Belonging
Good morning, fellow students and teacher/adjudicators
In my humble opinion, Belonging is the inherent nature of humans to connect with others. This statement means that we, -as humans- have an underlying need to belong, to feel safe and to feel wanted. On the other hand Google defines belonging in 2 ways. The first one: To be rightly placed in a specified area. This links belonging to a place, whether it be a physical location or a certain mindset. The second definition is: To be rightly classified in or assigned to a specific category. This second definition links belonging to a group. For instance this may be a social group, such as a friendship or a relationship. Or a group of people that share a common interest such as “like groups” on Face book or threads on board sites such as 4chan.
The two related texts that i have chosen are the film called “The Black Balloon”, a story set in the late 70’s yet written and produced in Australia in 2006 but first screened in Australian cinema’s in2007. The second text is a children’s picture book called “Miss Spiders Tea Party” Written and illustrated by an American author David Kirk in 2007, Kirk also wrote a whole series involving Miss Spider.
Both texts explore notions of belonging and not belonging/exclusion. I chose these concepts specifically because I think it represents life. Life is a series of interacting and overlapping times and spaces where you can “Belong” and yet simultaneously not belong.
In The Black Balloon the concept of belonging is shown as a family group. Thomas “Belongs here whether he likes it or not” according to his mother Maggie played by Toni Collette. This says that even though Thomas doesn’t want to belong, his family will always be there for him no matter how dysfunctional they maybe.
The scene I chose to analyse is set around the breakfast table. I chose it specifically because it’s not a case of simply belonging or not. Thomas belongs here, as part of the family group- yet
In my humble opinion, Belonging is the inherent nature of humans to connect with others. This statement means that we, -as humans- have an underlying need to belong, to feel safe and to feel wanted. On the other hand Google defines belonging in 2 ways. The first one: To be rightly placed in a specified area. This links belonging to a place, whether it be a physical location or a certain mindset. The second definition is: To be rightly classified in or assigned to a specific category. This second definition links belonging to a group. For instance this may be a social group, such as a friendship or a relationship. Or a group of people that share a common interest such as “like groups” on Face book or threads on board sites such as 4chan.
The two related texts that i have chosen are the film called “The Black Balloon”, a story set in the late 70’s yet written and produced in Australia in 2006 but first screened in Australian cinema’s in2007. The second text is a children’s picture book called “Miss Spiders Tea Party” Written and illustrated by an American author David Kirk in 2007, Kirk also wrote a whole series involving Miss Spider.
Both texts explore notions of belonging and not belonging/exclusion. I chose these concepts specifically because I think it represents life. Life is a series of interacting and overlapping times and spaces where you can “Belong” and yet simultaneously not belong.
In The Black Balloon the concept of belonging is shown as a family group. Thomas “Belongs here whether he likes it or not” according to his mother Maggie played by Toni Collette. This says that even though Thomas doesn’t want to belong, his family will always be there for him no matter how dysfunctional they maybe.
The scene I chose to analyse is set around the breakfast table. I chose it specifically because it’s not a case of simply belonging or not. Thomas belongs here, as part of the family group- yet