Woolvs In The Sitee Analysis

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. In “Migrant Hostel”, Skrzynecki describes the importance of upholding one’s cultural identity in the face of a prejudice
One of the few survivors of a post-holocaust society, Ben attempts to escape the devastation by creating, and withdrawing into, his own fictional world, in which he substitutes the destruction of invading soldiers with the less frightening proposition of “woolvs”. The third spread represents a desolate urbane setting through broken, jangles wires and the steep angles created position the reader to look up at the world, through Ben’s eyes, thereby depicting the young boy’s utter helplessness in dealing with reality. The deterioration of language in the use of fractured text, “sitee is hush, terrefied”, not only mirrors the breakdown of Ben’s world but is also metaphoric of his yearning to maintain his individuality in face of the dehumanising military invasion. The post-war historical context of the book, and the subsequent difficulty in belonging, mirrors that of Skrzynecki’s “Post card”. However, whereas the poet’s alienation emanates from him being caught between multiple cultures, not truly a part of each, Ben’s desolation is due to the desecration of his country, culture and loved ones. The utter darkness of the spread is juxtaposed with the paleness of Ben’s hands, which pull away at the curtains framing the spread, symbolising the hope of better days for his country
Mansfield, projecting her middle-class upbringing, delineates the story of a privileged family receiving a doll house, its arrival tainted somewhat by the chemical odour it emits and the repetition of “smell of paint” foreshadowing its toxicity and the alienation it shall cause. The children show the doll house to all but the Kelveys, who are exile because of their lowly socio-economic status. Their desolation is elucidated through the aggregation of the various occupations of the townspeople, allowing the author to juxtapose the “judge’s children” to the “store-keeper’s children”, thereby establishing their position at the foot of the social ladder. While such exclusion is evident in “Feliks Skrzynecki” as the poet’s father is mocked by a clerk, the basis of the exclusion varies. While Skrzynecki is because of his cultural background, the Kelveys’ isolation stems from their financial and subsequent social shortcomings. Ultimately, the Kelveys embrace their position of being perennial outsiders and their acceptance of their identity intensifies the bond between them, as is depicted through the hyperbole, “went through life holding each other”. The Doll’s House thus opens our eyes to the difficulty of belonging when at a severe economic disadvantage, an issue mirrored in the