Melina Marchetta's Looking For Alibrandi And The Asian Disease

‘A Multi-Cultural Society’ is a factual recount in the chronological structure, started with an author’s impression of Australia and concluded with other people’s experiences, with sub-headings. The main theme of this related text is thankful, the author is being thankful to the opportunities herself and her families been given, “My parents just wanted a better life”. Her first impressions of Australia is a contrast to ‘Be Good, Little Migrants’, the author had a favourable experience, she like how Australia is a multi-cultural society with people from different countries. Australian society is diverse compare to India, her mother country. The author came over by an aeroplane with her parents when she was six years of age. She had an extraordinary

As one of the most ethnically diverse countries today, Australia is home to people from over two hundred countries, with different backgrounds, stories, cultures and religions. Multiculturalism has had vast impacts on Australia, as reflected in the country's mainstream diet, lifestyle and cultural practices that has shaped the Australian identity. However, Australia's diversity has also caused social and cultural tensions as well as racism and isolation, as clearly shown in both Aditi Gouvernel's "Wei-Lei and Me" and Shalini Akhil's "Destiny", two memoirs revealing different perspectives on growing up Australian through different experiences in their childhood years. Gouvernel was a victim of racism at her primary school, and as a result, experienced isolation and bullying from her peers. However, Akhil's memoir shows the positive outcome that multiculturalism can have when one culture is strengthened

An author’s personal experience gives authenticity to their text. Peter Skrzynecki, an Australian poet of Polish origin emigrated to Australia shortly before the end of World War II. His assimilation into his newfound homeland is portrayed in his emotive poetry, where he explores his disconnection and alienation. The way in which Skrzynecki writes about his personal experiences gives an authentic insight into the perspective of a migrant, allowing the audience to better understand the challenging emotions evoked by the migrant experience. These emotions are clearly seen in Skrzynecki’s poem St Patrick’s College, where he delves back through his experiences at school and highlights the disconnection and alienation he felt being a migrant. This disconnection is further expressed in Feliks Skrzynecki, where Skrzynecki alludes to his detachment from even his father. These feelings of disconnection and alienation shown by Skrzynecki in his poems, allows the audience to understand the effects of growing up as a migrant.

For millions of immigrants, America has been seen as the land of opportunity where anyone could become anything he or she wanted to be. A family that believes strongly in the American dream can be found in Amy Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds.” The story centers around the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who desperately wants her daughter to become successful. In the story, the author shows the difficult lives immigrants face when moving to a new culture. In this short story, the theme shows the protagonist’s conflict with her mother on the type of daughter her mother wants her to be. The author establishes the theme of how difficult mother-daughter relationships can be through characterization, setting, and symbolism.

These constant reminders of differences as well as stereotyping made it incredibly hard for Gouvrnel, Wei-Lei and all migrants to belong somewhere other than what their physical appearance may indicate. By Gouvrnel recalling this story to the readers it make us think and learn about the impact and implications migrants have to face when coming to Australia and the teasing, bulling and hardships they were forced to face. On multiple occasions she recalls being in tears and asking herself why she “couldn’t move back to Delhi,” difference in physical appearance and were we originate serve as indicatory of difference that can result in very stereotypical grouping, making assumptions purely based on looks as well as exclusion, preventing migrants from feeling as if they belong.

The cultural experiences is a major factor in both 10 mary street and Feliks Skrzynecki, poems by Australian- Polish poet Peter Skrzynecki, as it expresses his experiences of his life in australia an a european immigrant. Both poems are show cultural experience in australia as the poets family attempts to fit into australian society. Audiences gain a greater understanding of different cultural experiences through the poets ability to communicate the ideas of; security within the home, relationships between father and son, and an overall sense of belonging within society. It is through his brilliant poetic form that Skrzynecki’s work is able to do this. 10 Mary street looks at the migrant experience and how they attempted to keep a bond with

In the memoir ‘Pointing North’, Paolo Totaro finds that despite having barely any memories of Italy and having spent most of her life in Australia, “fitting in” is not easy. Paolo Totaro pointed out that many of her hardships originated in the schoolyard – “They too figured it was too hard to pronounce, so Greasy Wog became my moniker.” She noticed that throughout her child, many people overlooked her feelings and simply labelled her as a “hysterical Italian”. Paolo stated that she doesn’t “remember any other non-Aussie kids at school” and wondered whether she would have felt as if she belonged if she were not the only foreigner. She found that as others treated her as an outsider, she clung

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

It is thought by many that part of the Australian identity is being a very tolerant country that accepts and includes all cultures and people from all walks of life; however, after coming across the poems No More Boomerang by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Be Good, Little Migrants by Uyen Loewald, the experiences felt by two Australians prove that this idea is... questionable.

Melina Marchetta’s cult text ‘Looking for Alibrandi’ looks at many issues of growing up in Australia torn between two cultures. The main protagonist Josie Alibrandi was born in Australia into a family with strong Italian cultural links and her battle to ‘find’ herself and her ethnicity is one that I will explore further.

After figuring out that being Italian and Australian doesn’t matter, she reassures herself, Jacob says ‘You people should go back to your own country if you’re so confused.’ Josie responds ‘‘This is my country,’ I whispered.’ (The fact that she whispers demonstrates her shock and also her lack of conviction that she truly belongs which shows us that she has accepted her culture and heritage.) Therefore I have learnt that change can show us things that we’ve never seen before and with change, we learn to accept things for the better.

Before introducing any major events, or analysis, it’s important to note that this autobiographical work was only made possible with the aid of written documentation, and tales passed on from the family and the community. This is imperative because a great portion of the piece focuses on events that Edwidge didn’t experience first-hand, so she heavily stresses on the details being re-surfaced through friends and family to complete a holistic emigration story. Family history and the involvement of cherishing family moments is often an overlooked form of communication, but without this, this and many other important minority stories would have never been complied in a way where we can now discuss them in a culturally-reflective academic setting, like this course.

For millions of immigrants, America has been seen as the land of opportunity where anyone could become anything he or she wanted to be. A family that believes strongly in the American dream can be found in Amy Tan’s short story, “Two Kinds.” The story centers around the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who desperately wants her daughter to become successful. In the story, the author shows the difficult lives immigrants face when moving to a new culture. In this short story, the theme shows the protagonist’s conflict with her mother on the type of daughter her mother wants her to be. The author establishes the theme of how difficult mother-daughter relationships can be through characterization, setting, and symbolism.

When adapting to a new culture, many find it hard to assimilate into their new world while still holding on to their past life. Finding yourself in a new place with a new language and unfamiliar faces is challenging for immigrants. Jhumpa Lahiri, an immigrant herself, sheds some light on the Indian culture in her book, Interpreter of Maladies. She conveys many challenges that immigrants face when moving away from their homeland in a myriad of short stories. These short stories introduce similar themes of immigration and adaptation through different experiences. Two of Lahiri’s short stories, “A Temporary Matter” and “Mrs. Sens”, do a great job in showing similar challenges of cultural differences in two different ways. They introduce characters

This novel details the traumas of cross cultural maladjustments, the fear and the anger, the turmoil and the tribulations, the shame