Immigrant Chronicles and Freedom Writer

To belong is to feel as though you are a part of something. Belonging or sense of 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 and backgrounds. Belonging to a group can operate both positively and negatively in our quest to define ourselves. In belonging to a group we satisfy our needs for belonging, acceptance and approval however in order to maintain our position in the group we often have to put individual needs second and put the needs of the group ahead of our own interests.
Poet Peter Skrzynecki uses various language techniques throughout his poems to portray the idea that you have to earn belonging. ‘Migrant hostel’ reflects his own personal experiences as a migrant in Australia. The combination of ‘’comings, goings, arrivals and sudden departures’’ implies a sense of chaos, insecurity and instability. Skrzynecki uses similes such as homing pigeon and birds of passage to explain the constant change, ‘we lived like birds of passage’.
Freedom Writers, a film directed by Richard LaGravenese (based on a true story) is about a young teacher named Erin Gruwell played by actress Hilary Swank who inspires her class of at risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves and pursue education beyond high school. Knowing that Woodrow Wilson High school was in integrated high school, she chose to work there hoping to be an instrument for change. The concept of belonging is represented through the use of racial groups and gangs. The students are clearly identified as belonging to an ethnic group based on their colour, race and ethnicity for example the Cambodians, the Latino’s, African American and the whites. They also identify themselves as being gang members and belonging to a gang, this includes having territory and protecting your own. Security, affection, friendship and support are all examples of the benefits in belonging to a gang however the composer has also shown the more dangerous side of this type of belonging, including being shot at and beaten up for belonging to a particular racial group.
When Erin Gruwell arrives for class on the first day in a business suit wearing pearls, it is clear that she does not belong to the same social class or ethnic group as her students. The class enters the room and settle into various groups based on ethnicity within the classroom. ‘Nationalities sought each other out like a homing pigeon’, immigrants congregated in nationality groups to provide mutual support. The simile conveys the desire for comfort which is similar to what the students of room 203 are trying to achieve.
Erin Gruwell challenges the students to belong to each other and the world in a way that will open up a better future for them. ‘A barrier at the main gate sealed off the highway from our doorstep as it rose and fell like a finger’. The barrier at the main gate symbolises isolation from the outside world while the highway represents their future and the possibilities of their new life and their attempts to travel along it at this time are limited. Racial tension acts as a barrier to belong in the film but over time the students begin to feel that they belong to Miss Gruwell and her to them, referring to themselves no longer as just a class but now a family.
Growing up Asian in Australia by Alice Pung illustrates the crisis some experience when juggling the demands of belonging to two different cultures and how the individual has to leave one in order to achieve a sense of authenticity and place in the world. It reflects on issues of race and identity and what it means to be Asian Australian. ‘...we understood that our parents were struggling people who had recently left a war torn country. Their old country was no longer theirs and they were not equipped to participate fully in their new country. They found it easier to deal with other Vietnamese-Australians than to learn English. However, this kept them alienated from the non-Vietnamese speaking world; they lived in their own cultural bubble. This was problematic for them and we too felt their uncertainty and awkwardness. Standing next to them, translating, we recognised their helplessness’.
Poem ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’, Feliks does not belong in the surrounding Australian culture and so he creates his own world in the safety and beauty of his garden. ‘Spent years walking its perimeter/from sunrise to sleep’ illustrates the physical parameters of where he belongs. This can relate to what Alice’s parents are trying to achieve finding it easier to mingle amongst fellow Vietnamese Australians than Australians as they are having difficulty fitting in with the Australian culture. Also in ‘Migrant hostel’ the immigrants continue to be haunted by their recent wartime experiences that impact upon their ability to belong, ‘memories of hunger and hate’ Alice’s parents are put in similar circumstances as have also left a war torn country which has an impact on their ability to cope effectively with their current situation similar to the immigrants in migrant hostel.
Feliks has created a place to belong by surrounding himself with rewarding physical activity. He is portrayed as hard working, a man of few words whose actions speak volumes and who prides himself on work achieved. Both the sound and meaning of the words ‘Alert, brisk and silent’ reveal a purposeful energy. Feliks bond with his past is a barrier to belonging. Feliks never really ‘belongs’ in Australia so he recreates his life with his garden, his work and his polish cronies and latches on to the past. ‘They reminisced.../ about farms where paddocks flowered’, he is Reminiscing about pre-war Poland reminds him of his youth and happier, uncomplicated times before the trauma of the war and the destruction of everything he knew.
St Patrick’s college is a place that the poet does not feel he belongs to. The poem makes reference to precise details of the school environment which is similar to Alice Pung’s Growing up Asian in Australia as she too discusses the cultural issues within the content of schoolyard dynamics. The reference to a statue of ‘Our lady’ who watches imposingly from the building provides the first indication of the high religious status of the school. However, her face is ‘overshadowed by clouds’, the metaphor acting as an ominous foreshadowing the Skrzynecki’s future school experience and the suggestion of a barrier to belonging. ‘Strap happy jack read it (note) out in class. He said “We all know these Chinese people don’t contribute to anything. They are worthless and shouldn’t be part of this school. They should all be sent back on a slow boat to China’, this quote out of the novel represents the racial tension towards Alice and her culture making it harder for her to fit in and belong.
The poet’s sense of not belonging is extended to include the surrounding suburb of Strathfield, where his school is located. Skrzynecki devotes stanza three to the description of life outside of school. The repetition of ‘For eight years’ communicates the lengthy amount of time Skrzynecki attended school. This contributes to a weary tone, implying that even though he spent a long time there, he still feels he has learnt little of value. Skrzynecki walks around the suburb of Strathfield with a sense of disconnection feeling ‘like a foreign tourist’. This simile creates a sense of irony as Skrzynecki is from a foreign background and he may feel isolated at school for this very reason. Similarly the related text; Growing up Asian in Australia, Alice too feels a sense of isolation ‘People never suspected you could be a racial minority and gay. Of course you’re not gay, you’re foreign’ this sense of irony relates to what Peter Skrzynecki is trying to implement throughout the poem St Patricks College.
In the film freedom writers, as they begin to widen their world view, they change their initial sense of belonging, widening it from the restrictive narrowness of their ethnicity. The film also show’s glimpses into the personal lives of the students and the teacher giving the responder a chance to belong to the text. As the movie progresses the students in the text discover that belonging to a wider group of that of their class and teacher has exposed them to greater understandings of what it is to belong to the world.