10 Mary Street Belonging Analysis

Belonging is a complex, multi-faceted concept encompassing a wide range of different aspects. The need to belong to family and culture is a universal human need which provides a sense of value and emotional stability, and in many respects forges one’s identity. Alienation and disconnection often creates feelings of isolation, depression and loss of identity. A struggle with cultural identity is evident in Peter Skrzynecki’s poems ‘Migrant Hostel’ and ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’, where he examines a division between his pre-war Polish heritage and his newfound Australian way of life. The movement away from his European cultural heritage towards a more Australian identity created disorientation for Skrzynecki, and these feelings of disconnection

People’s perceptions of belonging can change over time, but this isn’t the case for all. When people experience moments of crisis in their lives they sometimes force a change within themselves and that is what helps them find an individual sense of belonging. This is highlighted in many texts and even composers life works. Texts that support this statement include Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicle poems, of which I have chosen St Patricks College and Feliks Skrzynecki. Skrzynecki’s poetry expresses the difficulties he faces when change doesn’t occur throughout time, as time alone isn’t a factor and that your sense of belonging is something that comes from within, with or without anyone.

An individual’s search for identity is fuelled by a need to find a place in the world where we belong, thus not belonging consequently leas to a feeling of alienation and isolation. This notion is explored through May’s journey seeking to connect with her racial heritage, her idea of understanding and acceptance. The old man Graham, May encounters at the mission expresses an Aboriginal perspective on the contemporary relationship between the two societies. “no one to talk about it. And they die, kill em selves, than those governments just put another numba, nother cross in they list. They still trying to do it, kill us of, tell us that its always been they plan.” They hybrid vernacular communicates the hatred through the ethnolect strongly marked by the non –standard features of the pronouns in “they list,” “they plan.” Graham’s diatribe reflects him as an individual demonstrating the marginalisation of the minority groups. Similarly, Armin Greder’s picture book The island demonstrates the notion concerning the duality of belonging with its inherit prejudices and xenophobic attitudes expresses the majority’s deliberate exclusion of ‘the other’ outside

When you were young, you may have seen that one kid at school who did not belong to a friend group. You might have noticed how shy they would have been and how conflicted they might have felt. No friends to talk to, to laugh with, to play with. They would have seemed very dejected because they were not accepted by a group of friends. In class, they may not have raised their hand as often or communicated with others. Nobody would want to be that kid, but when someone is, others do nothing to help them even though in their place, we would also want help and acceptance. The novel, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros shows that feeling like we are not accepted can have a big impact on us. The novel highlights a young girl, Esperanza, a Latina who lives in a neighborhood in Chicago who faces hardships and develops insecurities about herself that make her feel self conscious and judgemental towards herself. Cisneros argues that not feeling like we belong can affect our emotions negatively and make us more withdrawn and timid to prevent ourselves from being judged by others.

My initial understanding of belonging revolved around acceptance in which I believed was adequate to achieve a sense of belonging. However through the analysis of texts such as ‘inside out’ my knowledge of belonging has amplified as I now believe a sense of belonging is achieved through trust, connections, experience and acceptance. My deeper understanding of belonging has been conveyed through the use of positioning and body language in the visual representation. The visual representation has positioned the animals closely together which represents a form of trust and connection with one another. This is accompanied by the body language of the animals as they are tranquil, the tranquillity empowers the idea of the animals having a sense of

Belonging as defined by the Oxford dictionary is a multifaceted concept, yet being every individual’s inherent desire to belong. Belonging is a universal concept. Those who don’t find a sense of belonging are certain to find themselves under the destructive cycle of isolation and self-alienation. Peter Skrzynecki’s “Immigrant Chronicles” serves to highlight the basic fundamental desire to belong and the importance it holds on each individual. This notion is further explored with Skrzynecki’s poems “St Patrick’s College”, “Feliks Skrzynecki” and Gabrielle Muccino’s 21st century film “Pursuit of Happyness”. The notion of belonging being an inherent part of human nature is extensively

In this unit the concept of becoming our places has taken center stage. It is seen countless times throughout the required readings and discussion posts that places influences who were are and who we turn into as we grow as human beings. Furthermore, the concept of places becoming part of us, instead of merely influencing us, is quite evident. However, while reanalyzing the readings I discovered another, unanswered question. Do we ever really become the places we inhabit or are we all, simply, immigrants in the places we call home? In today’s society, it seems that instead of becoming part of the places we inhabit we are merely immigrants in these special dwellings. This concept is produced by: the lack of finding deep meaning in places and

Belonging is often referred to as acceptance and interconnection within social, cultural, historical and personal contexts of the wider community. This makes an individual feel comfortable and content to live among similar people. This is explored in the film ‘Bend it like Beckham’ by Gurinda Chaddah, where Jess the protagonist is torn with two different cultures, traditional Indian sikh culture and modern western culture that alters her sense of belonging over time. Similarly, in the novel, “Who am I” by Anita Heiss, Mary is stuck between two different cultures, an aboriginal culture and modern white culture which creates a conflict in her mind about her real identity and a sense of belonging.

Whether it is gender, sexuality, religion, race, ethnicity or nationality people’s self-concept is structured around multiple identifiers. Depending on context some identifiers are more predominant than others, however, these identities enable people the ability to understand and differentiate themselves from others. While all identities are important, a crucial dimension of identity often dismissed as a major contributor to self-individuality is national identity (Baldwin, 157). Partaking in a culture, society or community for a length of time the recognition of nationalism begins to diminish. The constant participation of a nationality becomes the “norm” and it is not until withdrawn from a nation that the acknowledgement of national identity occurs. Speaking from personal experience, my national identity had never been as dominant than my time spent studying abroad in the London. While I identified as an American, I never felt American until I came overseas. Customs, language, and practices were foreign to me and fitting into the culture was a learning process. In order to feel as though I belong somewhere in this new community, I found security in identifying with and as an American. Simply, I developed an imagined community to reconnect with my home country. When place in situations where exclusion from people’s nation occurs finding comradeship through imagined communities reproduces the sense of belonging, but also alter one’s self-understanding by unveiling an

Thinking about this reflective statement I decided to investigate deeply my ancestral history because growing up I had never thought about my identity until now. I had always assumed that my ancestors were all born and raised New Zealanders. Stuart Hall’s reading “Cultural identity and diaspora” discussed cultural practices reflecting on his own experiences, living in one place and moving to another. Hall defines cultural identity, “in terms of one, shared culture, a sort of collective ‘one true self’, hiding inside the many other, more superficial or artificially imposed ‘selves’, which people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common” (234). Cultural identity is therefore an important aspect for every individual; it is a core part of who you are. It positions you in relation to different identity debates, by the ways in which your cultural identity is shaped or similar to other people’s who have been through the same history, and share the same ethnicity or the same race.

Our behaviour and attitudes are shaped by the need to belong. When someone faces different relationships and experiences in life, the sense of belonging is strengthen. This can be seen through the texts Alice Pung’s ‘Unpolished Gem’, ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ directed by Phillip Noyce. Katrin Figge’s ‘Third Culture Kids Live Life on a Global Stage.

Culture is an essential feature of one’s identity through self-perception and group association (King, Perez & Shim, 2013). Migration thus contributes to culture as it involves travelling from one place of residence to settle within another. As they must adjust to a new society, migrants typically experience the alteration of social norms, loss of support networks and changes in ethnic identity through self-actualisation (Bhugra & Becker, 2005). Kelly and her family migrated from Dunedin, New Zealand to Queensland, Australia on January 25th 2011. This

Before anything else, it is vital to understand that the individual and collective representations of belonging go beyond that of simple political adaption. Rather, should the migrants find themselves developing a need to represent their communities, then it is clear that their new environment pressures reexaminations and, perhaps, changes of personal identities. If

When moving away from your home country you can lose a sense of identity; this was the case for myself, and an issue which was at the heart of two incredibly different, yet fascinating writings by Dinaw Mengustu, in ‘Home at Last’ and Manuel Munoz, in ‘Leave your name at the border’. Although these stories are based around contrasting settings, characters and ideas; they are both essentially centred on the concepts of ‘Culture’ and ‘Transition’.

The overall aim of this research is to explore historical and contemporary discourses of social policies of identity, assimilation, multiculturalism and sense of belonging in relationship to the ‘practices of the everyday’ (Lewis 2004) and to explore how the individuals make sense of their world through and by their experiences and practices of it. I will particularly focus on the area of language learning as a part of identity formation to find out how participants are involved in the act of making their language learning possible in spite of all the challenges. By this I mean not to reveal what 'really' happens, but rather to analyse participant's accounts in relation to the political discourses surrounding language, assimilation and