Romulus My Father Belonging Essay
Belonging Essay – Main Points
Intro
The intrinsic nature of mankind can arguably be described as one’s wish to develop a sense of connection to one another, and this desire to make connections can be described as the wish to belong.
Belonging describes the state when one finally reaches an affinity, whether it is physical, emotional or otherwise, with an entity, which may be a community, place or ideal.
The importance of the desire to belong can be seen in the texts, Romulus My Father by Raimond Gaita, Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin and Fiddler On The Roof by Norman Jewison, all which explore potential barriers to affinity.
These barriers can be described as the inability to make connections due to a different cultural background, physical isolation and conflict caused by differing ideals, which frustrate one’s …show more content…
Romulus My Father - raimond’s mother, Christine is continually isolated from her surroundings at Frogmore and her emotional disconnection is reflected by Raimond “a dead red gum stood only a hundred metres from the house and for my mother became a symbol of her desolation.” - Here the landscape is used as an objective-correlative for the misery that Christine feels, and her lack of emotional connection to Frogmore, in contrast to Raimonds personal epiphany later on, demonstrates the importance of the need to feel at ease in a place.
Mao’s Last Dancer - similarly in Mao’s last dancer, Li says “the thought of not being allowed out of china frightened me.” Despite the fact that china is the place of his birth, Li yearns to return to America due to his emotional connection with his friends at the Houston Ballet Academy. - This blurs the distinction between one’s place of birth and adopted country and challenges the notion that one’s place of birth is one’s automatic place to
Intro
The intrinsic nature of mankind can arguably be described as one’s wish to develop a sense of connection to one another, and this desire to make connections can be described as the wish to belong.
Belonging describes the state when one finally reaches an affinity, whether it is physical, emotional or otherwise, with an entity, which may be a community, place or ideal.
The importance of the desire to belong can be seen in the texts, Romulus My Father by Raimond Gaita, Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin and Fiddler On The Roof by Norman Jewison, all which explore potential barriers to affinity.
These barriers can be described as the inability to make connections due to a different cultural background, physical isolation and conflict caused by differing ideals, which frustrate one’s …show more content…
Romulus My Father - raimond’s mother, Christine is continually isolated from her surroundings at Frogmore and her emotional disconnection is reflected by Raimond “a dead red gum stood only a hundred metres from the house and for my mother became a symbol of her desolation.” - Here the landscape is used as an objective-correlative for the misery that Christine feels, and her lack of emotional connection to Frogmore, in contrast to Raimonds personal epiphany later on, demonstrates the importance of the need to feel at ease in a place.
Mao’s Last Dancer - similarly in Mao’s last dancer, Li says “the thought of not being allowed out of china frightened me.” Despite the fact that china is the place of his birth, Li yearns to return to America due to his emotional connection with his friends at the Houston Ballet Academy. - This blurs the distinction between one’s place of birth and adopted country and challenges the notion that one’s place of birth is one’s automatic place to