The anthology, ‘immigrant chronicle’, by Peter Skrzynecki, effectively explores the main aspects of the migrant experience by using his personal experiences as a child migrating to Australia as well as his immediate family. Poems such as crossing the red sea and immigrants at central station encapsulates the physical and emotional hardships that migrants experienced in a reliable and honest way. Skrzynecki’s poem, Crossing the red sea, reflects on the sense of freedom that the migrants felt after fleeing from the war torn countries and also their openness to share each other’s experiences of war. This is evident in the poem when Skrzynecki uses personification “voices left their caves and silence fell from its shackles” to emphasis on the…
Skrzynecki’s poem is also littered with similes – “Like a homing pigeon Circling to get its bearings” portrays the lost migrants who seek out others who would be in their group. In doing so, these people are looking for a place of familiarity to belong and so, find sanction. This union is also emphasised through the historical allusion noted within the poem, where “the memories of hunger and hate” suggest the migrants are affected by the war raging on during the time in which the poem was composed. This evokes a feeling of sympathy and empathy within the audience for the migrants as it is a negative, common experience the migrants share.…
In the poem Refugee Blues by Wystan Hugh Auden, it conveys the idea that it is society’s choice whether we belong or…
Have you ever visited a different country and felt like a complete alien? Well, how would you feel if you were to move there, forever? The novel, Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate is the story of how a young refugee from war-torn Sudan learns to adjust to a new life in America with the help of friends and family. Katherine Applegate’s use of figurative language, first person point of view, and free verse poetry is the most effective way to reveal the story of a refugee adapting to life in America.…
Humanity thrives on a sense of belonging and acceptance. The most powerful influences that impact on an individual’s sense of belonging include identity and heritage. These aspects are observable in Peter Skrzynecki’s collection of poems, Immigrant Chronicle, which brings to life the cultural plight of migrants in a mainstream Australian society; Anna Spudvilas’ award-winning picture book Woolvs in the Sitee, which details the importance of withdrawing from adverse circumstances, and Katherine Mansfield’s short story The Doll’s House, which describes the impact of social hierarchy on an individual’s sense of belonging.…
Skrzynecki uses the displacement of European migrants, in particular Polish migrants, to demonstrate how a personal connection to one’s homeland and society at a time of insecurity and discomfort can form a sense of belonging with others. As with many migrants the Skrzynecki family was forced to flee their beloved Poland for personal safety at a time of war. “Migrant hostel”, through the use of simile, demonstrates how those of similar culture band together in times of need to form a sense of belonging to each other as a community. “Nationalities sought / Each other out instinctively- / Like a homing pigeon” indicates a sense of cultural identity from a previous time allowed for the migrants to connect and form a sense of belonging and community in such an unfamiliar place. A different sense of belonging between the immigrants is highlighted in the juxtaposition “To pass in and out of lives / That had only begun / Or were dying” which finishes the poem in a suitably depressing tone because for the migrants, there is no sense of connectedness to the Australian society and the sense of impermanence only exacerbates this feeling.…
In order for one to feel a sufficient sense of belonging, they must first experience the sensation of not belonging. “Immigrant Chronicles” is a poetry anthology by Polish/Australian poet Peter Skrzynecki and includes the poems ‘St Patrick’s College’ and ‘Migrant Hostel’. They explore the notion of belonging and the lack of it, and how one’s experience of it can be limited or enriched through interactions with other, and the world. ‘Migrant Hostel’ and ‘St Patrick’s College’ regards the belonging, or absence of it he felt in those places, as well as the watercolour ‘Alienation’ by Ian Kim.…
The first text, Migrant Hostel, is a reflective poem about Peter Skrzynecki’s experience in a migrant hostel in Parkes, Western Australia. Skrzynecki describes in intense…
Time has gone by, which means things have changed. Hollywood has become good at changing any type of story to better fit the American eye. Anywhere from Cinderella to Hansel and Gretel. Hollywood will take a normal story and make a movie that will be more modern. They did the same thing, that they’ve done to a lot of other fairy tales, to Beowulf so it would be more appealing to varied audiences. Hollywood changes the epic poem so much in the movie to draw people's attention, make it a good versus evil kind of movie instead of flat like the poem and making it a more sexy/ emotional movie.…
Bruce Dawe’s poem, migrants, portrays a long quest from the perspective of a migrant group. This group is acknowledged as ‘they’ were met with indifferences from the local people. ‘They’ react to this treatment with confusion and surprise which is evident in the line ‘indifference surprised them’. This creates a sense of ambiguity and lack of identity. The text portrays a physical journey between continents. This is evident ‘in the fourth week the sea dropped away and they were there…’ which contains features of imagery, pronouns and ellipsis. The imagery used appeals to an audiences visual senses and creates an atmosphere while the ellipsis gives the sense of ambiguity and evokes attentiveness in the audience. Pronouns evoked in the poem allows the theme to be easily accessed by the audience by suggesting the migrants have a lack of identity as a result of leading their homeland and travelling for a long period.…
Migrants Hostel depicts the notions of ‘choice’ and successfully portrays the consequences of freedom. In this poem the migrants are challenged through the hardships they face as they leave their familiar grounds for the new and…
Communicating the difficulties in a journey is the poem “Migrants” the poem highlights the experience of a migrant family coming to Australia to seek asylum post WWII. Throughout the poem it conveys the barriers and obstacles which were faced though out the journey. This is evident through the use of the simile “shouted at like deaf-mutes” which compared the migrants to deaf mutes and reveals how it was hard for them to communicate as they were unable to speak or understand the language. Though the use of the simile, Dawe explores how migrants were treated as second-class citizens. However, these barriers and obstacles were overcome, this is shown through the use of the metaphor “both earth and water being blent.” This symbolises the cultures coming together with mutual understanding and respect and how the migrants were able to overcome these barriers. Therefore, it displays how the migrants were able to overcome these barriers and obstacles throughout their journey.…
By studying the poetry in ‘Immigrant Chronicle’ by Peter Skrzynecki as well as my related text ‘Noughts and Crosses’ by Malorie Blackman, it can be seen that although most people wish to feel the experience of belonging, it is not everybody who are willing to make some hard choices to achieve it.…
With all of the violence in the past, and now the most recent shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, society is more scared than ever. Dylann Roof, proven to be a white supremacist, walked into a church in Charleston, South Carolina and killed innocent people. This incident hit home for so many Americans because not only did the innocent people die, but it was in one of the safest places imaginable, a church (Tauber, Michelle). Many believe that weapons are to blame for this, and others believe that racism is the main focal point. This is not the first of violent crimes in a local church. A poem was written by Dudley Randall about a true story that happened in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. A group of white supremacists bombed a church that belonged to Martin Luther King Jr. What they did not know was that there were four little girls playing in there at the time. The church should be a safe, quiet place one can pray to God, but these incidents indicate that violence is creeping into the most innocent of…
This poem also reflects the context of the post-world war 2 influx of migrants from Europe’s war-torn countries and the racism directed at migrants that was encouraged by the White Australia Policy. A loss of identity is evident from the first stanza, where a sense of uncertainty, expressed in the line “sudden departures… who would be coming next”, permeates the poem. These lines highlight the loss of control and certainty in the migrants life, and the fear of the unknown as no warning was given before the departure of the fellow migrants. The emotional instability of the migrants is also expressed through the alliterative ‘h’ in “memories of hunger and hate”, which suggests a heaviness of peoples spirits and hearts, endangered by their memories of the past limiting their sense of belonging. The simile, “like a homing pigeon… circling to get its bearings” also illustrates the migrants feelings of a limited sense of belonging, uncertainty and emotional disorientation in the face of their journey and tenure at the hostel. Therefore, we can see that an individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can limit their experience of belonging, which can be seen throughout Peter Skrzynecki’s Migrant…