Peter Skrzynecki The Arrival Analysis
To belong or not to belong
A sense of belonging can emerge from the connections made with people, places, groups, communities and the larger world. To find where one belongs isn’t always a pleasant journey. It depends on your personal experience, to whether you find it pleasant or not. Peter Skrzynecki shares his personal experience of migration and the years after through poems not all so pleasant, which I would like to show you parts of his journey today. I would also like to explore the picture book The Arrival by Shaun Tan also about migration experience.
Born in 1945, Peter Skrzynecki moved from Germany at the end of WW2, travelling by sea to Australia spending time in migrant hostels in Sydney. Skrzynecki presents feelings of belonging
or not belonging as things that grow naturally within the individual, he seconds through the poem St Patricks College since his mother forced him to go so she could belong. Moving to Australia at age four Skrzynecki finds it difficult to know where he belongs and whether or not he should, return to his birth place to his cultural identity.
He is forced to explore his cultural identity in the poem “post card” he questions how he can belong to a place that he has never directly experienced. “I never knew you/ except in the third person” so the question is does Skrzynecki belong in Australia where he has lived for most of his life or does he belong in Germany. Thousands of migrants come to Australia and for many of them Australia will be the only home they know, but there will always be the question where do I belong. They may deny their cultural identity.
Shaun Tans picture book The Arrival explores an immigrant’s journey to a new land. The silent story makes the reader feel as if they are the protagonist, trying to make sense of the strange imagery before us. The use of recurring birds is used to emphasise the migrant experience. Shaun shows the alienation of going to a new world through the pictures in which are also strange to us, even the birds are different to the norm.
Even in this strange world, the protagonist finds happiness, with a circle of friends. Tans uses of circles to emphasise the connection in the group the enhance one’s sense of belonging. Once the protagonist joins the circle, he has symbolically made connections to the people of the new land and feels a significant sense of worth and belonging there. We see recurring circles throughout the pictures flowing into each other, our thoughts are happier at this point in the book the brighter pages and happier faces impact our emotions.
Both Skrzynecki and Tan have conveyed the feeling of not belonging throughout their works, but they have also shown belonging as well. In Skrzynecki he shows he belongs through recurring images of the family home and garden symbolising security and belonging. Shaun Tan conveys the image of belonging through the use of circles and in the beginning with the family.
We all belong somewhere, to a place, to a family, to a group. So ask yourself where do I belong? Am I happy where I am? And am I happy with who I am?
A sense of belonging can emerge from the connections made with people, places, groups, communities and the larger world. To find where one belongs isn’t always a pleasant journey. It depends on your personal experience, to whether you find it pleasant or not. Peter Skrzynecki shares his personal experience of migration and the years after through poems not all so pleasant, which I would like to show you parts of his journey today. I would also like to explore the picture book The Arrival by Shaun Tan also about migration experience.
Born in 1945, Peter Skrzynecki moved from Germany at the end of WW2, travelling by sea to Australia spending time in migrant hostels in Sydney. Skrzynecki presents feelings of belonging
or not belonging as things that grow naturally within the individual, he seconds through the poem St Patricks College since his mother forced him to go so she could belong. Moving to Australia at age four Skrzynecki finds it difficult to know where he belongs and whether or not he should, return to his birth place to his cultural identity.
He is forced to explore his cultural identity in the poem “post card” he questions how he can belong to a place that he has never directly experienced. “I never knew you/ except in the third person” so the question is does Skrzynecki belong in Australia where he has lived for most of his life or does he belong in Germany. Thousands of migrants come to Australia and for many of them Australia will be the only home they know, but there will always be the question where do I belong. They may deny their cultural identity.
Shaun Tans picture book The Arrival explores an immigrant’s journey to a new land. The silent story makes the reader feel as if they are the protagonist, trying to make sense of the strange imagery before us. The use of recurring birds is used to emphasise the migrant experience. Shaun shows the alienation of going to a new world through the pictures in which are also strange to us, even the birds are different to the norm.
Even in this strange world, the protagonist finds happiness, with a circle of friends. Tans uses of circles to emphasise the connection in the group the enhance one’s sense of belonging. Once the protagonist joins the circle, he has symbolically made connections to the people of the new land and feels a significant sense of worth and belonging there. We see recurring circles throughout the pictures flowing into each other, our thoughts are happier at this point in the book the brighter pages and happier faces impact our emotions.
Both Skrzynecki and Tan have conveyed the feeling of not belonging throughout their works, but they have also shown belonging as well. In Skrzynecki he shows he belongs through recurring images of the family home and garden symbolising security and belonging. Shaun Tan conveys the image of belonging through the use of circles and in the beginning with the family.
We all belong somewhere, to a place, to a family, to a group. So ask yourself where do I belong? Am I happy where I am? And am I happy with who I am?