Belonging In Peter Skrzyncki's '10 Mary Street'

I’m going to talk to you today about aspects of belonging and not belonging that related to the two texes,”10 Mary street” written by peter skrzyncki and “ a sacrifice shouldered, a loyalty pledged beyond words” written by Alice Pung.
Firstly, I’m going to talk to you about the definition of belonging and then I’m going to discuss about aspects of belonging in the poem and text.
As you know Belonging means be fit or be acceptable in a particular place or environment. Or be a member of something.
Tim Winton said “Our Culture is obsessed about belonging, but people haven’t grasped the idea that you have to earn belonging, to earn some kind of comfort and ease of familiarity with yourself’’. “10 Mary Street “reflects this idea through many different ways and in many different contexts such as family, school, home, culture, and heritage.
To belong is to feel as though you are a part of something, where you connect
with other people, and where you feel a sense of security. Belonging can be individually, within a group, community, society, or the larger world. This sense of belonging can be earned through our family, friends, likes and dislikes, backgrounds and opinions.
So, in the “10 Mary Street”
Peter Skrzynecki uses various language and visual techniques throughout his poems to show the idea that you have to earn belonging.
In “10 Mary Street”, he used “nineteen years” two times. This can shows us that they were finding a place to belong by repetition of that emphasis the long time to live to their house which shows they had adapted to the environment.
On the other hand he commented “narrow bridge” (as symbolise) that tells us a feeling of dislocation and feeling of not belonging
To the Skrzynecki every belonging, except the one the parents began with seems somehow unreal .the parents tend plants “like adopted children “that simile stressing the lack of a real sense of belonging. Only by keeping “war Europe /with photographs and letters” and by eating and drinking what they grew up with do they find any sense of belonging, but it’s not a belonging to their parent surrounding, though outwardly they conform and assimilate.
He observed every details of his environment with a clear, even loving, revelling “like a hungry bird” in the garden’s strawberries and peas .and when the house doomed, the garden has now gone, and in a telling aside the poet mentions that “the whole block has been gazetted for industry”.
“We became citizen of the soil that was feeding us “has a deep sense that tells us he knew that he is refugee and everything they get from government is a grace for them as a poor people. It shows the sense of Disorient to Australia.
Peter Skrzynecki used juxtaposition of stanza 2 and 3, and illustrates to us good and bad sides of his life!
In the end of poetry by saying “that will open no house when this one is pulled down” he finished his poem to show again that he doesn’t have sense of accepted

The similar event happened for Alice Pung that she rejected from their mother country to Australia and accepted as refugee and although poor. Her parents didn’t have the same opportunities as she had to work hard in manual job to provide for her daughter.
Alice Pung
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She commented that “…my mother would be expected to read 46 p book” effected how thoughtlessly some people as refugee are excluded by government definition .this is included peter Skrzynecki‘s life when they came to Australia.
“I would be accepted as one of the educated, professional migrant Australians of which country can be proud, while my mother be regarded as A FOREIGN OUTCAST” has emotion language to not accepted in the Australian community.
Also there is a similar relationship between Alice and her mother and Skrzynecki and her family, that they had.
The relationship between Alice and her mother is very similar to Skrzynecki‘s parents that they know something and mention on that and they gratitude their parents. (???)