Peter Skryznecki Analysis

"Belonging is a struggle" discuss this statement to reference to the prescribed text and at least 2 text of your choosing.

Human nature can be a complex mixture of thoughts, feelings and actions. Being human we have a tendency to feel emotions, most which surround the defying need of inclusion. The need to be loved, the need of acknowledgement and even more essential the need to belong are all unavoidable connections involved in human nature. After studying the concepts of belonging the statement which is to be explored, ‘the need to belong marks us as human and it is such connections that lead to fulfilment,’ shows many forms of truth. It is this truth, the necessity of belonging, that can be clearly displayed in almost every part of the
‘Post Card’ mentions Warsaw, a place which is a part of Peter Skryznecki’s parents past rather than his own. ‘Warsaw, Old Town, I never knew you’ is a line in the poem which is evidence to the feelings of disillusionment, Peter Skryznecki feeling this past is not his and therefore he does not belong to it. The line, ‘I repeat I never knew you’ is continuously used in repetition to strengthen this feeling even further. The poem ‘In the Fold Museum’ ironically compliments ‘Post Card’ as it relates to Peter Skryznecki not feeling as if his past lies in the eyes of Australia, the place he was breed, and therefore what past he feels he belongs to is unknown. It is evident of his feelings towards the Australian heritage through the line ‘To remind me of a past that isn’t mine,’ as well as the line ‘would you please sign the visitor’s book’. The first quotation is straightforward mentioning plainly the Australian heritage is not his, although the second quotation uses a creative play of words. There is literally a physical visitors book which he was asked to sign upon leaving the museum, although ironically the visitors book emphasis’s Skryznecki’s feelings towards the Australian heritage he feels he is only a ‘visitor’ in the culture and therefore does not entirely belong to it. Both these poems hold feelings of not belonging to a past culture, these feelings escalate and allow Skryznecki to feel a lost sense of belonging in his present. It can be said that Skryznecki was searching for his past which he felt he belonged to, as he was looking into the folk museum at Australian past, and reading into the post card of the polish past. This search of belonging, which can come from a past, is a part of human nature, something which if missing, can create an escalade of confusion about where they belong in the present. Once again from