Hahahaa

Life in a new country can be difficult, there are many new things that one must grow accustom to. The assimilation into a new culture whilst balancing one’s traditional customs and beliefs can lead to a division resulting in a struggle for identification within a new society. Good morning fellow year 12 students and this is what life upon migration to Australia was like for Peter Skrzynecki and Armin Greder who migrated from Poland and Switzerland respectively. Feelings of uncertainty are created through a lack of understanding about past cultural experiences, which leads to a disunion between members of society. This concept is reflected in Skrzynecki’s Feliks Skrzynecki, where the disconnection shared by the poet and his father are explored, Skrzynecki’s Migrant Hostel, which conveys the detachment experienced from society whilst living in hostels, and Greder’s The Island, that depicts the effect of being an outsider can have on ones ability to be accepted into a new social and physical environment. People confine themselves to a world of their own creation in order to feel a sense of safety and security. This often results in people seeking refuge within their cultural heritage as they are only able to truly connect with what is familiar to them. This is evident in Feliks Skrzynecki through the use of imagery when illustrating the importance of the garden to Feliks. Feliks garden symbolically refers to his Polish traditions and the life that he had grown accustom to in Poland before the Second World War. Within his garden Feliks has created a safe haven which allows him to reminisce of the life he grew accustomed to in Poland. The fulfillment that Feliks creates for himself in his garden is contrasted to the effect that the separation from society has for those migrants living in the hostel in the poem Migrant Hostel. This sense of anxiety experienced by the migrants in their seclusion from the rest of society is conveyed through simile in “A barrier at the main gate sealed off the highway from our doorstep as it rose and fell like a finger pointed in reprimand or shame”. The physical and metaphorical barrier at the front gate represents the migrant’s perspective on how they deem the outside world perceives them. They are not invited. Greder’s The Island explores the effects a physical barrier has in isolating outsiders from society. The layout of the salient image of the great wall, depicts the