Romulus My Father Belonging Essay

Belonging is a complex perception informed by an individual’s understanding of their own identity, and their connections with other people and places. As such it is an intensely personal and subjective concept; Raimond Gaita’s memoir ‘Romulus, My Father’ represents belonging as a perception closely interrelated with one’s identity and wellbeing. Similarly, Penn’s 2007 film ‘Into the Wild’ and Judith Wright’s poem ‘Nigger’s Leap, New England’ explore the wider significance of belonging on a socio-cultural and national scale.

. Gaita represents this concept in his memoir through the contrasting connections experienced by Gaita’s family with the landscape. “In that vast landscape...she appeared forsaken” uses a detached narratorial style to emphasise Christine’s alienation from the landscape. Gaita presents his perspective that this alienation drove her mental instability; “the wrong conceptual environment for her to
“My perception of the landscape changed radically as when one sees the second image in an ambiguous drawing” – the use of allegory conveys the transcendental nature of Raimond’s perception of the land, and its significance to his own sense of
Romulus as a migrant is unable to understand and thereby integrate with Australian cultural and social values. His own valuing of “karacter” often places him at odds with the Australian society. This is emphasised through the term “New Australian” which uses capitalisation to highlight “the delighted double-mindedness with which some Australians discovered multiculturalism”. Romulus’ social alienation is shown to be closely interlinked with his eventual mental breakdown – “he felt like a prisoner in Australia” uses a contextual reference to Australia’s history to allude to this. Thus Romulus’ socio-cultural alienation