Romulus My Father Belonging
An individual’s upbringing creates a powerful formative influence over the creation of a sense of belonging.
‘Understanding nourishes belonging…a lack of understanding prevents it.’ Demonstrate how your prescribed text & one other related text of your own choosing represent this interpretation of belonging.
At the very heart of relationships lies a struggle to accept individuals as human beings, in order to connect with them. This is the journey undertaken by the protagonists of the memoir ‘Romulus, My Father’ (1998, Raimond Gaita), the poem ‘My father began as a god’ (Ian Mudie) and the short narrative ‘Envy’s Fire’ by Serge Liberman. By its very nature the memoir, ‘Romulus, my Father’ (adapted from a eulogy given at Romulus Gaita’s funeral) is structured as a deeply personal portrait of a father through his son’s perspective. The emotional skirmishes or …show more content…
misunderstandings of the emotionally intense father-son relationship within this text may examined in the light of the father’s characterisation (in physical appearance and the depiction of his morality), the father’s mental illness, the conflict between father and son due to inter-generational divides, and also the relationship itself.
The composer Raimond Gaita is able to paint an intimate portrait of his father through his characterisation of him. It is through this portrayal that the composer may come to understand his complex father, and strengthen his emotional bonds with him, after his death. ‘He would rest his leg stiffly out in front (of his beloved Sunbeam motorbike)’ Gaita writes ‘…and [return] with sugar sacks over each shoulder’. The composer has used vivid imagery to highlight the physical strength of his father [travelling far distances to buy his son supplies after an accident on his motorbike], which connotes ideas of paternal protection, self-sacrifice and love. The notion of an adult reflecting on his childhood-awe of a father is echoed in the lines ‘fearlessly lifted me up on his shoulder’ where the father’s physical strength is symbolic of paternal protection, and love....
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In Romulus, My Father, focus is placed on several different foundations for which our identity, and in turn our sense of belonging, is formed. The memoirs emphasis on setting and place acts as a metaphor to reflect Gaita’s orientation of self, which contextualises and explores the challenges of diaspora, and provides a framework for the text’s central tenet, that from suffering, wisdom is gained. Consequently, the autobiographical nature of Gaita’s memoir provides the subjective parameters by which Romulus’ formative conditions of deprivation and betrayal shape his and his son’s sense of Self.
The autobiography offers an unmediated and stabilising exploration of the Self.
Throughout Gaita’s piece of life writing, it becomes clear to the audience that the purpose of Romulus, My Father is to reflect on life’s critical lessons. This is highlighted by the composition of the text, which places more emphasis on critical moments of philosophical enlightenment than it does on details and events. Where does Raimond learn these valuable lessons from? Through his father’s relationships, ideals and actions.
Gaita expresses the importance of his father with the quote “I know what a good workman is, I know what an honest man is. I know because I remember these things in the person of my father,” which utilizes repetition to emphasise and glorify his father’s life. Juxtaposition is also used to highlight Romulus’ admirable qualities by contrasting them with the morals of Mitru and Christine, which are considered “weak.”
Although the memoir aims to strip away the mythology of Romulus, the main focus of the text is Raimond Gaita’s discovery of Self, which becomes clear to the reader through the cyclical structure of Romulus’ life. This suggests that although Gaita’s father stays the same, the true change occurs in Raimond.
The theory that wisdom and the formation of one’s identity are a result of suffering, is one explored throughout Romulus, My Father.
During Gaita’s journey through life, much of the anguish that he experienced came from when the familiar transformed into the unfamiliar. For example, both his father’s madness and his mother’s mental illness and eventual suicide made Raimond resilient, and successful in his migration to Australia.
Raimond also learns considerably from the wisdom that his father has gained through suffering. We never forget how Romulus came from a fractured and divided Europe, where he experienced a lack of food and education. He was, however, nourished by these hardships, and through them his spirit became strong, hard like the steel he tempered. He became a man of character.
The quote “My father must have been heartbroken by his unfaithful wife” further illustrates through emotive language the intense suffering that Romulus was subject to.
The text culminates with the quote “some kinds of wisdom, however, are given only to those have suffered deep and long.”
Diaspora gives resonance to how one belongs to place.
Although diaspora posits a culturally divided self, the concept also suggest new understanding of self, sameness and solidarity as identity reorientates ideas of Self away from national and genealogical imperatives.
The tension exist because of the context that the memoir takes place in. Although Romulus was sentenced to two years of labour for his boat trip, he “had long come to accept what fate dealt him… so he saw his two years as a short interim.” This, combined with how they never “called my father by his name. They called him Jack” provides the context of a pre-multicultural Australia, where an immigrant must realign their sense of Self to belong.
The proof for this division of Self is seen in the way that Romulus and Christine view the Australian landscape. “Although it is one of rare beauty, to a European eye it seems desolate.” Romulus is able to account for this change because of the deprivation, hunger and lack of education he experience in Eastern Europe. He was nourished by hard work, which made his spirit strong, hard like the steel he tempers. Christine, on the other hand, who viewed the “red gum… as a symbol of her desolation”, could not overcome this division; the amalgamation of diaspora, isolation, mental illness and her lack of resilience caused her to drown in the rural outback of Victoria.
It is through the absence of any written description that the audience is firmly placed in the shoes of a refugee view point, which challenges our notions of belonging, by eliciting empathy for the character as he is removed from his comfort zone – and exits the other side with a reinvented sense of belonging.
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Belonging
Belonging: being a member or part of a certain group or form.
An understanding of belonging is essential as it is an inherent human condition. One either belongs or does not belong to an existing entity. This is a key assumption underlying the area of study.
There are many different groups people belong to. Some include family, peer/social groups, teams, clubs, cultural groups, school, work, nationality/country and lifestyles.
To belong beyond/without a doubt, one needs to fit the expectations/norms of that particular group for instance, to belong to a school community one must be prepared to attend school classes and cooperate with the staff and fellow students, otherwise there is the risk of expulsion.
An individual’s identity is closely interrelated with belonging. Groups are formed due to the similarities/shared interests of its members. Characteristics such as age, gender, location/environment, family, socio-economic status, dominant culture, friends, race/cultural heritage, political views, education, heredity and lifestyle are powerful forces pulling people towards particular groups. For example, someone who moves from out west in the country to a coastal, city area may feel alienated and isolated as the lifestyle they have come from is a stark contrast to the lifestyle they have now chosen. We all enjoy the security of the familiar [paraphrased from V’s London speech in McTeigue’s V for Vendetta] and it is easy to feel frightened when moving into the unknown, the road we haven’t travelled.
Belonging is often used as a safety blanket. People use it to differentiate between groups. A prime example of this is bigotry. The Cronulla riots were the result of irrational racist remarks exchanged between the Lebanese and the Caucasians. Violence, harassment and vilification were present and social groups were established and strengthened purely based on race/cultural group – leading to divisions within the community, ongoing discrimination and social unrest.
However belonging does not just divide people, it unites. The National Rugby League is the excellent example of this. After the Manly Sea Eagles defeated the Melbourne Storm 40-0 in the 2008 Grand Final football fans across Australia came together with the same intention in mind – to celebrate.
Past experiences can teach us life lessons in relation to belonging. “When we begin to understand the forces that drive us to belong, we develop empathy for others and personal insight,” [Karen Yager, NSW Department of Education and Training] self-actualisation (true knowledge of oneself, one’s relationships with others and the world they live in). Once this happens social barriers and paradigms break down. One realises that to ensure they belong and are accepted within society they must stop trying to fight what they ultimately cannot control.
Personal perceptions and attitudes play a crucial role in determining our belonging status. This also encompasses value systems, morals, ethics, beliefs, prejudices, social constructs, ideologies and philosophies. In the end it comes down to the individual. You influence what, who, where, when, why and how you belong through decision making – the choices you make and the experiences which result.
Belonging is a universally ubiquitous concept for humanity – we will never stop trying to gain a valuable place in the world. We will put on facades, continue to pass on learned prejudices and forever search for the ultimate goal of integrity and immortality.
Belonging is about a person's feeling of connection with a person or group, about being able to share opinions with others. Belonging can be a very positive aspect to one's life because it allows oneself to feel like a human being who is valued by others. At the same time it provides security as to one's identity and purpose in the world because belonging creates conformity to a set of accepted values. However one must remember, as an extension of the conformist nature of belonging, people lose not only the freedom to choose their own thoughts but also the knowledge of their own individuality and personal faiths. But at the same time, not being able to belong isolates people giving them insecurities about their own humanity because they are unable to fit into a set of truths set by a group or person. IT is destructive to one's self esteem and creates a person who cannot contribute to the achievements of groups. Hence one must make a compromise, one must be able to belong and recognise oneself as a valued human being, but not to the point that we become simply another conformist member, losing all individual thoughts.
It is a basic human need to belong but it is too extreme to belong just because you are trying to meet social expectations/conforming/dominant culture. Belonging can be self-fulfilling, secure and help build/uncover a person's identity/individuality while not belonging can lead to a lack of freedom/freedom of thought, dehumanisation and self-destruction.
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Perceptions of belonging are both varied and complex
Discuss the statement with reference to your prescribed text
Fundamental to perceptions of belonging is the recognition of its complex nature encompassing both belonging and its antithetical concept of isolation.
This duality, manifested in the relationship between an individual and the people and environment they are exposed to is paramount in the development of one’s identity and therefore the definition of the institutions to which they may belong. The concept of belonging where an individual attempts to conform to a society where their own needs and desires are put aside as opposed to adjusting their own character to meet societal expectations. Through the contrasting notions and concepts of belonging, this multi-faceted notion is addressed through many varied perspectives reflected through relationship, cultural and societal significance to individuals in their respective societies. Peter Skrzynecki explores the same notion of belonging being both varied and complex in his two poems ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ and ’10 Mary Street’, where Peter describes his complications with assimilating to the Australian culture and dissimilating with his polish
heritage.
Feliks Skrzynecki is a tribute to the dignity and stoicism in the face of loss and hardship to the poet’s father Feliks whose physical journey from Europe to Australia, from one culture to another, echoes through the poem and it’s clear that the impact of the journey is as strong for the son as for the father. This poem highlights that the hardest thing about physical migration is whether to keep or let go of the memories as migration allows the person to destabilise both physically and mentally. Feliks is perceived as a complex and enigmatic man from the subjective perspective of his son Peter. Feliks can never be Australian because his identity has been forged in the Polish culture. The use of hyperboles such as "spent years walking its perimeter" and "swept its path 10 times around the world" indicates his enormous dedication for the garden, his little kingdom he created. This shows how he "belongs" to the garden.
Belonging in the short story ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ by Peter Skrzynecki is developed by use of the family home and garden as symbols of this belonging. This concept is most obvious in ‘10 Mary Street’, but it is also explored in ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’. In both these poems there is a contrast between the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’. The ‘inside’ of the family home and garden are presented in a positive light with warmth and security. Skrzynecki often uses positive natural images of the family garden to convey this. This contrasts directly with the ‘outside’, the wider culture into which the family must go. This is frequently presented as unwelcoming and foreign – a place where the poet does not really belong. When Peter was much younger he struggled with Latin “de Bello Gallico, about the war in Gaul”, and forgets his first Polish word. There is irony here. He learns a dead language no one speaks anymore, and starts to forget his native language, which is still very much alive. Peter also calls up the feeling of the father still being very Polish in a country not his own “he never lost his language, never even learnt English”, while Peter is drawn more to the new country. I think it is a story a lot of immigrants can identify with, still today. Ironically, and this says a lot about the character of his father, it is not the author who is most happy, even though you would expect him to feel more at home. It is his father: Happy as I have never been.
The idea of belonging is extended on and contrasted to in Feliks Skrzynecki, when in the beginning he has trouble relating to his father ways and traditions, but towards the end he idles his father for having had cancer and fought in the war and never complained about it. Tone is contrasted in stanza’s three and four, where in stanza 3 Peter depicts a more negative approach towards how he cannot identify the ways his father and friends acted with one another as it is not seen as a norm. In stanza 4, there is a dramatic change in tone from a pessimistic approach to an optimistic approach by Peter. In stanza 4 Peter portrays a tone of admiration when he begins to understand and feel much more appreciative of his father and what he went through, and still have had provided what was best for him.
‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ by Peter Skrzynecki is about a child finding it complicated to adjust to the ways of their parents. A similar poem to that of ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ is ‘Divorce’ by Michael Leunig. In this text ‘Divorce’ by Leunig, it echo’s that there is a direct belonging with each other but instead would rather choose to focus on other objects like TV or alcohol. ‘Divorce’ is about a boy’s dislocation or segregation from his parents. This is similar to Peter’s short story ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ where Peter feels estranged towards his father’s Polish background as he was brought up in Australia. Both Peter Skrzynecki and the young boy in Michael Leunig’s poem ‘Divorce’ have experienced a distance between them and their parents and question the way they live. Also both these poems are real life encounters experienced by Peter Skrzynecki and Michael Leunig.
10 Mary Street is about Skrzynecki’s relationship with the house where he spent his childhood at 10 Mary Street. This was in Regents Park which in Sydney’s western suburbs and was a working class suburb. This poem chronicles the day-to-day lives of the Skrzynecki family in their new country. There is an atmosphere of love and joy at the home born of his nurturing parents. The fast paced materialism of the new country is contrasted with the joy in nature and relationships so much part of Skrzynecki household. He appreciates the experience as happy and values it as a key part of his childhood.
The poem 10 Mary Street by Peter Skrzynecki changes the reader’s perspective toward the migrant experience as it is written from the eyes of a young Peter looking at his parents new life in Australia and how they attempted to keep a bond with the old Poland that he himself never knew. The poet uses one metaphor to tie the entire poem together, in the case of Skrzynecki’s poem, this metaphor is that of the house. The house represents the old culture of the parents and their attempts to keep it alive within a distant culture. Within the house the culture, and time, is preserved through “photographs and letters” from relatives, whereas outside the house time is passing, things are aging or developing. This resistance to change, repeated several times throughout the poem is demonstrated through the family maintain routine described in the first stanza, giving them a sense of security, and use the metaphor of a “still too-narrow” bridge to symbolise the distance between Australian and European culture.
The poem encapsulates the story of a family life. The house, the garden, the activities and daily routine are captured with effective imagery and symbolism. The memories are richly presented, told in snippets of what was done, talked about, and eaten, drunk and shared. Here at this address, the Skrzynecki migrant family along with others of similar ilk, adjusted to a new environment and made it their home. Growing up in this house is remembered fondly, marked by stability, routine and familiarity. Peter grew and went to school while the parents toiled at work and in the garden. It was a scene duplicated over and over in similar addresses. In some ways the poem becomes representational of the post-war Australian migrant experience. These post-war migrants kept their memories of “pre-war Europe alive”, communicated in word, speech and cultural customs. They adapted to Australia, becoming “citizens of the soil/ that was feeding us” and in the process adjusting to their adoptive home.
Although in many of Peter Skrzynecki poems it talks about Peter trying to assimilate with his polish background family, in 10 Mary Street it speaks about Peter’s life in a positive manner. He describes how he belongs to a place of refuge and security. His house is portrayed as part of the family where it is personified that “the house stands”. Therefore 10 Mary Street does not relate to Michael Leunig’s poem “Divorce”, as it portrays a family whose priorities are not straight, and would rather escape reality through there connection with objects. They go for a world of not belonging to a world of not belonging to a world of where such state is made possible. These objects protrude a vector that serves as a boundary preventing their belonging.
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Belonging is the notion of acceptance among a certain group, which shares a common identity or interest. The key to creating this sense of belonging is through the understanding of another’s interests, ideas, values and morals. Without this common understanding belonging seizes to exist and a sense of alienation, ostracism and not belonging is felt. The poems “Post Card”, “Migrant Hostel” and “Ancestors” from “The Immigrant Chronicles” by Peter Skrzynecki, the film “Remember the Titans” directed by Jerry Bruckheimer and the novel “Just Another Kid “ by Torey Hayden convey this idea about belonging through the character relationships they display.
The poems by Peter Skrzynecki were written based on his life after his family migrated to Australia during WWII and detail the struggles of trying to belong in Australia. The idea of understanding creating belonging through character relationships can be seen very clearly within the poems “Post Card” and “Ancestors”. In both these poems the generation gap between the two participants in the relationships serves as a barrier to belonging. The character relationships developed between Peter and his mother and father in “Post Card” represent the negative aspect about this idea of belonging. This relationship creates a sense of alienation for Peter due to the generation gap which exists. Both Peter’s mother and father are very familiar with the scenes of “Red buses on a bridge” and “High-rise flats” and this creates a strong sense of belonging for them. Peter feels his sense of alienation through the frustration he feels from not being able to familiarise himself with the images on the post card. This alienation caused by the generation gap between Peter and his mother and father conveys the idea that without an understanding, belonging cannot occur.
The idea that understanding is the key to belonging is represented through the relationship between Peter and his ancestors in the poem “Ancestors”. This relationship also displays the negative aspect about this idea of belonging and is caused by the generation gap between Peter and his ancestors. In the poem Peter dreams of the Polish mountain landscape and through these dreams he tries to connect to his ancestors but he wakes “As their faces become clearer”. By setting the poem as a dream, Skrzynecki emphasises the isolation he feels from his ancestors – his dreams are just conjured images and figments of his imagination, he can never really understand who his ancestors are or what their appearances were. The frustration and uncertainty of Peter in this poem is shown through the inclusion of many rhetorical questions. Skrzynecki questioning his past and the identity of his ancestors represents the barrier to belonging provided by the generation gap; Peter seizes to belonging to his ancestors because the generation gap disabled him to know who is ancestors really were. This lack of understanding by Peter for his ancestors due to the generation gap is the reason for his isolation.
Race acts a barrier to belonging between the main characters in “Remember the Titans” and between the different races in the poem “Migrant Hostel”. The film “Remember the Titans” directed by Jerry Bruckheimer is based on events from 1971 about an American high school football team. Although produced in 2000 the film encapsulates the main ideas that arose from this pivotal time in American history. The character relationships developed in this film especially between the characters of Julius (African American) and Gary (white American) convey the idea of understanding being the key to belonging. At the beginning of the film Julius’ and Gary’s relationship is obscured by the nature of race relations in 1970’s America. The two men are not allowed by the cultural values at the time to become friends and to have a relationship and this causes their alienation from each other. During the course of the film Julius and Gary begin to understand each other through the methods of Coach Boone (Herman Boone). Coach Boone forces black and white players to bunk together in the same rooms during a training camp. In addition to this he continues “3-a-day” training sessions until each of the players gets to know a player of another race on their team. In doing this Coach Boone forces the players to try and understand each other and in turn try and create a sense of connection between the players. Boone’s methods are very successful; the racial barrier between the black and white players is broken down and the group becomes a team.
A key scene which shows how their relationship conveys this idea about belonging is the hospital scene. Gary is involved in a car accident and when Julius arrives at the hospital, Gary’s mother tells Julius that he is the only person that Gary wants to see. The dialogue “I was afraid of you Julius. I don’t know what I was afraid of and now I know I was only hating my brother” shows how at the beginning they were isolated but through the experiences the boys shared an understanding was met and this led to their belonging. This dialogue is reinforced by the symbolism of Gary’s closed fist like that of black power advocators. The camera zooms on Gary’s fist emphasising the coming together of two races. The relationship formed between Gary and Julius shows how after the racial barrier has been broken down an understanding can be met and belonging can occur.
“Migrant Hostel” is a poem about Peter’s experience living in a migrant hostel after moving to Australia during WWII. Race serves as a barrier for the relationships between the different groups of races living in the migrant hostel. The context of the time when Peter arrives in Australia plays a large part in supporting the idea that understanding creates a sense of belonging. This time was during WWII and many of the displaced people who were at the migrant hostel were on opposing sides of the war. The relationship between the different races at the hostel was civil during the day as the races had a common understanding; they were all refuges and they were all looking for a better life in Australia. But as soon as night fall came, the refugees were “Partitioned off at night/By memories of hunger and hate”. The racial barrier would rise and any understanding between the different races would be forgotten creating a sense of isolation and not belonging between the groups. This rising of the racial barrier due to a lack of understanding between the races reinforces the idea that a lack of understanding creates alienation and hence supports the thesis.
“Just Another Kid” is “An enchanting, inspiring book” based on real life events which happened during the 80’s. The novel entails Torey’s experiences as the teacher of a special education class in America and the struggles associated with this. The character relationship between Torey and Ladbrooke (a mother of one of the students) develops in such a way which supports the thesis. Much like the relationship between Julius and Gary in “Remember the Titans”, at the start of the novel Torey and Ladbrooke have a negative relationship clouded by their personal differences. In this case class acts as a barrier to their belonging as Ladbrooke originates from upper class society and Torey originates from middle class society. Dialogue between Carolyn (another special education teacher) and Torey shows how the class barrier acts as a form of isolation; “You got Considyne? Is this the Considyne?”, “This sounds like a soap opera, Carolyn” and also by the simile “It was like sharing quarters with Typhoid Mary”.
Throughout the course of the novel the ladies begin to understand each other. The first event which shows this is when Ladbrooke vomits in Torey’s class because she is extremely drunk. After helping her, Torey begins to investigate into Ladbrooke’s life and starts to understand her. Ladbrooke then offers to become a teacher’s aide in Torey’s classroom and their relationship starts to develop. Whilst in the classroom Torey takes a likening to Ladbrooke and they start to become good friends. A key event which shows how their relationship has developed is when Ladbrooke rings up Torey in the middle of the night to pick her up from across town. She had lapsed back into alcoholism and still Torey came to pick her up and took her in to her home. Dialogue from this event which supports the thesis include; “I like you. Plain and simple”. The change in their relationship shows how that after an understanding has been reached, the class barrier can be broken down and the feeling of alienation can be alleviated.
The character relationships displayed in all three texts convey the idea that understanding is the key to belonging. In the poems “Post Card” and “Ancestors” the generation gaps between the relationships act as a barrier to belonging. These barriers do not get broken down and no understanding is reached and hence the feeling of isolation is never resolved. In the film “Remember the Titans” and the poem “Migrant Hostel” the barrier to belonging is provided by race. After an understanding is reached between Gary and Julius the barrier was broken down and belonging occurred. The same cannot be said for the different races in “Migrant Hostel” as the barrier was never completely broken down and no proper understanding was reached. Through the novel “Just Another Kid” it can be seen that class can act as a barrier. Torey and Ladbrooke reached an understanding through their experiences in the classroom together and this caused the barrier to be broken down. After the barrier was broken down belonging could occur.
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Identity And Belonging
The groups we reject tell us as much about ourselves as those to which we choose to belong
Do I Belong?
By Danielle Arnold –Levy
“Who am I?” is a question often repeated by teenagers, though they may not voice it out loud or use precisely those words. One of the biggest challenges that adolescents face during the transition between childhood and adulthood is this struggle with their own sense of identity. For one thing, it seems to constantly shift: they may act one way with a particular group of peers and completely different with another.
Ironically, the opinions of friends and acquaintances become very important at this stage in teenagers lives, whilst they are rejecting their parents’ advice however this may be apparent before teenage years and it tends to dictate kids' taste in clothing, the way they speak, how they react to things, who they hang out with, what they believe in, and their choice in musical genres. Others' opinions often dictate how kids feel
GET BETTER GRADES about themselves, and how they regulate their self-esteem. Here is another area where their sense of identity can become clouded, because they start comparing themselves to everyone else. They may worry about why they’re developing earlier or later than their peers in certain areas. Because puberty and adolescence are such confusing transitions, kids can feel a strong urge to check their own progress alongside that of another, or to stick with those people who, for all outward appearances, seem to have it all figured out. No wonder they end up questioning who they really are, after having spent so much time imitating others.
A certain amount of experimentation – with rebellion, imitation, and changes of image and attitude – is probably necessary before they can form a real sense of what they want and how to go about getting it. Parents who recognize this come to understand that they have to let go of their children, to a certain extent, just when they most want to protect them the most.
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To Belong Not Necessarily To Identify
TO BELONG IS NOT NECESSARILY TO IDENTIFY WITH IT
In our social life, each person has one’s own roles and responsibilities, attitudes and values. Since every individual is unique and distinct compared to one another, these elements that construct our individuality are not always similar. Similarities and reflection of our values make us belong to a group, but the differences are barriers that stop ourselves from being recognized as an indivisible part of it. Belonging and identity are inseparable; nonetheless, there are distinctions that create a world of difference between the two. Belonging is not only about to whom we incorporate ourselves the way we perceive it, but also how others recognize our relationship with that group. Therefore, it can be forged; since we can control our approach to a group, we are able direct the people’s opinion about ourselves. This is because most people observe only what is visible and that is our belonging.
Our absolute and real identity remains imperceptible; this is because it is not only about how others recognize us, but also how we identify ourselves as complete individuals. Sometimes belonging comes undesirably and not few deny their relationships with groups which they are born to belong. Even when one’s relationship is not genuine it can still create an impression of belonging, at least for those who are unable to perceive the integrity of that connection. From this pseudo-notion our roles and responsibilities emerge; at this point, belonging and recognition (both personally and socially) dissolve although not completely combine, into a single entity that fits in a considerable part of the identity puzzle as a whole. Hence, in a sense, one can hardly associate and not identify with a group to which one belongs.
There are many cases where people are not recognised as part of tribes they actually belong. This happens because of multitude of reasons, but one of the most common is because some people intentionally refuse...
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Romulus My Father
In Romulus my father Raimond Gaita creatively illustrates the impact our culture and upbringing has on our character and how it slowly but ultimately helps form who we eventually become. Gaita demonstrates how our culture and the way we have been brought up can develop our morals to whom which we live our everyday lives he also shows how both these factors, our culture and upbringing help us develop our own sense of belonging and identity. Raimond gives an insight into Romulus's intriguing life through his memories of his loving father , Romulus, the strong virtuous man that was a product of the hardships his upbringing and culture had brought upon him.
Our culture and upbringing is the foundation which helps to mould our building blocks of moral codes to which we live our lives. In Romulus my father it clearly demonstrated that Romulus’s culture and the way he has been brought up has been the baseline to the set of moral codes he lives his life.
From an early age Romulus worked hard, before and after school, helping with the harvest and caring for the animals. Meat, sugar, white or brown bread made of good flour were luxuries, sweets or ice-creams were enjoyed once or twice a year. Childhood as we know it, a space apart from the adult world, a life of its own, did not exist .Romulus has been taught that life is nothing but hardship form a very young age he has taken on adult responsibilities however this was life in his part of the world. This was his culture and the way he has been brought up despite it being harsh Romulus didn’t overlook it but grew with it. “His sense of importance of work and of its moral and spiritual requirements was simple and noble. Like him, his work was honest through and though” . Romulus's shows great courage in his early childhood . When he protects his grandfather from being beaten by his drunken uncle, a man who would surely have been a fright to any other young child. Romulus's bravery, risking his own life,...
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Romulus, My Father
ROMULUS MY FATHER ESSAY
The indiviuals in Romulus were shaped by their experiences.
In the biography 'Romulus My Father' the characters encounter many different situations and journey to foreign lands, these experiences shape and change the characters. In the novel some characters endure breakdowns, others conflict with one another and some even die, from these we see characters become independent, stronger, weaker and even loose control and breakdown. Romulus meets a girl called Christine, although he likes her, he doesn't value all the aspects of her personality he changes and adapts to her needs and desires. Romulus later has a metal breakdown and commits himself to a mental institution, because of this he Raimond becomes more independent and sees that his father is not indestructable. These are jus some of the many experiences that change and sculpt the characters throughtout the novel.
Romulus meets a girl by the name of Christine, he is immediately attracted to her but soon becomes aware of her characteristics and does not particularly agree with them.
Although Romulus enjoyed reading, the ritual of church and music he mistook Christines passion for theatre for snobbishness. He cared for her a lot
, Christine had particularly bad asthma and Romulus then decided to move to Australia because it could improve her health. although Romulus didn't want to move he did anyway because of Christines health, "the serverity of her asthma convinced him that they must find somewhere better for her health". This passage helps Romulus as he becomes a better provider in this new and different land, he takes on a strong role of provider but as Christine soon becomes flurtatious with the other men at their migrant camp he also becomes a stronger role model as he takes main care over Raimond as Christine is not responsible enough.
This strengthens the realationsip between Romulus and his son, as he teachers his son valuable qualities and traits that will help...
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Romulus My Father
In the text Romulus my father, written by Raimond Gaita, the main character of Romulus's life is marked by suffering. Gaita who is the son of Romulus, includes plenty personal and descriptive accounts of his father Romulus. Many of these accounts involve examples of how Romulus life was marked by suffering. Such suffering occurred throughout Romulus life by having to move away from his homeland to Australia, being denied his love for education, having to work his hands to the bone in order to scrape by and the overall conditions that Romulus lived by to constantly support others. Only Romulus being the strong man of physical stamina and perseverance could have copped with these painful circumstances.
Having to leave the Romanian speaking part of Yugoslavia and make the move to Australia would have cut Romulus deep. Romulus always ‘considered him a Romanian' and the first glimpse of the suffering that Romulus went though occurred early. At a young age Romulus pushed through family problems to the point of being prepared to shoot his drunken uncle who was about to beat his grandfather. No child wants to go though this but Romulus fought through the difficult time. Another factor of the move would have been Christine's deteriorating health and her input enforced the move. He then began his journey to Australia where the poor guy was greeted with tough circumstances and horrendous suffering.
From a young age Romulus was denied a full education, the one thing he strived for. For two of his early years in Australia he was forced to work manually to pay off his debts. Soon after Romulus he was forced to adapt to the terrible living conditions as he undertook a blacksmith apprentaship. Romulus was paid well below wages and cheated out of being able to sell his own creations. Being the practical genius he was, it was a shame that such ideas as the egg washing machine, couldn't have been capitalized on.
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Romulus My Father
“The house shook with their battles” is referring to the parts of Raimond’s life which he thought were the most troubling for him, where there was much conflict. In Romulus My Father there are times which are considered to be the “darker” periods for Raimond and his Father. Poverty and Lack of necessities is one of those things, although there were times when Raimond could not have all that he wanted, he was content with his life and stated so in the book. I believe that Raimond’s life in retrospect was quite a normal life; there were ups and downs, as there are in any typical lifetime. Although his are (arguably) more than what you would see or hear about, they do not change him for the worse.
As the book goes on, Raimond progresses and grows up, not just physically but mentally as well. And these “events” in his life; good or bad, are what made him the person he is today. He always had support from those around him whether it be family members or even his pets which in the book is shown he loves dearly, these memories are part of the process that is his progression from being a child to an adult. When his pet dog Orloff died, it filled him with a great sense of grief as it did to his father, as tragic as this event may be I would not regard it as a negative event in that it completely casts a shadow over his life. It is a normal experience for anyone who would own a pet, and yes it is sad but it does not affect his life in an immensely negative way as argued. One of the larger events that would have affected Raimond’s life is the social conflict between Hora and his Mother; his mother was never there for him throughout the book and had slept around with other men. The lack of discipline that his mother had and the responsibility which she didn’t take made Hora angry for Raimond and so an argument broke out in which Raimond’s mother was forced to leave the house as threats were shouted at her by Hora. Negative as it may be, Raimond not having a real...
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Acceptance as a natural member or part; a sense of belonging.
Belonging is about the security you find with the people you interact with and the context or environment you find yourself in.
Romulus my father and the related text, Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, show the great importance of personal, familiar and national belonging. They explore belonging, wanting to belong and not belonging and the effects of each of these. These texts are told with subtle humor and a commitment to the often complex truths about family and friendships.
The responder is able to link how belonging and fitting into a group is an integral aspect to human existence and brings meaning to an individuals life, creating a sense of place.
Belonging comes from the place where you feel comfortable. This is seen when Romulus fled his home at thirteen and eventually met Christine. Romulus is happy here and feels he belongs more than anywhere else previously to when Christine’s problems lead him to Australia. Romulus could not fathom the Australian landscape and felt he belonged to Europe. ‘To a European or English eye it seems desolate, and even after forty years my father could not become reconciled to it.’ Yet the reader is reminded that not everything of Romulus is left in Europe, he brings his sense of ethics and personal philosophy with him and it belongs to him only. Even though he is sometimes misinterpreted or misunderstood as a foreigner he keeps all of these values close to him. This is appreciated by the novel being written in retrospect or eulogy, this purpose is clearly exposed in that Gaita clearly makes the book about his father with flowing natural bias in the recount of events. The book focuses on scenes that illustrate his father’s temperament and allows an evaluation of their father and son bond. The lack of dialogue and long conversations merely being retold as narrative, emphasize that passage of time has been erased and it’s Gaita’s childhood recollection reminiscing through anecdotal language.
There is always a recurring notion that Raimond doesn’t belong as a child as he is constantly being moved around yet he seems to find solace at Frogmore and never worries about its deterioration even when he returns from boarding school. Raimond also undergoes change as he gets older and becomes more accepting of his own family and cultural identity. His sense of belonging changes as we can discover from the way he sees Frogmore. This emphasizes the Central irony within the memoir as it allows Gaita to attempt to search for his own identity
This can be linked to the character of Holden in Catcher in the Rye. It is his alienation and inability to fit in that that Salinger wants the responder to be concerned with. Holden is a misfit in many ways depicted in the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The situations that Holden talks about come together for the reader because we identify with the problems he faces as an adolescent.
Throughout the novel, Holden, as the narrator, will employ direct address, flashback, and digression, sometimes rather erratically, to tell his story. The effect of the constant use of these techniques is an air of confusion, reflective of Holden’s tormented state of mind. His life, and what is happening to him, does not make sense; therefore, Holden is incapable telling them in a strictly chronological order.
People’s ideas about belonging are affected by other people. We see in the character of Christine the lack of really belonging anywhere in the duration of the text. She cannot settle and both herself and Mitru eventually take their own lives as a consequence of this, exaggerating the fact that she was continually scarred by her mental issues.
This disabled her from striving in any life situations like coming to Australia where her lack of concern for her children and promiscuous behavior were frowned upon and she suffered tremendously for it. This idea is awakened by the analytical way Raimond examines his mothers suicide ‘she killed her self only days after our conversation’ and by the use of symbolism and motifs present through out the book such as mental illness, setting, the connection with animals, land and family.
Adding to the personal sense of this text are the vivid scenes and descriptions that show both unusual characters in their lives and also the country. These reveal much about the inner workings of his mind and the philosophical background to how Raimond views the world and events surrounding his mother and father.
This idea can also been seen through the core of Salingers novel. Holden struggles to develop into an individual who learns how to relate to the world and not see only negativity. His sense of belonging is dislocated for most of the novel. He is alienated from his peer group, his family, whose way of life he rejects. Holden really only understands children, innocence and other underdogs such as Ackley and Castle. His search for himself can be seen in terms of those he understands and their loss as he is deeply affected by the death of his brother Allie. He never really recovers from this but he sees worth and strength in his relationship with his sister Phoebe.
Peoples sense of belonging is affected by the context and environment. The Australian landscape functions symbolically and as a real context for the relationship within the story. Raimond’s mother fails to adapt to the environment, symbolically seeing herself mirrored in the desolate sight of a fallen gum ‘a dead red gum stood only a hundred meters from the house and became for my mother a symbol of her desolation’. This idea is a recurring motive throughout the text. The vastness of the landscape seems impersonal and uncaring to the eyes of the outsider, especially to Christine where it highlighted her isolation.
Although Raimond’s father and mother never understood the Australian landscape, it is a place where Raimond feels he belongs. ‘The landscape seemed to have a special beauty, disguised until I was ready for it; not a low and primitive form for which I had to make allowances, but subtle and refined.’ This text allows for reflection and a reminiscent tone and an understanding of events. It allows Gaita to look back on memories from his childhood and see them in a new light.
Raimond Gaita draws inspiration from the connection between man and nature; he sees that the qualities of the landscape have had a moral effect on his development. ‘Strange though it may sound, my sense of that life, of the ideas that informed it, was given intensity and colour by the light and landscape of the area.’ He develops contrast between his and Christine’s different understanding of the Australian landscape as a reflection of their character, this is incorporated amongst the text by a certain lyrical quality, which is evident in his lush landscape imagery..
We see this isolation again when raimond is with his father for the last time in hospital and Romulus is already isolated by his illness. ‘The hospital represented a foreign world to me.’ Raimond has been drawn to his father’s world for the final time and had been drawn to Europe as his father predicted. His sense of belonging to a place is now not confined to home or country but rather he belongs to the world. Significantly though, both Romulus and Christine are buried in Australian soil, a final symbol of belonging to the new country.
Much like Raimond, Holden is established by his youth, he speaks a typical teenage language, filled with exaggeration, slang, and curse words. This authentic language helps to establish Holden’s personality and voice. It is important to notice that when Holden flashes back to the day he left Pencey Prep, he is pictured alone, standing on top of a hill. He has risen above the pettiness of Pencey and looks down on it, both literally and figuratively. I think Holden does find a sense of identity and belonging in the end and there is some cause for optimism. We have seen that he has some fine personal qualities and a great capacity to love. In the end he finally recognizes that he doesn’t want to run away and that he needs people. ‘about all I know is, I sort of miss everybody I told about.’
It is plainly evident through the personal context of both these novels that manifested in the relationship between individuals and the environment they are exposed too; belonging is paramount in the development of ones identity and therefore the definition of the institutions to which they may belong. Through the contrasting notions and concepts of belonging, this notion is addressed through many varied perspectives reflected through relationship, cultural and societal significance to individuals in their respective societies.
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In Romulus, My Father, focus is placed on several different foundations for which our identity, and in turn our sense of belonging, is formed. The memoirs emphasis on setting and place acts as a metaphor to reflect Gaita’s orientation of self, which contextualises and explores the challenges of diaspora, and provides a framework for the text’s central tenet, that from suffering, wisdom is gained. Consequently, the autobiographical nature of Gaita’s memoir provides the subjective parameters by which Romulus’ formative conditions of deprivation and betrayal shape his and his son’s sense of Self.
The autobiography offers an unmediated and stabilising exploration of the Self.
Throughout Gaita’s piece of life writing, it becomes clear to the audience that the purpose of Romulus, My Father is to reflect on life’s critical lessons. This is highlighted by the composition of the text, which places more emphasis on critical moments of philosophical enlightenment than it does on details and events. Where does Raimond learn these valuable lessons from? Through his father’s relationships, ideals and actions.
Gaita expresses the importance of his father with the quote “I know what a good workman is, I know what an honest man is. I know because I remember these things in the person of my father,” which utilizes repetition to emphasise and glorify his father’s life. Juxtaposition is also used to highlight Romulus’ admirable qualities by contrasting them with the morals of Mitru and Christine, which are considered “weak.”
Barack Obama’s Dreams of My Father captures the strengths, weaknesses and lessons that Obama learned from several men who fathered him. His birth father, whose story he finally discovers, his maternal grandfather, whose innocence could have easily led to cowardive as heroism, his Idonesian stepfather, who taught him the importance of strength, and the old black poet, who gave him a sense of black American history. Each of these encounters inform Obama with a sense of identity, which gives him the courage to strive for belonging.
Although the memoir aims to strip away the mythology of Romulus, the main focus of the text is Raimond Gaita’s discovery of Self, which becomes clear to the reader through the cyclical structure of Romulus’ life. This suggests that although Gaita’s father stays the same, the true change occurs in Raimond.
The theory that wisdom and the formation of one’s identity are a result of suffering, is one explored throughout Romulus, My Father.
During Gaita’s journey through life, much of the anguish that he experienced came from when the familiar transformed into the unfamiliar. For example, both his father’s madness and his mother’s mental illness and eventual suicide made Raimond resilient, and successful in his migration to Australia.
Raimond also learns considerably from the wisdom that his father has gained through suffering. We never forget how Romulus came from a fractured and divided Europe, where he experienced a lack of food and education. He was, however, nourished by these hardships, and through them his spirit became strong, hard like the steel he tempered. He became a man of character.
The film Big Fish, by “unknown director”, is also an example of a son’s discovery of identity through the understanding of his father. Because Will’s dad lives in a heightened sense of reality, Will finds it incredibly difficult to communicate with him. However, as evident in the extract “A man sees things differently at different times in his life,” which is given a sense of gravity by the innocence and youth of the speaker, Jenny, Will is able to finally reconcile these differences and gain wisdom from his late father.
The quote “My father must have been heartbroken by his unfaithful wife” further illustrates through emotive language the intense suffering that Romulus was subject to.
The text culminates with the quote “some kinds of wisdom, however, are given only to those have suffered deep and long.”
Diaspora gives resonance to how one belongs to place.
Although diaspora posits a culturally divided self, the concept also suggest new understanding of self, sameness and solidarity as identity reorientates ideas of Self away from national and genealogical imperatives.
The tension exist because of the context that the memoir takes place in. Although Romulus was sentenced to two years of labour for his boat trip, he “had long come to accept what fate dealt him… so he saw his two years as a short interim.” This, combined with how they never “called my father by his name. They called him Jack” provides the context of a pre-multicultural Australia, where an immigrant must realign their sense of Self to belong.
The proof for this division of Self is seen in the way that Romulus and Christine view the Australian landscape. “Although it is one of rare beauty, to a European eye it seems desolate.” Romulus is able to account for this change because of the deprivation, hunger and lack of education he experience in Eastern Europe. He was nourished by hard work, which made his spirit strong, hard like the steel he tempers. Christine, on the other hand, who viewed the “red gum… as a symbol of her desolation”, could not overcome this division; the amalgamation of diaspora, isolation, mental illness and her lack of resilience caused her to drown in the rural outback of Victoria.
The Arrival, a graphic novel by Shaun Tan, weaves a story of times long past, of a migrant lost in a bewildering city of foreignness; peculiar animals, curious customs and indecipherable languages. It is through the absence of any written description that the audience is firmly placed in the shoes of a refugee view point, which challenges our notions of belonging, by eliciting empathy for the character as he is removed from his comfort zone – and exits the other side with a reinvented sense of belonging.
THIS IS NOT ENTIRELY MY OWN WORK , JUST HELPFUL THINGS I FOUND THAT BECAME USEFULL TO ME , HOPE IT HELPS!
‘Understanding nourishes belonging…a lack of understanding prevents it.’ Demonstrate how your prescribed text & one other related text of your own choosing represent this interpretation of belonging.
At the very heart of relationships lies a struggle to accept individuals as human beings, in order to connect with them. This is the journey undertaken by the protagonists of the memoir ‘Romulus, My Father’ (1998, Raimond Gaita), the poem ‘My father began as a god’ (Ian Mudie) and the short narrative ‘Envy’s Fire’ by Serge Liberman. By its very nature the memoir, ‘Romulus, my Father’ (adapted from a eulogy given at Romulus Gaita’s funeral) is structured as a deeply personal portrait of a father through his son’s perspective. The emotional skirmishes or …show more content…
misunderstandings of the emotionally intense father-son relationship within this text may examined in the light of the father’s characterisation (in physical appearance and the depiction of his morality), the father’s mental illness, the conflict between father and son due to inter-generational divides, and also the relationship itself.
The composer Raimond Gaita is able to paint an intimate portrait of his father through his characterisation of him. It is through this portrayal that the composer may come to understand his complex father, and strengthen his emotional bonds with him, after his death. ‘He would rest his leg stiffly out in front (of his beloved Sunbeam motorbike)’ Gaita writes ‘…and [return] with sugar sacks over each shoulder’. The composer has used vivid imagery to highlight the physical strength of his father [travelling far distances to buy his son supplies after an accident on his motorbike], which connotes ideas of paternal protection, self-sacrifice and love. The notion of an adult reflecting on his childhood-awe of a father is echoed in the lines ‘fearlessly lifted me up on his shoulder’ where the father’s physical strength is symbolic of paternal protection, and love....
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In Romulus, My Father, focus is placed on several different foundations for which our identity, and in turn our sense of belonging, is formed. The memoirs emphasis on setting and place acts as a metaphor to reflect Gaita’s orientation of self, which contextualises and explores the challenges of diaspora, and provides a framework for the text’s central tenet, that from suffering, wisdom is gained. Consequently, the autobiographical nature of Gaita’s memoir provides the subjective parameters by which Romulus’ formative conditions of deprivation and betrayal shape his and his son’s sense of Self.
The autobiography offers an unmediated and stabilising exploration of the Self.
Throughout Gaita’s piece of life writing, it becomes clear to the audience that the purpose of Romulus, My Father is to reflect on life’s critical lessons. This is highlighted by the composition of the text, which places more emphasis on critical moments of philosophical enlightenment than it does on details and events. Where does Raimond learn these valuable lessons from? Through his father’s relationships, ideals and actions.
Gaita expresses the importance of his father with the quote “I know what a good workman is, I know what an honest man is. I know because I remember these things in the person of my father,” which utilizes repetition to emphasise and glorify his father’s life. Juxtaposition is also used to highlight Romulus’ admirable qualities by contrasting them with the morals of Mitru and Christine, which are considered “weak.”
Although the memoir aims to strip away the mythology of Romulus, the main focus of the text is Raimond Gaita’s discovery of Self, which becomes clear to the reader through the cyclical structure of Romulus’ life. This suggests that although Gaita’s father stays the same, the true change occurs in Raimond.
The theory that wisdom and the formation of one’s identity are a result of suffering, is one explored throughout Romulus, My Father.
During Gaita’s journey through life, much of the anguish that he experienced came from when the familiar transformed into the unfamiliar. For example, both his father’s madness and his mother’s mental illness and eventual suicide made Raimond resilient, and successful in his migration to Australia.
Raimond also learns considerably from the wisdom that his father has gained through suffering. We never forget how Romulus came from a fractured and divided Europe, where he experienced a lack of food and education. He was, however, nourished by these hardships, and through them his spirit became strong, hard like the steel he tempered. He became a man of character.
The quote “My father must have been heartbroken by his unfaithful wife” further illustrates through emotive language the intense suffering that Romulus was subject to.
The text culminates with the quote “some kinds of wisdom, however, are given only to those have suffered deep and long.”
Diaspora gives resonance to how one belongs to place.
Although diaspora posits a culturally divided self, the concept also suggest new understanding of self, sameness and solidarity as identity reorientates ideas of Self away from national and genealogical imperatives.
The tension exist because of the context that the memoir takes place in. Although Romulus was sentenced to two years of labour for his boat trip, he “had long come to accept what fate dealt him… so he saw his two years as a short interim.” This, combined with how they never “called my father by his name. They called him Jack” provides the context of a pre-multicultural Australia, where an immigrant must realign their sense of Self to belong.
The proof for this division of Self is seen in the way that Romulus and Christine view the Australian landscape. “Although it is one of rare beauty, to a European eye it seems desolate.” Romulus is able to account for this change because of the deprivation, hunger and lack of education he experience in Eastern Europe. He was nourished by hard work, which made his spirit strong, hard like the steel he tempers. Christine, on the other hand, who viewed the “red gum… as a symbol of her desolation”, could not overcome this division; the amalgamation of diaspora, isolation, mental illness and her lack of resilience caused her to drown in the rural outback of Victoria.
It is through the absence of any written description that the audience is firmly placed in the shoes of a refugee view point, which challenges our notions of belonging, by eliciting empathy for the character as he is removed from his comfort zone – and exits the other side with a reinvented sense of belonging.
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Belonging
Belonging: being a member or part of a certain group or form.
An understanding of belonging is essential as it is an inherent human condition. One either belongs or does not belong to an existing entity. This is a key assumption underlying the area of study.
There are many different groups people belong to. Some include family, peer/social groups, teams, clubs, cultural groups, school, work, nationality/country and lifestyles.
To belong beyond/without a doubt, one needs to fit the expectations/norms of that particular group for instance, to belong to a school community one must be prepared to attend school classes and cooperate with the staff and fellow students, otherwise there is the risk of expulsion.
An individual’s identity is closely interrelated with belonging. Groups are formed due to the similarities/shared interests of its members. Characteristics such as age, gender, location/environment, family, socio-economic status, dominant culture, friends, race/cultural heritage, political views, education, heredity and lifestyle are powerful forces pulling people towards particular groups. For example, someone who moves from out west in the country to a coastal, city area may feel alienated and isolated as the lifestyle they have come from is a stark contrast to the lifestyle they have now chosen. We all enjoy the security of the familiar [paraphrased from V’s London speech in McTeigue’s V for Vendetta] and it is easy to feel frightened when moving into the unknown, the road we haven’t travelled.
Belonging is often used as a safety blanket. People use it to differentiate between groups. A prime example of this is bigotry. The Cronulla riots were the result of irrational racist remarks exchanged between the Lebanese and the Caucasians. Violence, harassment and vilification were present and social groups were established and strengthened purely based on race/cultural group – leading to divisions within the community, ongoing discrimination and social unrest.
However belonging does not just divide people, it unites. The National Rugby League is the excellent example of this. After the Manly Sea Eagles defeated the Melbourne Storm 40-0 in the 2008 Grand Final football fans across Australia came together with the same intention in mind – to celebrate.
Past experiences can teach us life lessons in relation to belonging. “When we begin to understand the forces that drive us to belong, we develop empathy for others and personal insight,” [Karen Yager, NSW Department of Education and Training] self-actualisation (true knowledge of oneself, one’s relationships with others and the world they live in). Once this happens social barriers and paradigms break down. One realises that to ensure they belong and are accepted within society they must stop trying to fight what they ultimately cannot control.
Personal perceptions and attitudes play a crucial role in determining our belonging status. This also encompasses value systems, morals, ethics, beliefs, prejudices, social constructs, ideologies and philosophies. In the end it comes down to the individual. You influence what, who, where, when, why and how you belong through decision making – the choices you make and the experiences which result.
Belonging is a universally ubiquitous concept for humanity – we will never stop trying to gain a valuable place in the world. We will put on facades, continue to pass on learned prejudices and forever search for the ultimate goal of integrity and immortality.
Belonging is about a person's feeling of connection with a person or group, about being able to share opinions with others. Belonging can be a very positive aspect to one's life because it allows oneself to feel like a human being who is valued by others. At the same time it provides security as to one's identity and purpose in the world because belonging creates conformity to a set of accepted values. However one must remember, as an extension of the conformist nature of belonging, people lose not only the freedom to choose their own thoughts but also the knowledge of their own individuality and personal faiths. But at the same time, not being able to belong isolates people giving them insecurities about their own humanity because they are unable to fit into a set of truths set by a group or person. IT is destructive to one's self esteem and creates a person who cannot contribute to the achievements of groups. Hence one must make a compromise, one must be able to belong and recognise oneself as a valued human being, but not to the point that we become simply another conformist member, losing all individual thoughts.
It is a basic human need to belong but it is too extreme to belong just because you are trying to meet social expectations/conforming/dominant culture. Belonging can be self-fulfilling, secure and help build/uncover a person's identity/individuality while not belonging can lead to a lack of freedom/freedom of thought, dehumanisation and self-destruction.
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Perceptions of belonging are both varied and complex
Discuss the statement with reference to your prescribed text
Fundamental to perceptions of belonging is the recognition of its complex nature encompassing both belonging and its antithetical concept of isolation.
This duality, manifested in the relationship between an individual and the people and environment they are exposed to is paramount in the development of one’s identity and therefore the definition of the institutions to which they may belong. The concept of belonging where an individual attempts to conform to a society where their own needs and desires are put aside as opposed to adjusting their own character to meet societal expectations. Through the contrasting notions and concepts of belonging, this multi-faceted notion is addressed through many varied perspectives reflected through relationship, cultural and societal significance to individuals in their respective societies. Peter Skrzynecki explores the same notion of belonging being both varied and complex in his two poems ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ and ’10 Mary Street’, where Peter describes his complications with assimilating to the Australian culture and dissimilating with his polish
heritage.
Feliks Skrzynecki is a tribute to the dignity and stoicism in the face of loss and hardship to the poet’s father Feliks whose physical journey from Europe to Australia, from one culture to another, echoes through the poem and it’s clear that the impact of the journey is as strong for the son as for the father. This poem highlights that the hardest thing about physical migration is whether to keep or let go of the memories as migration allows the person to destabilise both physically and mentally. Feliks is perceived as a complex and enigmatic man from the subjective perspective of his son Peter. Feliks can never be Australian because his identity has been forged in the Polish culture. The use of hyperboles such as "spent years walking its perimeter" and "swept its path 10 times around the world" indicates his enormous dedication for the garden, his little kingdom he created. This shows how he "belongs" to the garden.
Belonging in the short story ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ by Peter Skrzynecki is developed by use of the family home and garden as symbols of this belonging. This concept is most obvious in ‘10 Mary Street’, but it is also explored in ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’. In both these poems there is a contrast between the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’. The ‘inside’ of the family home and garden are presented in a positive light with warmth and security. Skrzynecki often uses positive natural images of the family garden to convey this. This contrasts directly with the ‘outside’, the wider culture into which the family must go. This is frequently presented as unwelcoming and foreign – a place where the poet does not really belong. When Peter was much younger he struggled with Latin “de Bello Gallico, about the war in Gaul”, and forgets his first Polish word. There is irony here. He learns a dead language no one speaks anymore, and starts to forget his native language, which is still very much alive. Peter also calls up the feeling of the father still being very Polish in a country not his own “he never lost his language, never even learnt English”, while Peter is drawn more to the new country. I think it is a story a lot of immigrants can identify with, still today. Ironically, and this says a lot about the character of his father, it is not the author who is most happy, even though you would expect him to feel more at home. It is his father: Happy as I have never been.
The idea of belonging is extended on and contrasted to in Feliks Skrzynecki, when in the beginning he has trouble relating to his father ways and traditions, but towards the end he idles his father for having had cancer and fought in the war and never complained about it. Tone is contrasted in stanza’s three and four, where in stanza 3 Peter depicts a more negative approach towards how he cannot identify the ways his father and friends acted with one another as it is not seen as a norm. In stanza 4, there is a dramatic change in tone from a pessimistic approach to an optimistic approach by Peter. In stanza 4 Peter portrays a tone of admiration when he begins to understand and feel much more appreciative of his father and what he went through, and still have had provided what was best for him.
‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ by Peter Skrzynecki is about a child finding it complicated to adjust to the ways of their parents. A similar poem to that of ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ is ‘Divorce’ by Michael Leunig. In this text ‘Divorce’ by Leunig, it echo’s that there is a direct belonging with each other but instead would rather choose to focus on other objects like TV or alcohol. ‘Divorce’ is about a boy’s dislocation or segregation from his parents. This is similar to Peter’s short story ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ where Peter feels estranged towards his father’s Polish background as he was brought up in Australia. Both Peter Skrzynecki and the young boy in Michael Leunig’s poem ‘Divorce’ have experienced a distance between them and their parents and question the way they live. Also both these poems are real life encounters experienced by Peter Skrzynecki and Michael Leunig.
10 Mary Street is about Skrzynecki’s relationship with the house where he spent his childhood at 10 Mary Street. This was in Regents Park which in Sydney’s western suburbs and was a working class suburb. This poem chronicles the day-to-day lives of the Skrzynecki family in their new country. There is an atmosphere of love and joy at the home born of his nurturing parents. The fast paced materialism of the new country is contrasted with the joy in nature and relationships so much part of Skrzynecki household. He appreciates the experience as happy and values it as a key part of his childhood.
The poem 10 Mary Street by Peter Skrzynecki changes the reader’s perspective toward the migrant experience as it is written from the eyes of a young Peter looking at his parents new life in Australia and how they attempted to keep a bond with the old Poland that he himself never knew. The poet uses one metaphor to tie the entire poem together, in the case of Skrzynecki’s poem, this metaphor is that of the house. The house represents the old culture of the parents and their attempts to keep it alive within a distant culture. Within the house the culture, and time, is preserved through “photographs and letters” from relatives, whereas outside the house time is passing, things are aging or developing. This resistance to change, repeated several times throughout the poem is demonstrated through the family maintain routine described in the first stanza, giving them a sense of security, and use the metaphor of a “still too-narrow” bridge to symbolise the distance between Australian and European culture.
The poem encapsulates the story of a family life. The house, the garden, the activities and daily routine are captured with effective imagery and symbolism. The memories are richly presented, told in snippets of what was done, talked about, and eaten, drunk and shared. Here at this address, the Skrzynecki migrant family along with others of similar ilk, adjusted to a new environment and made it their home. Growing up in this house is remembered fondly, marked by stability, routine and familiarity. Peter grew and went to school while the parents toiled at work and in the garden. It was a scene duplicated over and over in similar addresses. In some ways the poem becomes representational of the post-war Australian migrant experience. These post-war migrants kept their memories of “pre-war Europe alive”, communicated in word, speech and cultural customs. They adapted to Australia, becoming “citizens of the soil/ that was feeding us” and in the process adjusting to their adoptive home.
Although in many of Peter Skrzynecki poems it talks about Peter trying to assimilate with his polish background family, in 10 Mary Street it speaks about Peter’s life in a positive manner. He describes how he belongs to a place of refuge and security. His house is portrayed as part of the family where it is personified that “the house stands”. Therefore 10 Mary Street does not relate to Michael Leunig’s poem “Divorce”, as it portrays a family whose priorities are not straight, and would rather escape reality through there connection with objects. They go for a world of not belonging to a world of not belonging to a world of where such state is made possible. These objects protrude a vector that serves as a boundary preventing their belonging.
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Belonging is the notion of acceptance among a certain group, which shares a common identity or interest. The key to creating this sense of belonging is through the understanding of another’s interests, ideas, values and morals. Without this common understanding belonging seizes to exist and a sense of alienation, ostracism and not belonging is felt. The poems “Post Card”, “Migrant Hostel” and “Ancestors” from “The Immigrant Chronicles” by Peter Skrzynecki, the film “Remember the Titans” directed by Jerry Bruckheimer and the novel “Just Another Kid “ by Torey Hayden convey this idea about belonging through the character relationships they display.
The poems by Peter Skrzynecki were written based on his life after his family migrated to Australia during WWII and detail the struggles of trying to belong in Australia. The idea of understanding creating belonging through character relationships can be seen very clearly within the poems “Post Card” and “Ancestors”. In both these poems the generation gap between the two participants in the relationships serves as a barrier to belonging. The character relationships developed between Peter and his mother and father in “Post Card” represent the negative aspect about this idea of belonging. This relationship creates a sense of alienation for Peter due to the generation gap which exists. Both Peter’s mother and father are very familiar with the scenes of “Red buses on a bridge” and “High-rise flats” and this creates a strong sense of belonging for them. Peter feels his sense of alienation through the frustration he feels from not being able to familiarise himself with the images on the post card. This alienation caused by the generation gap between Peter and his mother and father conveys the idea that without an understanding, belonging cannot occur.
The idea that understanding is the key to belonging is represented through the relationship between Peter and his ancestors in the poem “Ancestors”. This relationship also displays the negative aspect about this idea of belonging and is caused by the generation gap between Peter and his ancestors. In the poem Peter dreams of the Polish mountain landscape and through these dreams he tries to connect to his ancestors but he wakes “As their faces become clearer”. By setting the poem as a dream, Skrzynecki emphasises the isolation he feels from his ancestors – his dreams are just conjured images and figments of his imagination, he can never really understand who his ancestors are or what their appearances were. The frustration and uncertainty of Peter in this poem is shown through the inclusion of many rhetorical questions. Skrzynecki questioning his past and the identity of his ancestors represents the barrier to belonging provided by the generation gap; Peter seizes to belonging to his ancestors because the generation gap disabled him to know who is ancestors really were. This lack of understanding by Peter for his ancestors due to the generation gap is the reason for his isolation.
Race acts a barrier to belonging between the main characters in “Remember the Titans” and between the different races in the poem “Migrant Hostel”. The film “Remember the Titans” directed by Jerry Bruckheimer is based on events from 1971 about an American high school football team. Although produced in 2000 the film encapsulates the main ideas that arose from this pivotal time in American history. The character relationships developed in this film especially between the characters of Julius (African American) and Gary (white American) convey the idea of understanding being the key to belonging. At the beginning of the film Julius’ and Gary’s relationship is obscured by the nature of race relations in 1970’s America. The two men are not allowed by the cultural values at the time to become friends and to have a relationship and this causes their alienation from each other. During the course of the film Julius and Gary begin to understand each other through the methods of Coach Boone (Herman Boone). Coach Boone forces black and white players to bunk together in the same rooms during a training camp. In addition to this he continues “3-a-day” training sessions until each of the players gets to know a player of another race on their team. In doing this Coach Boone forces the players to try and understand each other and in turn try and create a sense of connection between the players. Boone’s methods are very successful; the racial barrier between the black and white players is broken down and the group becomes a team.
A key scene which shows how their relationship conveys this idea about belonging is the hospital scene. Gary is involved in a car accident and when Julius arrives at the hospital, Gary’s mother tells Julius that he is the only person that Gary wants to see. The dialogue “I was afraid of you Julius. I don’t know what I was afraid of and now I know I was only hating my brother” shows how at the beginning they were isolated but through the experiences the boys shared an understanding was met and this led to their belonging. This dialogue is reinforced by the symbolism of Gary’s closed fist like that of black power advocators. The camera zooms on Gary’s fist emphasising the coming together of two races. The relationship formed between Gary and Julius shows how after the racial barrier has been broken down an understanding can be met and belonging can occur.
“Migrant Hostel” is a poem about Peter’s experience living in a migrant hostel after moving to Australia during WWII. Race serves as a barrier for the relationships between the different groups of races living in the migrant hostel. The context of the time when Peter arrives in Australia plays a large part in supporting the idea that understanding creates a sense of belonging. This time was during WWII and many of the displaced people who were at the migrant hostel were on opposing sides of the war. The relationship between the different races at the hostel was civil during the day as the races had a common understanding; they were all refuges and they were all looking for a better life in Australia. But as soon as night fall came, the refugees were “Partitioned off at night/By memories of hunger and hate”. The racial barrier would rise and any understanding between the different races would be forgotten creating a sense of isolation and not belonging between the groups. This rising of the racial barrier due to a lack of understanding between the races reinforces the idea that a lack of understanding creates alienation and hence supports the thesis.
“Just Another Kid” is “An enchanting, inspiring book” based on real life events which happened during the 80’s. The novel entails Torey’s experiences as the teacher of a special education class in America and the struggles associated with this. The character relationship between Torey and Ladbrooke (a mother of one of the students) develops in such a way which supports the thesis. Much like the relationship between Julius and Gary in “Remember the Titans”, at the start of the novel Torey and Ladbrooke have a negative relationship clouded by their personal differences. In this case class acts as a barrier to their belonging as Ladbrooke originates from upper class society and Torey originates from middle class society. Dialogue between Carolyn (another special education teacher) and Torey shows how the class barrier acts as a form of isolation; “You got Considyne? Is this the Considyne?”, “This sounds like a soap opera, Carolyn” and also by the simile “It was like sharing quarters with Typhoid Mary”.
Throughout the course of the novel the ladies begin to understand each other. The first event which shows this is when Ladbrooke vomits in Torey’s class because she is extremely drunk. After helping her, Torey begins to investigate into Ladbrooke’s life and starts to understand her. Ladbrooke then offers to become a teacher’s aide in Torey’s classroom and their relationship starts to develop. Whilst in the classroom Torey takes a likening to Ladbrooke and they start to become good friends. A key event which shows how their relationship has developed is when Ladbrooke rings up Torey in the middle of the night to pick her up from across town. She had lapsed back into alcoholism and still Torey came to pick her up and took her in to her home. Dialogue from this event which supports the thesis include; “I like you. Plain and simple”. The change in their relationship shows how that after an understanding has been reached, the class barrier can be broken down and the feeling of alienation can be alleviated.
The character relationships displayed in all three texts convey the idea that understanding is the key to belonging. In the poems “Post Card” and “Ancestors” the generation gaps between the relationships act as a barrier to belonging. These barriers do not get broken down and no understanding is reached and hence the feeling of isolation is never resolved. In the film “Remember the Titans” and the poem “Migrant Hostel” the barrier to belonging is provided by race. After an understanding is reached between Gary and Julius the barrier was broken down and belonging occurred. The same cannot be said for the different races in “Migrant Hostel” as the barrier was never completely broken down and no proper understanding was reached. Through the novel “Just Another Kid” it can be seen that class can act as a barrier. Torey and Ladbrooke reached an understanding through their experiences in the classroom together and this caused the barrier to be broken down. After the barrier was broken down belonging could occur.
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Identity And Belonging
The groups we reject tell us as much about ourselves as those to which we choose to belong
Do I Belong?
By Danielle Arnold –Levy
“Who am I?” is a question often repeated by teenagers, though they may not voice it out loud or use precisely those words. One of the biggest challenges that adolescents face during the transition between childhood and adulthood is this struggle with their own sense of identity. For one thing, it seems to constantly shift: they may act one way with a particular group of peers and completely different with another.
Ironically, the opinions of friends and acquaintances become very important at this stage in teenagers lives, whilst they are rejecting their parents’ advice however this may be apparent before teenage years and it tends to dictate kids' taste in clothing, the way they speak, how they react to things, who they hang out with, what they believe in, and their choice in musical genres. Others' opinions often dictate how kids feel
GET BETTER GRADES about themselves, and how they regulate their self-esteem. Here is another area where their sense of identity can become clouded, because they start comparing themselves to everyone else. They may worry about why they’re developing earlier or later than their peers in certain areas. Because puberty and adolescence are such confusing transitions, kids can feel a strong urge to check their own progress alongside that of another, or to stick with those people who, for all outward appearances, seem to have it all figured out. No wonder they end up questioning who they really are, after having spent so much time imitating others.
A certain amount of experimentation – with rebellion, imitation, and changes of image and attitude – is probably necessary before they can form a real sense of what they want and how to go about getting it. Parents who recognize this come to understand that they have to let go of their children, to a certain extent, just when they most want to protect them the most.
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To Belong Not Necessarily To Identify
TO BELONG IS NOT NECESSARILY TO IDENTIFY WITH IT
In our social life, each person has one’s own roles and responsibilities, attitudes and values. Since every individual is unique and distinct compared to one another, these elements that construct our individuality are not always similar. Similarities and reflection of our values make us belong to a group, but the differences are barriers that stop ourselves from being recognized as an indivisible part of it. Belonging and identity are inseparable; nonetheless, there are distinctions that create a world of difference between the two. Belonging is not only about to whom we incorporate ourselves the way we perceive it, but also how others recognize our relationship with that group. Therefore, it can be forged; since we can control our approach to a group, we are able direct the people’s opinion about ourselves. This is because most people observe only what is visible and that is our belonging.
Our absolute and real identity remains imperceptible; this is because it is not only about how others recognize us, but also how we identify ourselves as complete individuals. Sometimes belonging comes undesirably and not few deny their relationships with groups which they are born to belong. Even when one’s relationship is not genuine it can still create an impression of belonging, at least for those who are unable to perceive the integrity of that connection. From this pseudo-notion our roles and responsibilities emerge; at this point, belonging and recognition (both personally and socially) dissolve although not completely combine, into a single entity that fits in a considerable part of the identity puzzle as a whole. Hence, in a sense, one can hardly associate and not identify with a group to which one belongs.
There are many cases where people are not recognised as part of tribes they actually belong. This happens because of multitude of reasons, but one of the most common is because some people intentionally refuse...
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Romulus My Father
In Romulus my father Raimond Gaita creatively illustrates the impact our culture and upbringing has on our character and how it slowly but ultimately helps form who we eventually become. Gaita demonstrates how our culture and the way we have been brought up can develop our morals to whom which we live our everyday lives he also shows how both these factors, our culture and upbringing help us develop our own sense of belonging and identity. Raimond gives an insight into Romulus's intriguing life through his memories of his loving father , Romulus, the strong virtuous man that was a product of the hardships his upbringing and culture had brought upon him.
Our culture and upbringing is the foundation which helps to mould our building blocks of moral codes to which we live our lives. In Romulus my father it clearly demonstrated that Romulus’s culture and the way he has been brought up has been the baseline to the set of moral codes he lives his life.
From an early age Romulus worked hard, before and after school, helping with the harvest and caring for the animals. Meat, sugar, white or brown bread made of good flour were luxuries, sweets or ice-creams were enjoyed once or twice a year. Childhood as we know it, a space apart from the adult world, a life of its own, did not exist .Romulus has been taught that life is nothing but hardship form a very young age he has taken on adult responsibilities however this was life in his part of the world. This was his culture and the way he has been brought up despite it being harsh Romulus didn’t overlook it but grew with it. “His sense of importance of work and of its moral and spiritual requirements was simple and noble. Like him, his work was honest through and though” . Romulus's shows great courage in his early childhood . When he protects his grandfather from being beaten by his drunken uncle, a man who would surely have been a fright to any other young child. Romulus's bravery, risking his own life,...
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Romulus, My Father
ROMULUS MY FATHER ESSAY
The indiviuals in Romulus were shaped by their experiences.
In the biography 'Romulus My Father' the characters encounter many different situations and journey to foreign lands, these experiences shape and change the characters. In the novel some characters endure breakdowns, others conflict with one another and some even die, from these we see characters become independent, stronger, weaker and even loose control and breakdown. Romulus meets a girl called Christine, although he likes her, he doesn't value all the aspects of her personality he changes and adapts to her needs and desires. Romulus later has a metal breakdown and commits himself to a mental institution, because of this he Raimond becomes more independent and sees that his father is not indestructable. These are jus some of the many experiences that change and sculpt the characters throughtout the novel.
Romulus meets a girl by the name of Christine, he is immediately attracted to her but soon becomes aware of her characteristics and does not particularly agree with them.
Although Romulus enjoyed reading, the ritual of church and music he mistook Christines passion for theatre for snobbishness. He cared for her a lot
, Christine had particularly bad asthma and Romulus then decided to move to Australia because it could improve her health. although Romulus didn't want to move he did anyway because of Christines health, "the serverity of her asthma convinced him that they must find somewhere better for her health". This passage helps Romulus as he becomes a better provider in this new and different land, he takes on a strong role of provider but as Christine soon becomes flurtatious with the other men at their migrant camp he also becomes a stronger role model as he takes main care over Raimond as Christine is not responsible enough.
This strengthens the realationsip between Romulus and his son, as he teachers his son valuable qualities and traits that will help...
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Romulus My Father
In the text Romulus my father, written by Raimond Gaita, the main character of Romulus's life is marked by suffering. Gaita who is the son of Romulus, includes plenty personal and descriptive accounts of his father Romulus. Many of these accounts involve examples of how Romulus life was marked by suffering. Such suffering occurred throughout Romulus life by having to move away from his homeland to Australia, being denied his love for education, having to work his hands to the bone in order to scrape by and the overall conditions that Romulus lived by to constantly support others. Only Romulus being the strong man of physical stamina and perseverance could have copped with these painful circumstances.
Having to leave the Romanian speaking part of Yugoslavia and make the move to Australia would have cut Romulus deep. Romulus always ‘considered him a Romanian' and the first glimpse of the suffering that Romulus went though occurred early. At a young age Romulus pushed through family problems to the point of being prepared to shoot his drunken uncle who was about to beat his grandfather. No child wants to go though this but Romulus fought through the difficult time. Another factor of the move would have been Christine's deteriorating health and her input enforced the move. He then began his journey to Australia where the poor guy was greeted with tough circumstances and horrendous suffering.
From a young age Romulus was denied a full education, the one thing he strived for. For two of his early years in Australia he was forced to work manually to pay off his debts. Soon after Romulus he was forced to adapt to the terrible living conditions as he undertook a blacksmith apprentaship. Romulus was paid well below wages and cheated out of being able to sell his own creations. Being the practical genius he was, it was a shame that such ideas as the egg washing machine, couldn't have been capitalized on.
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Romulus My Father
“The house shook with their battles” is referring to the parts of Raimond’s life which he thought were the most troubling for him, where there was much conflict. In Romulus My Father there are times which are considered to be the “darker” periods for Raimond and his Father. Poverty and Lack of necessities is one of those things, although there were times when Raimond could not have all that he wanted, he was content with his life and stated so in the book. I believe that Raimond’s life in retrospect was quite a normal life; there were ups and downs, as there are in any typical lifetime. Although his are (arguably) more than what you would see or hear about, they do not change him for the worse.
As the book goes on, Raimond progresses and grows up, not just physically but mentally as well. And these “events” in his life; good or bad, are what made him the person he is today. He always had support from those around him whether it be family members or even his pets which in the book is shown he loves dearly, these memories are part of the process that is his progression from being a child to an adult. When his pet dog Orloff died, it filled him with a great sense of grief as it did to his father, as tragic as this event may be I would not regard it as a negative event in that it completely casts a shadow over his life. It is a normal experience for anyone who would own a pet, and yes it is sad but it does not affect his life in an immensely negative way as argued. One of the larger events that would have affected Raimond’s life is the social conflict between Hora and his Mother; his mother was never there for him throughout the book and had slept around with other men. The lack of discipline that his mother had and the responsibility which she didn’t take made Hora angry for Raimond and so an argument broke out in which Raimond’s mother was forced to leave the house as threats were shouted at her by Hora. Negative as it may be, Raimond not having a real...
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Acceptance as a natural member or part; a sense of belonging.
Belonging is about the security you find with the people you interact with and the context or environment you find yourself in.
Romulus my father and the related text, Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, show the great importance of personal, familiar and national belonging. They explore belonging, wanting to belong and not belonging and the effects of each of these. These texts are told with subtle humor and a commitment to the often complex truths about family and friendships.
The responder is able to link how belonging and fitting into a group is an integral aspect to human existence and brings meaning to an individuals life, creating a sense of place.
Belonging comes from the place where you feel comfortable. This is seen when Romulus fled his home at thirteen and eventually met Christine. Romulus is happy here and feels he belongs more than anywhere else previously to when Christine’s problems lead him to Australia. Romulus could not fathom the Australian landscape and felt he belonged to Europe. ‘To a European or English eye it seems desolate, and even after forty years my father could not become reconciled to it.’ Yet the reader is reminded that not everything of Romulus is left in Europe, he brings his sense of ethics and personal philosophy with him and it belongs to him only. Even though he is sometimes misinterpreted or misunderstood as a foreigner he keeps all of these values close to him. This is appreciated by the novel being written in retrospect or eulogy, this purpose is clearly exposed in that Gaita clearly makes the book about his father with flowing natural bias in the recount of events. The book focuses on scenes that illustrate his father’s temperament and allows an evaluation of their father and son bond. The lack of dialogue and long conversations merely being retold as narrative, emphasize that passage of time has been erased and it’s Gaita’s childhood recollection reminiscing through anecdotal language.
There is always a recurring notion that Raimond doesn’t belong as a child as he is constantly being moved around yet he seems to find solace at Frogmore and never worries about its deterioration even when he returns from boarding school. Raimond also undergoes change as he gets older and becomes more accepting of his own family and cultural identity. His sense of belonging changes as we can discover from the way he sees Frogmore. This emphasizes the Central irony within the memoir as it allows Gaita to attempt to search for his own identity
This can be linked to the character of Holden in Catcher in the Rye. It is his alienation and inability to fit in that that Salinger wants the responder to be concerned with. Holden is a misfit in many ways depicted in the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The situations that Holden talks about come together for the reader because we identify with the problems he faces as an adolescent.
Throughout the novel, Holden, as the narrator, will employ direct address, flashback, and digression, sometimes rather erratically, to tell his story. The effect of the constant use of these techniques is an air of confusion, reflective of Holden’s tormented state of mind. His life, and what is happening to him, does not make sense; therefore, Holden is incapable telling them in a strictly chronological order.
People’s ideas about belonging are affected by other people. We see in the character of Christine the lack of really belonging anywhere in the duration of the text. She cannot settle and both herself and Mitru eventually take their own lives as a consequence of this, exaggerating the fact that she was continually scarred by her mental issues.
This disabled her from striving in any life situations like coming to Australia where her lack of concern for her children and promiscuous behavior were frowned upon and she suffered tremendously for it. This idea is awakened by the analytical way Raimond examines his mothers suicide ‘she killed her self only days after our conversation’ and by the use of symbolism and motifs present through out the book such as mental illness, setting, the connection with animals, land and family.
Adding to the personal sense of this text are the vivid scenes and descriptions that show both unusual characters in their lives and also the country. These reveal much about the inner workings of his mind and the philosophical background to how Raimond views the world and events surrounding his mother and father.
This idea can also been seen through the core of Salingers novel. Holden struggles to develop into an individual who learns how to relate to the world and not see only negativity. His sense of belonging is dislocated for most of the novel. He is alienated from his peer group, his family, whose way of life he rejects. Holden really only understands children, innocence and other underdogs such as Ackley and Castle. His search for himself can be seen in terms of those he understands and their loss as he is deeply affected by the death of his brother Allie. He never really recovers from this but he sees worth and strength in his relationship with his sister Phoebe.
Peoples sense of belonging is affected by the context and environment. The Australian landscape functions symbolically and as a real context for the relationship within the story. Raimond’s mother fails to adapt to the environment, symbolically seeing herself mirrored in the desolate sight of a fallen gum ‘a dead red gum stood only a hundred meters from the house and became for my mother a symbol of her desolation’. This idea is a recurring motive throughout the text. The vastness of the landscape seems impersonal and uncaring to the eyes of the outsider, especially to Christine where it highlighted her isolation.
Although Raimond’s father and mother never understood the Australian landscape, it is a place where Raimond feels he belongs. ‘The landscape seemed to have a special beauty, disguised until I was ready for it; not a low and primitive form for which I had to make allowances, but subtle and refined.’ This text allows for reflection and a reminiscent tone and an understanding of events. It allows Gaita to look back on memories from his childhood and see them in a new light.
Raimond Gaita draws inspiration from the connection between man and nature; he sees that the qualities of the landscape have had a moral effect on his development. ‘Strange though it may sound, my sense of that life, of the ideas that informed it, was given intensity and colour by the light and landscape of the area.’ He develops contrast between his and Christine’s different understanding of the Australian landscape as a reflection of their character, this is incorporated amongst the text by a certain lyrical quality, which is evident in his lush landscape imagery..
We see this isolation again when raimond is with his father for the last time in hospital and Romulus is already isolated by his illness. ‘The hospital represented a foreign world to me.’ Raimond has been drawn to his father’s world for the final time and had been drawn to Europe as his father predicted. His sense of belonging to a place is now not confined to home or country but rather he belongs to the world. Significantly though, both Romulus and Christine are buried in Australian soil, a final symbol of belonging to the new country.
Much like Raimond, Holden is established by his youth, he speaks a typical teenage language, filled with exaggeration, slang, and curse words. This authentic language helps to establish Holden’s personality and voice. It is important to notice that when Holden flashes back to the day he left Pencey Prep, he is pictured alone, standing on top of a hill. He has risen above the pettiness of Pencey and looks down on it, both literally and figuratively. I think Holden does find a sense of identity and belonging in the end and there is some cause for optimism. We have seen that he has some fine personal qualities and a great capacity to love. In the end he finally recognizes that he doesn’t want to run away and that he needs people. ‘about all I know is, I sort of miss everybody I told about.’
It is plainly evident through the personal context of both these novels that manifested in the relationship between individuals and the environment they are exposed too; belonging is paramount in the development of ones identity and therefore the definition of the institutions to which they may belong. Through the contrasting notions and concepts of belonging, this notion is addressed through many varied perspectives reflected through relationship, cultural and societal significance to individuals in their respective societies.
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In Romulus, My Father, focus is placed on several different foundations for which our identity, and in turn our sense of belonging, is formed. The memoirs emphasis on setting and place acts as a metaphor to reflect Gaita’s orientation of self, which contextualises and explores the challenges of diaspora, and provides a framework for the text’s central tenet, that from suffering, wisdom is gained. Consequently, the autobiographical nature of Gaita’s memoir provides the subjective parameters by which Romulus’ formative conditions of deprivation and betrayal shape his and his son’s sense of Self.
The autobiography offers an unmediated and stabilising exploration of the Self.
Throughout Gaita’s piece of life writing, it becomes clear to the audience that the purpose of Romulus, My Father is to reflect on life’s critical lessons. This is highlighted by the composition of the text, which places more emphasis on critical moments of philosophical enlightenment than it does on details and events. Where does Raimond learn these valuable lessons from? Through his father’s relationships, ideals and actions.
Gaita expresses the importance of his father with the quote “I know what a good workman is, I know what an honest man is. I know because I remember these things in the person of my father,” which utilizes repetition to emphasise and glorify his father’s life. Juxtaposition is also used to highlight Romulus’ admirable qualities by contrasting them with the morals of Mitru and Christine, which are considered “weak.”
Barack Obama’s Dreams of My Father captures the strengths, weaknesses and lessons that Obama learned from several men who fathered him. His birth father, whose story he finally discovers, his maternal grandfather, whose innocence could have easily led to cowardive as heroism, his Idonesian stepfather, who taught him the importance of strength, and the old black poet, who gave him a sense of black American history. Each of these encounters inform Obama with a sense of identity, which gives him the courage to strive for belonging.
Although the memoir aims to strip away the mythology of Romulus, the main focus of the text is Raimond Gaita’s discovery of Self, which becomes clear to the reader through the cyclical structure of Romulus’ life. This suggests that although Gaita’s father stays the same, the true change occurs in Raimond.
The theory that wisdom and the formation of one’s identity are a result of suffering, is one explored throughout Romulus, My Father.
During Gaita’s journey through life, much of the anguish that he experienced came from when the familiar transformed into the unfamiliar. For example, both his father’s madness and his mother’s mental illness and eventual suicide made Raimond resilient, and successful in his migration to Australia.
Raimond also learns considerably from the wisdom that his father has gained through suffering. We never forget how Romulus came from a fractured and divided Europe, where he experienced a lack of food and education. He was, however, nourished by these hardships, and through them his spirit became strong, hard like the steel he tempered. He became a man of character.
The film Big Fish, by “unknown director”, is also an example of a son’s discovery of identity through the understanding of his father. Because Will’s dad lives in a heightened sense of reality, Will finds it incredibly difficult to communicate with him. However, as evident in the extract “A man sees things differently at different times in his life,” which is given a sense of gravity by the innocence and youth of the speaker, Jenny, Will is able to finally reconcile these differences and gain wisdom from his late father.
The quote “My father must have been heartbroken by his unfaithful wife” further illustrates through emotive language the intense suffering that Romulus was subject to.
The text culminates with the quote “some kinds of wisdom, however, are given only to those have suffered deep and long.”
Diaspora gives resonance to how one belongs to place.
Although diaspora posits a culturally divided self, the concept also suggest new understanding of self, sameness and solidarity as identity reorientates ideas of Self away from national and genealogical imperatives.
The tension exist because of the context that the memoir takes place in. Although Romulus was sentenced to two years of labour for his boat trip, he “had long come to accept what fate dealt him… so he saw his two years as a short interim.” This, combined with how they never “called my father by his name. They called him Jack” provides the context of a pre-multicultural Australia, where an immigrant must realign their sense of Self to belong.
The proof for this division of Self is seen in the way that Romulus and Christine view the Australian landscape. “Although it is one of rare beauty, to a European eye it seems desolate.” Romulus is able to account for this change because of the deprivation, hunger and lack of education he experience in Eastern Europe. He was nourished by hard work, which made his spirit strong, hard like the steel he tempers. Christine, on the other hand, who viewed the “red gum… as a symbol of her desolation”, could not overcome this division; the amalgamation of diaspora, isolation, mental illness and her lack of resilience caused her to drown in the rural outback of Victoria.
The Arrival, a graphic novel by Shaun Tan, weaves a story of times long past, of a migrant lost in a bewildering city of foreignness; peculiar animals, curious customs and indecipherable languages. It is through the absence of any written description that the audience is firmly placed in the shoes of a refugee view point, which challenges our notions of belonging, by eliciting empathy for the character as he is removed from his comfort zone – and exits the other side with a reinvented sense of belonging.
THIS IS NOT ENTIRELY MY OWN WORK , JUST HELPFUL THINGS I FOUND THAT BECAME USEFULL TO ME , HOPE IT HELPS!