Romulus My Father - Societies View on Immigrants Essay Example
Societies view on immigrants
*Government policy to take immigrant men to work for two years labour.
‘Migrants... were required to work for two years wherever they were sent, on jobs of the governments choosing’ pg.11
-This policy leads to the separation of family
‘My father was sent to Baringhup... my mother and I stayed in Bonegilla’ pg.11
*The area of ‘Baringhup’ is within itself is symbolic before, Aboriginals were forced to live in this area. Aboriginals were the victims of segregations. However, now the new victims that are segregated in this area of Baringhup are the immigrants.
‘It was the site of large Aboriginal camps as late as the 1860s’ pg.12
Immigrants’ action
*Soon after Romulus arrival, he sought other Romanians. He sought to surround himself with familiar ‘faces’ that spoke the same language and knew of the same culture. He tried to re-create the environment in which he grew up in.
i.e. the idea of bringing your culture and continuing it on a foreign land, a ‘mini-Romania’ within Australia.
‘As soon as my father arrived at the camp... he asked the man who greeted new arrivals whether there were any other Romanians’’ pg.12
*From a different perspective, Romulus’s failure to belong to the foreign environment of Australia is highlighted in the ‘fire’ incident. In this, he attempts to kill snake by setting the stock on fire. The fire soon grows to devour the entire paddock. The incident becomes public and a newspaper comments on the situation emphasizing that an immigrant was the centre of the incident.
‘Without thinking, responding with the instinct of an immigrant unused to the tinder-dry conditions of an Australian summer, he set fire to the stook in order to kill the snake. Within minutes the fire was beyond his control and consumed some twenty hectares of Lillie’s property’ pg 28
‘The local newspaper ridiculed the New Australia for his folly.’ Pg 28
Immigrants’ and the environment
*Romulus fails to find harmony with the Australian
*Government policy to take immigrant men to work for two years labour.
‘Migrants... were required to work for two years wherever they were sent, on jobs of the governments choosing’ pg.11
-This policy leads to the separation of family
‘My father was sent to Baringhup... my mother and I stayed in Bonegilla’ pg.11
*The area of ‘Baringhup’ is within itself is symbolic before, Aboriginals were forced to live in this area. Aboriginals were the victims of segregations. However, now the new victims that are segregated in this area of Baringhup are the immigrants.
‘It was the site of large Aboriginal camps as late as the 1860s’ pg.12
Immigrants’ action
*Soon after Romulus arrival, he sought other Romanians. He sought to surround himself with familiar ‘faces’ that spoke the same language and knew of the same culture. He tried to re-create the environment in which he grew up in.
i.e. the idea of bringing your culture and continuing it on a foreign land, a ‘mini-Romania’ within Australia.
‘As soon as my father arrived at the camp... he asked the man who greeted new arrivals whether there were any other Romanians’’ pg.12
*From a different perspective, Romulus’s failure to belong to the foreign environment of Australia is highlighted in the ‘fire’ incident. In this, he attempts to kill snake by setting the stock on fire. The fire soon grows to devour the entire paddock. The incident becomes public and a newspaper comments on the situation emphasizing that an immigrant was the centre of the incident.
‘Without thinking, responding with the instinct of an immigrant unused to the tinder-dry conditions of an Australian summer, he set fire to the stook in order to kill the snake. Within minutes the fire was beyond his control and consumed some twenty hectares of Lillie’s property’ pg 28
‘The local newspaper ridiculed the New Australia for his folly.’ Pg 28
Immigrants’ and the environment
*Romulus fails to find harmony with the Australian