Belonging Essay

Belonging to a social group builds character and identity and can only be fulfilled when it is effectively comprehended. Belonging is a complex idea that is very rarely defined as solely belonging or not belonging, but rather somewhere between these extremities. Raimond Gaita’s “Romulus, My Father,” a story about a struggle to belong to family and culture, and Tim Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands,” a story of an outcast, who fails to conform to a community, incorporate distinctive techniques and devices to thoroughly present the idea of belonging.
There is a great significance in belonging to yourself, your name, honour and reputation. In Gaita’s “Romulus, My Father” Raimond and Romulus are mentally and physically imprisoned in this foreign land, and the Australian vastness challenges their European sensibility. Gaita enforces this by incorporating motifs. The description and discussion of landscape become a recurring motif for belonging. Romulus creates a series of relationships in which he feels he belongs, but is never fully reconciled to Australia.
Likewise, Tim Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands” displays a similar sort of alienation towards on character, but for differing reasons. Edward’s characteristics are immediately juxtaposed with that of the vibrant and motley neighbourhood. Before Edward is even introduced into the film, his exile towards fellowship has already been foreshadowed. This is portrayed when the character, Peg, gazes into her rear view mirror to reveal Edward’s dark, immoral house in comparison with the motley neighbourhood.
Once Edward has been introduced into the film, it is conspicuous that Burton has used his presentation as a technique to strongly portray his indifference. The use of tight black clothes, his pale face, and his nonsensical, spaghetti-like hair vigorously juxtaposes the background of bright, lollipop colours. The main visual disturbance of Edward is his scissor hands. Essentially, Burton has focussed on his image