Looking For Alibrandi Belonging Essay
Section III
‘An individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their experience of belonging’
Discuss this view with detailed reference to your prescribed text and ONE other related text of your own choosing.
An individual’s perception of Belonging is shaped by their interactions with others and the world around them. Such interaction can provide characters with a misinterpretation of what the prerequisites are for belonging, hence forcing them to reevaluate their own identity and their ability to experience a sense of belonging. This notion can be seen in both, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and Looking For Alibrandi directed by Kate Wood. In the namesake, the character Gogol’s abnormal name forces …show more content…
him to question his place in the world, misperceiving how others perceive him, he attempts to redefine his identity through changing his name to enrich his sense of belonging. Likewise, Moushumi feels her controlling cultural identity prohibits her from belonging how she wants to in society; she finds a thrill in not belonging to the familiar and hence seeks out the unfamiliar to achieve a sense of belonging.
In Looking For Alibrandi, the protagonist, Josie, feels that her lack of connection to one cultural background gives her a sense of cultural displacement and hence she seeks to create one cultural identity to achieve a sense of belonging amongst her peers.
Gogol misperceives how others perceive him, generated from his lack of understanding of his place in the world due to his unusual name. During a class trip to a cemetery in his earlier years, Gogol cannot find his name on any of the headstones and is confronted with the fact that his name is unique. Contrasted to the generic American names of his friends, “Colin and Jason and Marc”, Gogol perceives his name only highlights his cultural differences to his peers and provides a barrier to belonging. The simile used, “at times his name, an entity shapeless and weightless, manages nevertheless to distress him physically, like the scratchy tag of a shirt he has been forced to wear”, highlights Gogol’s internal discomfort with his name. The scratchy tag is only worn, or perceived, by Gogol and hence he has created his own barrier to belonging. At a college party, Gogol introduces him self using
his ‘good name’, Nikhil. The focalization through Gogol’s character, “But he doesn’t tell them that it hadn’t been Gogol who’d kissed Kim. That Gogol had nothing to do with it”, reveals his heightened self-perception through using the name Nikhil. He perceives ‘Nikhil’ has allowed him to close the barrier between him and the opposite sex, which the name Gogol had created. Later he makes the name change permanent to secure his newfound confidence. However, everyone he knows in the world knows him as Gogol and thus he spends the remainder of the novel trying to dissociate himself from the name Gogol. The mess imagery created when his mother accidentally addresses him as “Gogol” in front of his college friends, “Gogol feels helpless, annoyed yet unable to blame his mother, caught in the mess he’s made”, emphasizes his frustration with his name and continued perception that Gogol symbolizes not-belonging. When finally all ties to the name Gogol have been severed, “Gogol Ganguli will, once and for all, vanish from the lips of loved ones, and so, cease to exist”, he is forced to acknowledge the significance his name held and the mess he created from his misperception. His choice to read ‘The Overcoat’, by his namesake, “For now he starts to read”, symbolizes his decision to step over his perceived barriers and feel a sense of belonging from accepting his identity. Even though it is too late to undo the mess.
As a youth, Moushumi had little control over her own identity due to her Indian culture that dictated what was expected of her. She felt familiarity limited her experiences of belonging and hence she seeks out the unfamiliar, finding thrill in not belonging to the familiar. Moushumi’s move to Paris, symbolizes her decision to break away from her familiar culture in search for a new identity. Moushumi’s recklessly toned confession, “Her sudden lack of inhibition had intoxicated her more than any of the men had”, illustrates how risk-taking behavior gives Moushumi a thrill that she finds most comfortable. She chooses to forge her own identity, away from the culture she resents, in the comfort she has found through the unfamiliar. With Gogol, his name change initially means that he is unfamiliar. The focalization through Moushumi’s character, “She’d liked that he’d changed his name from Gogol…it was a thing that made him somehow new, not the person her mother had mentioned”, shows Moushumi’s initial attraction to Gogol’s resistance to his familiar culture. She finds comfort in his unfamiliarity and hence feels a connection and sense of belonging to him. However, their “fish bowl” courtship and traditional marriage suggests that they have embraced their familiar Indian culture. The use of resentful tone, “She can’t help but associate him, at times, with a sense of resignation, with the very life she had resisted, had struggled so mightily to leave behind”, demonstrates Moushumi’s discomfort with being everything her parents had expected of her. Moushumi seeks to break free from the familiar by deliberately seeking out the unfamiliar in the form of Dimitri, hence not belonging to the familiar. The focalization through Moushumi, “The affair causes her to feel strangly at peace, the complication of it calming her, structuring her day”, shows Moushumi’s thrill found in not belonging to the familiar and comfort of the unfamiliar.
Similarly in Kate Wood’s Looking for Alibrandi (1999), the persona misinterprets the notions of belonging hence limiting her experiences of belonging. Initially, the protagonist Josie believes, belonging can be achieved through a strong connection to only one cultural background. However, being Italian-Australian, Josie, like Gogol, fails to recognize she can belong to both cultures at one time and hence feels a sense of cultural displacement. In an attempt to secure her sense of identity, Josie begins to reject her Italian heritage in order to find a sense of belonging within the dominant Australian culture. The use of Italian language with English subtitles when Nona says; “A chi appartieni?”- who do you belong to?, contrasted to Josie’s English response in a thick English accent; “Who do you think I belong to? Go on, who? Yeah, I bet you wish I didn’t belong to you!”, shows Josie’s rejection of her culture. She understands Nona’s Italian but chooses to use English, highlighting her disconnection from her roots and her desire to embrace only one culture. When Josie discovers that her own mother was in fact the result of her Nona’s affair with an Australian man, she realizes that her and her Nona are not as different as she had once thought. Josie kneels down in front of her seated Nona, to meet her eye level, showing her realization that she can in fact relate to her Italian culture and decision to stop resisting it. Josie begins to forge her own hybrid identity from both her cultures. When Josie introduces her Australian boyfriend and friends to her Italian relatives, they are welcomed with Italian music, showing the fusion of her two worlds and her willingness to embrace her Italian culture. The first and last scenes of the movie, both showing the Italian tradition ‘Tomato Day’, are reflective of Josie’s attitude change. The first scene is viewed through a sepia filter, illustrating her disconnection and rejection of her culture. When ‘Tomato Day’ comes again at the final scene, it is played in full, vibrant colours, contrasting to the original scene and highlighting Josie’s attitude changes to embrace of her Italian culture, allowing her to establish a hybrid identity from the unity of both cultures.
Thus it can be seen that others and the world around them shape an individual’s perception of belonging. Through the influence of their surroundings, characters can be triggered to misinterpret the prerequisites of belonging to their society and hence have a limited experience of belonging. They are forced to re-define and compromise their identity in order to enrich their sense of belonging. Gogol perceives that his name provides a barrier to him belonging in society. Through his name change he is able to enrich his sense of belonging and boost his self-confidence. However, he comes to realize the naivety of his misperception and that he is fundamentally unchanged as a person other than in title and hence he learns to move past his self-insecurities and step over his self-created barriers to belonging. Moushumi is smothered by her cultural heritage, feeling that it prevents her from being the person she has always wanted to be. She is able to construct a new identity through repelling the familiar and finding a comfort in the familiar. When she at last comes back to her familiar culture through Gogol, she experiences discomfort and hence she is forced to seek out the unfamiliar in order to satisfy her craving for thrill and achieve a sense of belonging. Josie experiences a sense of cultural displacement through her lack of connection to one cultural background and hence turns away from her Italian heritage in order to fit in to the Australian culture. However, she soon realizes that she is able to belong to both cultures at once and thus forges a hybrid identity from the two, enriching her sense of belonging.
‘An individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their experience of belonging’
Discuss this view with detailed reference to your prescribed text and ONE other related text of your own choosing.
An individual’s perception of Belonging is shaped by their interactions with others and the world around them. Such interaction can provide characters with a misinterpretation of what the prerequisites are for belonging, hence forcing them to reevaluate their own identity and their ability to experience a sense of belonging. This notion can be seen in both, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri and Looking For Alibrandi directed by Kate Wood. In the namesake, the character Gogol’s abnormal name forces …show more content…
him to question his place in the world, misperceiving how others perceive him, he attempts to redefine his identity through changing his name to enrich his sense of belonging. Likewise, Moushumi feels her controlling cultural identity prohibits her from belonging how she wants to in society; she finds a thrill in not belonging to the familiar and hence seeks out the unfamiliar to achieve a sense of belonging.
In Looking For Alibrandi, the protagonist, Josie, feels that her lack of connection to one cultural background gives her a sense of cultural displacement and hence she seeks to create one cultural identity to achieve a sense of belonging amongst her peers.
Gogol misperceives how others perceive him, generated from his lack of understanding of his place in the world due to his unusual name. During a class trip to a cemetery in his earlier years, Gogol cannot find his name on any of the headstones and is confronted with the fact that his name is unique. Contrasted to the generic American names of his friends, “Colin and Jason and Marc”, Gogol perceives his name only highlights his cultural differences to his peers and provides a barrier to belonging. The simile used, “at times his name, an entity shapeless and weightless, manages nevertheless to distress him physically, like the scratchy tag of a shirt he has been forced to wear”, highlights Gogol’s internal discomfort with his name. The scratchy tag is only worn, or perceived, by Gogol and hence he has created his own barrier to belonging. At a college party, Gogol introduces him self using
his ‘good name’, Nikhil. The focalization through Gogol’s character, “But he doesn’t tell them that it hadn’t been Gogol who’d kissed Kim. That Gogol had nothing to do with it”, reveals his heightened self-perception through using the name Nikhil. He perceives ‘Nikhil’ has allowed him to close the barrier between him and the opposite sex, which the name Gogol had created. Later he makes the name change permanent to secure his newfound confidence. However, everyone he knows in the world knows him as Gogol and thus he spends the remainder of the novel trying to dissociate himself from the name Gogol. The mess imagery created when his mother accidentally addresses him as “Gogol” in front of his college friends, “Gogol feels helpless, annoyed yet unable to blame his mother, caught in the mess he’s made”, emphasizes his frustration with his name and continued perception that Gogol symbolizes not-belonging. When finally all ties to the name Gogol have been severed, “Gogol Ganguli will, once and for all, vanish from the lips of loved ones, and so, cease to exist”, he is forced to acknowledge the significance his name held and the mess he created from his misperception. His choice to read ‘The Overcoat’, by his namesake, “For now he starts to read”, symbolizes his decision to step over his perceived barriers and feel a sense of belonging from accepting his identity. Even though it is too late to undo the mess.
As a youth, Moushumi had little control over her own identity due to her Indian culture that dictated what was expected of her. She felt familiarity limited her experiences of belonging and hence she seeks out the unfamiliar, finding thrill in not belonging to the familiar. Moushumi’s move to Paris, symbolizes her decision to break away from her familiar culture in search for a new identity. Moushumi’s recklessly toned confession, “Her sudden lack of inhibition had intoxicated her more than any of the men had”, illustrates how risk-taking behavior gives Moushumi a thrill that she finds most comfortable. She chooses to forge her own identity, away from the culture she resents, in the comfort she has found through the unfamiliar. With Gogol, his name change initially means that he is unfamiliar. The focalization through Moushumi’s character, “She’d liked that he’d changed his name from Gogol…it was a thing that made him somehow new, not the person her mother had mentioned”, shows Moushumi’s initial attraction to Gogol’s resistance to his familiar culture. She finds comfort in his unfamiliarity and hence feels a connection and sense of belonging to him. However, their “fish bowl” courtship and traditional marriage suggests that they have embraced their familiar Indian culture. The use of resentful tone, “She can’t help but associate him, at times, with a sense of resignation, with the very life she had resisted, had struggled so mightily to leave behind”, demonstrates Moushumi’s discomfort with being everything her parents had expected of her. Moushumi seeks to break free from the familiar by deliberately seeking out the unfamiliar in the form of Dimitri, hence not belonging to the familiar. The focalization through Moushumi, “The affair causes her to feel strangly at peace, the complication of it calming her, structuring her day”, shows Moushumi’s thrill found in not belonging to the familiar and comfort of the unfamiliar.
Similarly in Kate Wood’s Looking for Alibrandi (1999), the persona misinterprets the notions of belonging hence limiting her experiences of belonging. Initially, the protagonist Josie believes, belonging can be achieved through a strong connection to only one cultural background. However, being Italian-Australian, Josie, like Gogol, fails to recognize she can belong to both cultures at one time and hence feels a sense of cultural displacement. In an attempt to secure her sense of identity, Josie begins to reject her Italian heritage in order to find a sense of belonging within the dominant Australian culture. The use of Italian language with English subtitles when Nona says; “A chi appartieni?”- who do you belong to?, contrasted to Josie’s English response in a thick English accent; “Who do you think I belong to? Go on, who? Yeah, I bet you wish I didn’t belong to you!”, shows Josie’s rejection of her culture. She understands Nona’s Italian but chooses to use English, highlighting her disconnection from her roots and her desire to embrace only one culture. When Josie discovers that her own mother was in fact the result of her Nona’s affair with an Australian man, she realizes that her and her Nona are not as different as she had once thought. Josie kneels down in front of her seated Nona, to meet her eye level, showing her realization that she can in fact relate to her Italian culture and decision to stop resisting it. Josie begins to forge her own hybrid identity from both her cultures. When Josie introduces her Australian boyfriend and friends to her Italian relatives, they are welcomed with Italian music, showing the fusion of her two worlds and her willingness to embrace her Italian culture. The first and last scenes of the movie, both showing the Italian tradition ‘Tomato Day’, are reflective of Josie’s attitude change. The first scene is viewed through a sepia filter, illustrating her disconnection and rejection of her culture. When ‘Tomato Day’ comes again at the final scene, it is played in full, vibrant colours, contrasting to the original scene and highlighting Josie’s attitude changes to embrace of her Italian culture, allowing her to establish a hybrid identity from the unity of both cultures.
Thus it can be seen that others and the world around them shape an individual’s perception of belonging. Through the influence of their surroundings, characters can be triggered to misinterpret the prerequisites of belonging to their society and hence have a limited experience of belonging. They are forced to re-define and compromise their identity in order to enrich their sense of belonging. Gogol perceives that his name provides a barrier to him belonging in society. Through his name change he is able to enrich his sense of belonging and boost his self-confidence. However, he comes to realize the naivety of his misperception and that he is fundamentally unchanged as a person other than in title and hence he learns to move past his self-insecurities and step over his self-created barriers to belonging. Moushumi is smothered by her cultural heritage, feeling that it prevents her from being the person she has always wanted to be. She is able to construct a new identity through repelling the familiar and finding a comfort in the familiar. When she at last comes back to her familiar culture through Gogol, she experiences discomfort and hence she is forced to seek out the unfamiliar in order to satisfy her craving for thrill and achieve a sense of belonging. Josie experiences a sense of cultural displacement through her lack of connection to one cultural background and hence turns away from her Italian heritage in order to fit in to the Australian culture. However, she soon realizes that she is able to belong to both cultures at once and thus forges a hybrid identity from the two, enriching her sense of belonging.