Lion By Saroo Brrierley Analysis

Lion, a text written by Saroo Brierley is based on his story and experiences on his journey from his home country in India to his now home, Australia. The story shows how Brierley belonged to various places in life including his first home in India until he was 5, and then eventually moving to his new home in Australia where he lived and is living the rest of his life. Brierley also belonged to a range of people and had two families, both his real Indian family, Kamla, Kallu, Gudu and Shekila, as well as his adoptive parents, John and Sue Brierley. Lastly Brierley shows us how he belongs and fits in with different communities throughout the text.

Saroo Brierley belongs to a variety of places because of how his journey and life story has played
Once the 5 year old Saroo became separated from his brother Gudu however the feeling of belonging was quickly swept away. Because the young boy had only ever been in and around his small town of Ganesh Talai he didn’t know how the outside world worked making him feel alone and not knowing what to do or where to go. Saroo describes this feeling of not belong, “The opening up of the city beyond the station made me feel more lost than ever” p42. As the young Saroos journey through India progresses he slowly starts to get the feeling of belonging again through the people he meets. When he meets a young man who takes Saroo to the police to try and find his parents. After 2 months of searching Saroo is bought into an orphanage. Saroo had a much stronger sense of belonging in the orphanage as there were kids like himself lost or misplaced. This feeling quickly changed however when he found out he was never going to find his parents and was going to move to Australia. Throughout the entire journey to Australia, Saroo saw things he’d never seen before making him feel more and more out of place in the modern society he was now apart
Saroo spends his infant and young child life in his small town of Ganesh Talai with his Indian family and Indian community within the town and the country. This was the place and community he belonged to the most and if he hadn’t of got lost he would’ve spent most of, if not all his life there. Once Saroo does become lost however he is left with little sense of belonging in his new surroundings. The community of the train station he was lost in was completely different to his home with made rush and urgency throughout the people. Saroo had never witnessed or felt this before which further added to the sense of not belonging. Once he had been found and processed by police into one of their youth detention centres Saroo realised he did belong in this environment either saying, “In the home, I couldn’t get away – I was living with kids with all manner of problems, including criminal and violent children who were too young to be jailed” p70. Even when he went to his new home in a Australia designed to be a fresh start, Saroo still did not fit in within the white community. It was only after he started to learn English and become engulfed in the western culture did he start to fit in within the Australian community. After Saroo left his hometown of Ganesh Talai he rarely felt a sense of belonging within the community he was in, this only changed when he was westernised and started