A Mango Shaped Space Analysis

Similarly the picture book “The Red Tree” by Shaun Tan shows how understanding nourishes belonging while a lack of understanding can prevent people from belonging. The girl is portrayed as not understanding the world around her. She does not know where she belongs or who she is, and

Belonging and alienation is the process of being either excluded or accepted by the society in which you live. Belong is a human conception,mostly considered a fundamental human need and a source of survival, safety, protection and happiness. To belong is usually considered positive and essential for a successful existence:however a negative sense of belonging:found among the displaced, marginalised and uncared for can lead to many social, filial and personal problems that can be almost insurmountable for the individual. The short trop fest film “Be My Brother” by Genevieve Clay 2009, represents these ideas through the films central characters. The film deals with society and people with disabilities feeling displaced within society due to

of a girl who was misunderstood. Throughout her childhood and young adulthood, Daphne struggled with identifying with her feelings. Daphne was constantly searching for an answer to why she felt different. Daphne wanted to “fit in” but she knew she was unconventional. The different labels she was given through out her psychiatric stay stuck with her and left a scar of how she was once perceived.

This can wreak havoc on a person’s emotional state, which Mairs comments, “I am immobilized by acute attacks of depression, which may or may not be physiologically related to MS but are certainly its logical concomitant” (Mairs 67). In addition to the unpredictable physical losses that one can sustain from MS - including vision, coordination, and bladder control - one can also lose their will to live a normal life. Mairs discusses the lives of two women who share the same disease, one of which, “...stays at home and insists that her husband, a small quiet man, a retired civil servant, stay there with her except for a quick weekly foray to the supermarket” (71). The other woman has an active life and tries to participate in as many activities as she would without the disease. Mairs aspires to live like the second woman as her life progresses, but the first woman has obviously lost her mental battle with the disease. Since there is no known cure for MS, the only thing that one who is diagnosed can do is accept that their life will always be changing and it will never be easy. Towards the beginning of her disease, she thought about MS constantly and wondered when the time would come that she would no longer be physically capable of killing herself. Once she learned that she would never finish adjusting, she was able to come to an uneasy peace with her condition. Besides the

Good Afternoon teachers and students, The following texts express how an individuals understanding of belonging can quickly be changed by the people and place around them. “Jasper Jones a novel written by Craig Silvey”, it is a short story of a boy named Charles Butkins and the events that occurred because he helped Jasper Jones mask the death of Laura Wishart. “Australia by Ania Walwicz”, is attacking the people of Australia in the form of a poem, because of their point of views and attitudes in life. She also hates Australia itself because the people are not welcoming, this is the main point of this poem.

The most recent book that I have read over the first marking period was the book, A Mango Shaped Space.” In this story, a girl named Mia is in the 8th grade. She has a cat named Mango, whom she found on the street. Her cat was very sick and was taken to the vet. Mango survived luckily, but needed many medications in order to keep staying healthy. Mia also had a condition called synesthesia, which enabled her to connect colors with words. Mango was always in critical condition, but was always loving to the family. That was, until Mia makes a mistake. She accidently leaves Mango outside

An individual 's sense of belonging is determined not only by their own choices but also attitudes of others.

A Mango Shaped Space, was one of the most intriguing books I have read. Mia’s story not only gave me the freedom to consider the gifts I take for granted every day, but taught me to appreciate the strengths others have. At the beginning of my journey with Mia, I was jealous of her Synesthesia. I saw her as a unique, almost superhuman teenager and myself as an average one. Because of this, A Mango Shaped Space was more than personal growth story for Mia. I grew as well.

An individual’s sense of belonging is determined not only by their own choices but also by the attitudes of others.

The culture of Mango Street lends itself to espousing two main gender roles for women, most importantly the role of mother and caretaker, and less significantly, as sexual figure. Women on Mango Street commonly embrace or are forced to embrace at least one of these roles. Marin, a woman who takes care of her cousins by day and sits outside smoking by night, easily embodies both roles. Sally particularly exemplifies that women cannot get away from the gender roles that bind them. In her family, being a female means becoming a vulnerable person for the man to control. However, Sally prefers to ignore this gender role and advertise herself as a seductress. As she agrees to give “a kiss for each” boy (Cisneros 97) in exchange for her keys back, “beauty is linked to sexual coercion …; there are no promises of marriage here, only promises of giving back to Sally what is already hers” (Wissman). Her family rejects his role, though to some extent accepted by Mango Street. By accepting the alternate gender role, Sally tries to break away from the gender role her family expects of her. However, she is unsuccessful. To escape from her father, Sally is “married before eighth grade” (Cisneros 101) to an equally controlling man who “won’t let her talk on the telephone” or “look out the window” (Cisneros 102). The marriage is a way

When an individual’s sense of identity is corrupted through prejudicial attitudes they are left exposed and vulnerable allowing a sense of isolation and displacement in society. An individual’s ability to promote change within is largely influenced by the hardships they experience in their struggle to conform and the connectedness of identity that stems from acceptance. Tara June Winch’s novel Swallow the air, adapts the core concept that the perceptions and ideas of belonging are shaped within personal, cultural, historical and social contexts defining who we are resulting in a true understanding and

“We belong … like fish in water. We’re in our environment.” This quote from the New York Times shows the perception of belonging as the idea about connecting to a place, person, group or a community. 'Feliks Skrzynecki' by Peter Skrzynecki, 'I'm nobody! Who are you?' by Emily Dickinson and 'The Rabbits' by John Marsden & Shaun Tan show the concept of belonging as being contrasted towards the New York Times quote, showing the alienation and non-existent connection towards it. These texts have furthered my understanding on the perceptions of belonging by recognising the different concepts of connection to people, places and things.

If you were abruptly forced to change your lifestyle to another, would you be able to adapt easily? Humans have an everlasting desire to belong to others by finding their place in the world. However, when this desire is unfulfilled, individual’s struggle to come to terms with their lack of place, leading them to find ways to ‘belonged’ to by putting on a facade. Woody Allen uses his film “Blue Jasmine” as a vehicle to explore the notion of belonging through the extensive portrayal of the complex character of Jasmine’s inability to grasp reality and her desire for the past. ‘Blue Jasmine’ enables the responder to develop insight into an individual's hunger to belong to the world and ultimately overcome barriers. This hunger is satisfactorily

Fitting into society has become extra difficult, there now exists different ideals which many believe, without thinking of whether it is right or wrong. Today’s culture, has the theory that to be accepted and treated well one has to have a certain look or maybe even attitude or social status. In Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, a character, Linda, is mistreated for being different. Linda belongs to the reservations, where those who live there are studied to be less civilized, and despised by everyone. When she is moved to what is considered the New World, bodies would look at her as if she were an alien, and instantly became a recluse.

Synesthesia, a condition where two or more of a person’s senses blend together, comes in many different forms. Some people see bright, colorful shapes in the air when they hear certain sounds, others assign personalities to letters and numbers, and still others see colors in words. Mia, a synesthete in an otherwise normal family, has hidden her synesthesia since she was laughed at in third grade. But when her ‘best friend’ reveals her condition to the entire school, suddenly she is the center of attention. Worse, she’s failing her math and Spanish classes, her doctors think there’s something wrong with her, and her cat is very sick. But when she is introduced to some other synesthetes at a convention, she immediately bonds with them, and eventually