the conflict between Jackie and Billy suggests us Billy’s a sense of not belonging to his family is caused by their completely different attitude about weather boys should do ballet. Close up of Jackie’s face and his angry facial expression shows Jackie’s anger and exasperation about Billy’s choice of where to belong. Swearing words and Jackie’s tone of voice ‘forget about the fucking ballet, got it'’ shows the relationship between them is getting worse and serious. Close up of Billy’s face and dialogue of colloquial language shows Billy’s anger at Jackie and the degree of their conflict reaches. With the insistent music and drumbeats as Jackie gets up and grabs Billy, finally their tension and anger created Billy’s a sense of not belonging to his family. Similar to the scene above, Billy’s a sense of not belonging also created by Tony and Jackie. This happens when Mrs. Wilkinson goes to Billy’s house try to convince them to let Billy dances ballet. Tony throws Billy up to the table says ‘____________________________________________’ the dialogue and Toni’s tone of voice shows that Tony is creating pressures on Billy. Together with dialogue ‘____________________________’ and Mrs. Wilkinson’s angry tone of voice show the conflict between her and Billy’s family. The camera movement of spin around Billy shows the pressure and force Billy is facing among them. It is creating a sense of not belonging of Billy. As Billy jump out of the house, Dar____ used symbolism of Billy tries to climb out of a small room with three walls facing on him and he kicks out the door continues dance while ‘escaping’. It symbolized the barriers of Billy’s ballet dance and suggests his sense of not belonging caused by his relationship to those people. Compare to the film, short story ‘Belonging is more important than walls’ by Isabella May represented same idea about the sense of belonging. The story is about the writer experienced her relationships with her family and local community changes, that increased her a sense of belonging with relationships and connection to her family and culture. At the beginning, the relationship between writer and her father is hard to feel and understand, they are not quite understand each other. Writer used metaphor such as ‘My father was really like a stranger.’ Shows us that writer doesn’t like her father much, their relationship must have some problem caused by misunderstanding. The writer describes her sense of not belonging to her father through the simile ‘He was just there. Like the designs on the walls on the super fancy homes.’ Symbolism such as ‘walls and super fancy homes.’ also symbolized her family community. colloquial language ‘I love you, Daddy.’ Repeated many times through the whole story. It suggest us the writer actually WANTS get her father’s love and fit in to her family and community. Belonging is a multifaceted notion that strikes an emotional chord with every human being. From the texts we learnt, they all explored the complex nature of belonging. The poems Felix Skrzynecki and St. Patrick’s College have shown how the sense of belonging is emerged from connections to places. The film Billy Elliot and short story ‘Belonging Is More Important than Walls’ represented the idea of how a sense of belonging comes from relationship made with people. All those texts strongly support the ideas of belonging, offering new insights into this complex concept