English Belonging Essay

Cultural differences create barriers to belonging but these can be broken down over a period of time. This notion is evident in Tim Winton’s text ‘Neighbours’ and Steph Green’s short film ‘New Boy’. Both of these texts explore the ways that shared experience and conformity can bring people together and allow them to form connections.

The development of people and their relationship with others overtime help break down barriers to belonging created by cultural differences. This idea is evident throughout Tim Winton’s short story ‘Neighbours’. Winton’s text follows the individual character and relationship development of a newly-wed couple and their strange European migrant neighbours. In the opening paragraph Winton establishes the idea of displacement from people and place through the use of a build up of empathy within imagery. The simile, ‘...feel like sojourners in a foreign land,’ describes the disconnection to place, felt by the newly-wed couple. Through highlighting the a sense of displacement within the connotations of ‘travellers’, Winton implies the transient connection the couple feel towards this neighbourhood. Winton highlights the dynamism of interpersonal relationships and individual character growth, emphasising the way in which a sense of belonging is derived from the expulsion of cultural segregation. Through the use of hyperbole and emotive language, Winton successfully shows characters change themselves and how they view each other in the text, ‘People smiled tirelessly at them...’, ‘...felt flattered, claustrophobic, grateful, peeved.’ This change in attitudes and actions between the neighbours and the newly-weds conveys how a connection and understanding of one another has developed over time. Hence, Winton effectively establishes the notion that personal and interpersonal development can help lead to the breakdown of cultural barriers, creating a sense of belonging.

Conformity between people overtime can help break down barriers to