Preview

Belonging Speech

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
944 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Belonging Speech
Belonging Essay

The notion of belonging to people, place and society is a universal need which shapes and develops a stronger sense of self identity. Although perceptions of belonging are unique to the individual, personal contentment is most powerfully drawn from the greater community and surrounding environment.
To support these three arguments, I will relate to the compelling picture book The Island written by Armin Greder in 2008, and Melina Marchetta’s engaging film Looking for Alibrandi, produced in the year 2000. I will also give reference to The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick.
Belonging is a gift we all require. It colours who we are and how we fit into the world around us. The hunger for the need to belong to groups or places is what drives us and is common to all humanity. A famous quote from the Bible states ‘How good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity’. Throughout our life, the ever-changing personal, social and cultural contexts can transform ones sense of belonging and self identity. Levels of connectedness with friends and family will change over time and can be positive or negative.
Armin Greders vivid picture book The Island depicts negative connotations of not belonging to people. The text expresses this through the protagonist’s alienation and the concept of social repression against those who are different. The graphic book illustrates a mysterious man washed up on an unfamiliar island. The inhabitants of the island instinctively show discontent towards the intruder because he is quite different to their typical appearance.
Non-acceptance of the protagonist is immediately portrayed in the line ‘I am sure he wouldn’t like it here, so far away from his own kind’. This quote is used by the inhabitants to excuse themselves from responsibility of the lone man as he is not ‘one of them’.

Disconnection to people in The Island works in parallel with Billy’s relationship to his father in The Simple Gift. This is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The need to belong to a community, society or environment can shape ones behaviour, action and attitude, Through the experiences and the choices made in the processes of belonging, an individual’s identity will develop but may create barriers which they must overcome to be accepted.…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Belonging is feeling a sense of acceptance, familiarity and unity, whether it is in a group of friends, family or within the community; however, barriers to belonging can exist.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Belonging in some instances cannot be beneficial for ones wellbeing. Negative consequences may arise from the way in which one develops belonging. Barriers to belonging can be imposed or voluntarily constructed, and allowing one to distort the barriers can affect the way one belongs to people, places, groups or the larger world.…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Belonging is an instinctive human need in all of us as it provides us with security, happiness and a…

    • 239 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘An individual’s sense of belonging can emerge from the connections made with people, places, groups, communities or the larger world.’…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The idea of belonging can be seen through an individual’s need to gain a sense of identity, within themselves and through their relations with others.…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    An individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their experience of belonging.…

    • 1331 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Billy doesn’t belong living at home with his abusive father so he leaves to live in a train carriage at Benderat. Billy describes it as a perfect town which gives a sense of calmness. He washes his clothes and swims in the river which suggests that he is comfortable in his surroundings. His positive outlooks on Benderat suggest to the responder that Billy has the sense of belonging.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Belonging Speech

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Obviously, a sense of connection is a basic human need, and is greatly affected from past experiences within a family, physical place, society, which as a result develop one’s identity. This can be seen in the set text Immigrant Chronicle “10 Merry Street” and “Felik Skrzynecki” both by Peter Skyzynecki, which both poem highlight key themes of alienation, uncertainly of belonging to place, isolate from mainstream.…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Belonging Summary

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Belonging: A feeling of belonging can emerge from the affiliation with people, place, groups and cultures; belonging meant to be a part of something and accepted for which one is. However, there will always be those people who don’t belong and hence are alienated from society.…

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    An individual’s (or collective) IDENTITY and self-perception may develop through the process of belonging. Only the individual can determine whether or not he/she belongs and this will in turn shape a sense of self.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The basis of ones life naturally revolves around the urge to gain a sense of belonging, and inturn the acquirement of this sense can be a catalyst for many decisions. An individual’s perception of belonging is constantly being reshaped by personal experiences such as upbringing, family life and relationships and inevitably leads one to gain a sense of identity and acceptance of themselves and the world around them. Factors that affect ones perception of belonging are continually changing due to the circumstances and stages of their present life, however throughout these stages a number of Impediments such as family issues or traditional gender roles may provoke a sense of division or restrict their ability to develop a sense of belonging. William…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Small island

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Small Island is structured around four competing narratives each claiming historical truth and experience through shifts in setting and time. Levy’s historical novel is told through a series of extended analepsis that move back and forth between 1924 and 1948 as well as across national borders and cultures. Written more than fifty years after the first Windrush arrival, it creates a common narrative of nation and identity in order to understand the experiences of Black people in Post-Colonial Britain. Yet she frames these experiences within those of the British in order to acknowledge all historical truth and to not establish a singular articulation of the experience of migration and empire. Through the alternative narratives Levy attempts to fill the historical gaps and articulate a renegotiation of identity as after World War Two ‘the sun has finally set on the Empire, we are now having to face up to all of these realities.’…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If we take a bird's eye view of our island today, and compare it with what it used to be, we must be struck by the extraordinary fact that the nation which was once, as every one admits, one of the most classically learned and cultured nations in Europe, is now one of the least so; how one of the most reading and literary peoples has become one of the least studious and most un-literary, and how the present art products of one of the quickest, most sensitive, and most artistic races on earth are now only distinguished for their hideousness.…

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sst Sample Paper

    • 4753 Words
    • 20 Pages

    1.3 Culture, Identity and Society Theme Theme 7. Print culture and nationalism (Ch.7) 8. History of Novel (Ch.8)…

    • 4753 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics