Immigrant_Chronicle_with_Two_Related_Texts

Belonging is essential to achieving a sense of security and fulfilment in society and is a fundamental need for all of us. The relationships we develop with people, places and things are important in the construction of our own personal identity. These relationships and the importance of them are evident in Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicle – particularly St. Patrick’s College and Migrant Hostel. By recounting his experiences as a young person and a migrant who struggled to involve himself in both his school community and Australian society, Skrzynecki effectively conveys the effects of not belonging and the importance of these relationships. Similarly, the short film Be My Brother by Genevieve Clay portrays the notion of not belonging by providing us with an insight into the issues of isolation surrounding the lives of mentally disabled Australians, while Shaun Tan’s picture book The Red Tree depicts the notion of not belonging through isolation and despair. Skrzynecki’s St Patrick’s College explores the effects of schooling on an individual’s sense of self. It is a personal recollection of Skrzynecki’s schoolboy life and the disconnection and lack of affiliation he felt with his school – St Patrick’s College. The resigned,critical tone present in St Patrick’s College is evident in the first line through a criticism of the persona’s mother for her motives for sending him to the school – so he could be just like her “employer’s sons”. From the persona’s first day at school he feels oppressed by the watching eye of “our lady”, despite her “outstretched arms”, and contempt for the school motto “Luceat Lux Vestra” (Let Your Light Shine), which he “thought was a brand of soap”. This is also evident in the line “stuck pine needles into the motto on my breast”, emphasising his lack of respect for the school and ignorance of its values. The repetition of the line “for eight years” in the second and third stanzas creates a sense of a confinement about the persona’s school life and alludes to the fact that he feels as though he is serving out a prison sentence due to the school’s institutionalised alienation of him. The burden of school is reflected in the line “I carried the blue, black and gold” through Skrzynecki’s diction in the word “carried” and the irony of the line “been privileged to wear”. The final stanza creates a sense of elation and relief about finishing school through the lines “my last day there” and “taking the right hand turn out of Edgar Street for good” while the metaphorical “darkness” the school has placed around the persona portrays the fact that he never felt a sense of belonging or engagement at St Patrick’s College. Furthermore, the use of the school motto in the final line “before I let my light shine” conveys the fact that the school’s constrictive and conservative ideals prevented the persona from doing so and that in life outside the school he will hopefully find meaning and a sense of self worth. Similarly, Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree depicts a young, anonymous girl who feels isolated and disconnected from society. The girl fails to comprehend her persona and thus struggles to establish association with the outside world. This is directly implied through the insecurity in her remark “sometimes you don’t know what you’re supposed to do, or who you’re meant to be”. This search for an identity and connection is further highlighted through the visual metaphor of the girl sketching a self portrait. The incomplete nature of the drawing is symbolic, highlighting her “missing piece” or incomplete identity and lack of self knowledge. The girl’s isolation is further portrayed through the powerful visual metaphor of the girl confined from the rest of the world in a glass bottle, combined with the hyperbole “nobody understands”. Furthermore, the girl’s face is covered with an astronaut helmet, emphasising her emotional detachment from the rest of the world, thus highlighting her alienation and failure to belong. The line “the world is a deaf machine” metaphorically symbolises the inability of the world to understand the girl, with the diction in the word “machine” being used in order to highlight the reluctance of society to alter its perspective, and thus the girl’s failure to belong. Skrzynecki’s Migrant Hostel balances the issues of belonging and rejection through the language and imagery used. Despite the “barrier at the main gate” segregating the migrants from the rest of society, they were still able to find a sense of identity within their own cultural families. We can also see that while Australian culture never actively sought to engage these new migrants, those with a common culture became involved “instinctively” with one another. Furthermore, inclusive language is used from the beginning of the poem to the end through collective pronouns such as “us”, “we” and “our” to create a sense of belonging and inclusivity, however this is only within the confines of the hostel, thus emphasising the exclusion of migrants from the rest of society. Skrzynecki also conveys many images of exclusion in Migrant Hostel through powerful language. The opening line “No one kept count of all the comings and goings” is compounded by the uncertainty caused by the lack of information that “left us wondering” and later “unaware of the season”. The anonymity of “busloads” and “nationalities” suggests a lack of identification which creates an atmosphere of impotence and helplessness. The “barrier at the main gate” which “sealed off the highway” acts as a barrier to belonging as the highway can be seen as a passage to Australian society and to belonging. However, the line “and daily we passed underneath or alongside it” suggests that the barrier is more of a psychological barrier than a physical one as it “pointed in reprimand or shame”. This personification of the barrier gives authoritarian implications and a powerful image of rejection and exclusion. The cumulative effect of these negative images alienates the migrants, reinforcing the idea that they are outsiders and not accepted as part of the wider community. Be My Brother, a short film by Genevieve Clay explores the issues of isolation surrounding the lives of mentally disabled Australians. Although exclusion and isolation are the first issues raised, the main character Richard seems content with his condition and through his own charm and charisma, challenges the prejudices of two strangers at a bus stop – Amanda, a young woman on her way to work, and an adolescent male whose name is not revealed. These two strangers are representative of society and its ideals, as they first choose to ignore Richard due to his mentally disabled state. However, when his humourous and intelligent nature, as well as his generosity is revealed, their attitudes toward him change. Close ups on the two strangers throughout the film show their different emotive states, beginning with disdain toward Richard, but ending with Amanda happily chatting to him and the adolescent male giving him a hug. Be My Brother also deals with the issues associated with mentally disabled Australians in the home, as Richard reveals to Amanda that “My brother, he doesn’t understand. He thinks he doesn’t want to be near me; I always seem to embarrass him”. Through Be My Brother, Genevieve Clay effectively conveys the notion of mentally disabled Australians not belonging through isolation and exclusion. The attitude of the everyday Australian towards mentally disabled people is reflected by the initial attitudes of the two strangers; however the inner beauty inside Richard suggests that it should not be this way. In their own way, each of these texts provides us with an insight into the notion of belonging, or not belonging. The importance of relationships is highlighted in each of St Patrick’s College, The Red Tree, Migrant Hostel, and Be My Brother through the portrayal of the ideas of isolation, exclusion and rejection from society. Thus, it can be said that within the exploration of texts, as well as the portrayal of belonging, there are also inevitably issues of not belonging.