Belonging

“Belonging is an instinctive human need in all of us” From when we were young, our first day at school, to walk into the daunting classroom, we were afraid to be alone, and not accepted in to groups that had suddenly formed, the desire to belong so mechanical. A desire to belong is fundamental and written deep into our subconscious minds. Mechanical like, we as humans need a sense of belonging to survive, belonging is a necessity and an instinctive human need in all of us. Good morning teachers and peers Belonging as in instinctive and subconscious desire and need to all human beings, and evidence of this is clearly exemplified in Jane Harrison’s play ‘Rainbow’s End’, Steven Speilberg’s film ‘The Colour Purple’ and Tim Winton’s novel ‘Cloudstreet’. ‘Rainbow’s End’ by Jane Harrison, tells a story of three protagonists, Dolly,Gladys and Nan Dear, living in their humpy perched on the flats of the river in the 1950’s regional Victoria. Though there is extremely evident belonging ties with the family, we as an audience witness Gladys’ persistence of her natural desire to belong, particularly to white society. This is evident in many parts of the play, where Jane Harrison’s technique of dream sequences, are employed suggesting desire, and longing. This dream sequence in particular in Act1 Scene 1, Gladys is giving a bunch of flowers to the Queen, rejoices in a hug, but when the dream sequence ends, the narration and stage direction sates; “ the lights come down on Gladys holding a bunch of weeds”. Jane Harrison’s adaption of the dream technique as well as contrast, exemplifies desire to belong, in. This desire of belonging is developed further by Gladys constantly throughout the play. Including in Act1 Scene 7 when from the instinctive desire to belong Gladys alters her nature of shyness to speak her opinion at the petition, and also the encyclopedias, which Gladys willingly buys in Act 1 Scene 2. The encyclopedia's are used as a technique by Harrison as a metaphor, revealing the medium through which Gladys finds a connection to white society therefore to and to feel apart of Australia and the land once more. Steven Speilberg’s film ‘The Colour Purple’ tells the story of a young African American girl named Celie and shows the problems they faced during the early 1900s, particularly acceptance. In a scene, Celie and her sister Nettie are together in the kitchen, and Nettie insists on teaching Celie to spell. This scene exemplifies great ties of belonging with her sister, and the instinctive human desire to belong with society its education levels. This scene, similarly to that of the scene in ‘Rainbow’s End’, education is seen as a medium through which belonging and acceptance ties to wider society exists, which references the necessity of belonging to an individual. The need of education and its role of interacting in society and the world in order to enrich the belonging experience. Spielberg personifies the letterbox throughout the film. That mailbox was empty like Celie’s heart for many many years. It was going to deliver good or deliver emptiness into her life, This technique of personification conveys the mailbox being the bearer of her sisters letters and love, therefore the medium through which belonging is again established. Scene where Celie looks upon the house and mister with the storm up above, exemplifying the contrast of her isolation, this scene and camera technique of low angled shot establishes the disconnection and therefore lack of belonging.The ending scene returns back to the field, though with a different lens width which stretches and shows the sun setting over the field, this camera technique reveals equality as the characters are shot on the same level, and also unity. Tim Winton’s novel ‘Cloudstreet’ is a beautiful text where two rural families from separate catastrophes flee to the city where they share a great home called Cloudstreet, where together they build their lives from scratch. Over twenty years they learnt to accept and love, and laugh and curse till their house becomes a home for their hearts. Similarly with ‘Rainbow’s End’, ‘Cloudstreet’ exemplifies the strong sense of belonging with family, but particularly belonging to a wider family. All the characters are in search for a place for which they define as somewhere that a loving relationship can exist. Winton uses the technique of narration of the voice of Fish Lamb to exemplify the instinctive desire to belong, returning to the place, the water, where in he once drowned and was brought back to life, though half of him, the spiritual him had died and only the physical brain-damaged Fish is left. Through voice he exemplifies a strong belonging connection to water, trying to reunite his two natures. This instinctive desire to belong once again to self, through place, reveals the mechanical like nature of human kind and our need to belong, even through death. No one feels a connection to the house in Cloudstreet, Oriel Lamb refuses to live in the house and lives in a tent outside. Winton gives the house human characteristics, and through personification of having an evil identity reveals a sense of not belonging. As page. 143 states “hateful, loaded with darkness and misery." and although the image of the house begins as a dark, threatening entity, it becomes a symbol of the harmony created by the union of two families. Seen on page 411 "I reckon we’ve made our mark on it now, like it’s not the house it was. We’re halfway to belonging here, and . . . I don’t know where I’d go anymore . . . The bloody place has got to us.” Falling in love with the house at the end, cloudstreet remains a symbol of the joining of two families and the acceptance and belonging, so Sam does not sell. Therefore, the house becomes harmonious due to the context in which it is placed – a sphere endorsing the values of love, family, determination, and spirituality in the search for human kind’s desire for completeness, acceptance and of course belonging. Belonging as in instinctive and subconscious desire and need to all human beings, and evidence in the three texts through numerous techniques reveal that man’s need for companionship is a encoded instinctive desire in our human nature.