Romulus_My_Father

The exploration of texts such as Raimond Gaita’s Romulus my father, Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands and Tim Winton’s Neighbours, all exemplify the universal theme of how our perceptions of belonging and not belonging can be influenced by connections to places. Romulus my father is a biographical memoir detailing the cultural struggles of belonging and segregation within unfamiliar surroundings. The text demonstrates how an individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their experience of belonging. Gaita uses reflective first person narration throughout the novel to not only express his own personal struggles to belong, but also his mother’s and father’s. Throughout the novel Raimond’s use of imagery to describe the Australian landscape becomes a reoccurring motif and evocative metaphor, to convey his sense of isolation. By juxtaposing the Australian and European landscapes this depicts Romulus’ and Christine’s estrangements to their surroundings and the hardships they face to conform to a new society. Romulus cannot ‘become reconciled with the Australian landscape’, whose foliage seems to be ‘symbols of deprivation and bareness.’ Through the description of the wire fencing between the ‘colliding worlds’ this symbolises the barriers and conflicts Romulus must face in order to feel accepted in this new world. This exemplifies how out perceptions of belonging and not belong can be influenced by connections to places. Like Romulus my father, the film Edward Scissorhands and the short story Neighbours influence our connections of belonging and not belonging to place. In Edward Scissorhand colour is used to highlight the variation between two different worlds. The kitsch pastel colours and uniform shapes of the suburban houses differ completely from Edward’s monolithic castle, and the stereotypical neighbourhood with its bubbly and over enthusiastic residents are contrasted with the ‘unfinished’ and strange looking Edward Scissorhands. Similarly, in Tim Winton’s Neighbours the young couple become outcasts like Edward amongst the suburban neighbourhood through their personification as ‘sojourners in a foreign land’, showing how out associations to places can provide a sense of belonging Cultural and maternal belonging is an important theme addressed across Romulus my father. This central theme is what drives the characterisation of Christine and Romulus. Christina’s inability to recover from her mental illness was further obscured by her physical and social environment. Christine was a ‘troubled city girl from central Europe’ who was forced to adapt to the barren and desolate environment. Raimond’s “family” existence is as stable as his mother’s behaviour, haunting the text and working against the common notions of family and home. Throughout the novel Raimond places an emphasis on the growing separation of his family as a unit and as a result his behaviour becomes unstable. Gaitia describes the poverty inherited into his family’s existence by commenting on his mother’s ‘desolation and isolation.’ His use of discontinuous narrative reflects his memories of confused identity and shows how disconnected Christine was to her circumstances. Christine’s neglect for Romulus becomes prominent after the family’s passage to Australia, Raimond says ‘my father’s devoted care of me contrasted obviously to her neglect.’ This instability is emphasised through a connection to place when the farmhouse at Baringhup is accepted as a home by Raimond and Romulus but not Christine as ‘she could not settle in a dilapidated landscape that highlighted her isolation.’ Place becomes an important identifier of belonging through Raimond’s contrast of the Australian and European sensibility. The depiction of the migrant experience immediately introduces the notions of separation between cultures. Romulus’ experience as a migrant demonstrates that even in a place that provides security and safety there is an absence of belonging in the form of nationality and ethnicity. Even though the town tried to make Romulus belong by ‘calling him Jack’ Romulus chose to keep his own name as he ‘always considered himself a Romanian’ and ironically Romulus chooses not to belong. The cultural reality of the rural Australian existence is also introduced when Romulus and his family are transferred to a migrant reception camp, which demands the assimilation of the migrants into the body of the Anglo Saxon culture exemplified in the term ‘New Australians.’ This gives us an insight into how our sense of belonging or isolation can be influenced by our connection to a specific place. Edward Scissorhands parallels the assimilation of culture in Romulus my father when Edward is offered ‘normal’ clothes in order to blend in with his surroundings. When Peg assures Edward he looks ‘fine,’ this reinforces Edward’s new identity and strengthens his growing sense of “nomality” amongst the neighbourhood. Neighbours, however conveys how the understanding of culture and adaption to a new place can generate a sense of belonging overtime. At first, ‘relations were uncomfortable for many months’ amongst the neighbours. The fence that surrounds the couple and the ‘twentieth century novel’ the husband is writing act as reoccurring motifs and metaphorical barriers of their disconnection and reluctance to get to know the neighbours. However with time, the couple’s experience and adaption to their new neighbourhood sees the breakdown of these barriers. Winton depicts the couple’s adaption to the neighbourhood as a natural process, literally employing references to the agricultural world of the migrants whose knowledge of gardening, building and child-birth help assimilate the couple into the world of suburbia. What was ‘interference’ becomes ‘a spot of advice and offerings of leeks, onions, wood’. The couple also ‘find themselves shouting’ linking their behaviour to the Macedonian family. Community is an important element of belonging exemplified in all three texts showing how our perception of belonging and not belonging can be influenced by out connections to places. Romulus my father illustrates the importance of belonging to place through Raimond’s dislocation from his community. This sense of alienation stems from the incident where Romulus sets fire to a haystack to kill a snake. The event emphasis Romulus’ lack of understanding, but is contrasted with his saving of Milka’s life. His sense of community is apparent here, but it is his misunderstanding that is key to his alienation. Throughout Edward Scissorhands we also see Edward’s lack of understand lead to his sense of isolation. At first Edward is accepted into his community when the stereotypical housewives are awed by Edward’s creativity however due to his naiveté and difficulty to perform simple tasks such as eat with cutlery and sleep on a water bed, his gentle nature works against him, when his Scissorhands are seen as evidence that he is a dangerous criminal unfit to live in a ‘”normal” society. We also see a lack of the character’s understand come through in neighbours. At first the couple do not understand the strange habits of their neighbours such as the little boy urinating in the street and their hesitancy towards their neighbours’ behaviour sees them ostracised from the rest of the neighbourhood, influencing our perceptions of belonging to place. Romulus my father, Edward Scissorhands and Neighbours all exemplify how our perceptions of belonging and not belonging can be influenced by a connection to place as seen in the aforementioned text.