Perceptions_of_Belonging_Are_Both_Varied_and_Complex

Perceptions of belonging are both varied and complex Discuss the statement with reference to your prescribed text Fundamental to perceptions of belonging is the recognition of its complex nature encompassing both belonging and its antithetical concept of isolation. This duality, manifested in the relationship between an individual and the people and environment they are exposed to is paramount in the development of one’s identity and therefore the definition of the institutions to which they may belong. The concept of belonging where an individual attempts to conform to a society where their own needs and desires are put aside as opposed to adjusting their own character to meet societal expectations. Through the contrasting notions and concepts of belonging, this multi-faceted notion is addressed through many varied perspectives reflected through relationship, cultural and societal significance to individuals in their respective societies. Peter Skrzynecki explores the same notion of belonging being both varied and complex in his two poems ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ and ’10 Mary Street’, where Peter describes his complications with assimilating to the Australian culture and dissimilating with his polish heritage. Feliks Skrzynecki is a tribute to the dignity and stoicism in the face of loss and hardship to the poet’s father Feliks whose physical journey from Europe to Australia, from one culture to another, echoes through the poem and it’s clear that the impact of the journey is as strong for the son as for the father. This poem highlights that the hardest thing about physical migration is whether to keep or let go of the memories as migration allows the person to destabilise both physically and mentally. Feliks is perceived as a complex and enigmatic man from the subjective perspective of his son Peter. Feliks can never be Australian because his identity has been forged in the Polish culture. The use of hyperboles such as "spent years walking its perimeter" and "swept its path 10 times around the world" indicates his enormous dedication for the garden, his little kingdom he created. This shows how he "belongs" to the garden. Belonging in the short story ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ by Peter Skrzynecki is developed by use of the family home and garden as symbols of this belonging. This concept is most obvious in ‘10 Mary Street’, but it is also explored in ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’. In both these poems there is a contrast between the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’. The ‘inside’ of the family home and garden are presented in a positive light with warmth and security. Skrzynecki often uses positive natural images of the family garden to convey this. This contrasts directly with the ‘outside’, the wider culture into which the family must go. This is frequently presented as unwelcoming and foreign – a place where the poet does not really belong. When Peter was much younger he struggled with Latin “de Bello Gallico, about the war in Gaul”, and forgets his first Polish word. There is irony here. He learns a dead language no one speaks anymore, and starts to forget his native language, which is still very much alive. Peter also calls up the feeling of the father still being very Polish in a country not his own “he never lost his language, never even learnt English”, while Peter is drawn more to the new country. I think it is a story a lot of immigrants can identify with, still today. Ironically, and this says a lot about the character of his father, it is not the author who is most happy, even though you would expect him to feel more at home. It is his father: Happy as I have never been. The idea of belonging is extended on and contrasted to in Feliks Skrzynecki, when in the beginning he has trouble relating to his father ways and traditions, but towards the end he idles his father for having had cancer and fought in the war and never complained about it. Tone is contrasted in stanza’s three and four, where in stanza 3 Peter depicts a more negative approach towards how he cannot identify the ways his father and friends acted with one another as it is not seen as a norm. In stanza 4, there is a dramatic change in tone from a pessimistic approach to an optimistic approach by Peter. In stanza 4 Peter portrays a tone of admiration when he begins to understand and feel much more appreciative of his father and what he went through, and still have had provided what was best for him. ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ by Peter Skrzynecki is about a child finding it complicated to adjust to the ways of their parents. A similar poem to that of ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ is ‘Divorce’ by Michael Leunig. In this text ‘Divorce’ by Leunig, it echo’s that there is a direct belonging with each other but instead would rather choose to focus on other objects like TV or alcohol. ‘Divorce’ is about a boy’s dislocation or segregation from his parents. This is similar to Peter’s short story ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ where Peter feels estranged towards his father’s Polish background as he was brought up in Australia. Both Peter Skrzynecki and the young boy in Michael Leunig’s poem ‘Divorce’ have experienced a distance between them and their parents and question the way they live. Also both these poems are real life encounters experienced by Peter Skrzynecki and Michael Leunig. 10 Mary Street is about Skrzynecki’s relationship with the house where he spent his childhood at 10 Mary Street. This was in Regents Park which in Sydney’s western suburbs and was a working class suburb. This poem chronicles the day-to-day lives of the Skrzynecki family in their new country. There is an atmosphere of love and joy at the home born of his nurturing parents. The fast paced materialism of the new country is contrasted with the joy in nature and relationships so much part of Skrzynecki household. He appreciates the experience as happy and values it as a key part of his childhood. The poem 10 Mary Street by Peter Skrzynecki changes the reader’s perspective toward the migrant experience as it is written from the eyes of a young Peter looking at his parents new life in Australia and how they attempted to keep a bond with the old Poland that he himself never knew. The poet uses one metaphor to tie the entire poem together, in the case of Skrzynecki’s poem, this metaphor is that of the house. The house represents the old culture of the parents and their attempts to keep it alive within a distant culture. Within the house the culture, and time, is preserved through “photographs and letters” from relatives, whereas outside the house time is passing, things are aging or developing. This resistance to change, repeated several times throughout the poem is demonstrated through the family maintain routine described in the first stanza, giving them a sense of security, and use the metaphor of a “still too-narrow” bridge to symbolise the distance between Australian and European culture. The poem encapsulates the story of a family life. The house, the garden, the activities and daily routine are captured with effective imagery and symbolism. The memories are richly presented, told in snippets of what was done, talked about, and eaten, drunk and shared. Here at this address, the Skrzynecki migrant family along with others of similar ilk, adjusted to a new environment and made it their home. Growing up in this house is remembered fondly, marked by stability, routine and familiarity. Peter grew and went to school while the parents toiled at work and in the garden. It was a scene duplicated over and over in similar addresses. In some ways the poem becomes representational of the post-war Australian migrant experience. These post-war migrants kept their memories of “pre-war Europe alive”, communicated in word, speech and cultural customs. They adapted to Australia, becoming “citizens of the soil/ that was feeding us” and in the process adjusting to their adoptive home. Although in many of Peter Skrzynecki poems it talks about Peter trying to assimilate with his polish background family, in 10 Mary Street it speaks about Peter’s life in a positive manner. He describes how he belongs to a place of refuge and security. His house is portrayed as part of the family where it is personified that “the house stands”. Therefore 10 Mary Street does not relate to Michael Leunig’s poem “Divorce”, as it portrays a family whose priorities are not straight, and would rather escape reality through there connection with objects. They go for a world of not belonging to a world of not belonging to a world of where such state is made possible. These objects protrude a vector that serves as a boundary preventing their belonging.