Belonging Essay

Acceptance of oneself, ones past and ones future is essential in a search for belonging. We this is this true on many levels such as emotional acceptance, physical acceptance and cultural acceptance. This ideal is also seen throughout Peter Skrzyneckis poems Migrant Hostel, Peter Skrzynecki and Ancestors. Migrant Hostel explores the emotions surrounding the migrants experiences of detainment at Parkes centre. The Migrant Hostel demonstrates this through the use of the simile nationalities sought/ each other out, instinctively/like homing pigeons. This line highlighted how every migrant saw it essential to be accepted and how the identification of there past from war torn Europe helped them belong and flock together. But it also shows how ones past can also lead to alienation from groups due to their past and heritage. This in a sense contradicts the message because emotional and cultural acceptance of ones past lead to separation by memories of hunger and hate In Feliks Skrzynecki we look at how the lack of cultural acceptance of ones future can lead to estrangement and how full acceptance of oneself and ones past can help survive in an unfamiliar land. In the stanza 4 we see, how Feliks was branded because his lack of effort to learn the ways of Australia, this is seen in the example Did your father ever attempt to learn English? Although peter faced this problem, he still felt a firm sense of home and acceptance in his garden. This is seen in stanza 5, my father, sits out the evening, with his dog, smoking, watching stars and street lights come on, Happy as I have never been. This again highlighted that acceptance is vital in the search for belonging and acknowledgment. In Ancestors we see how the persona felt about his past and how disconnected he was from his ancestors. The poem Ancestors is riddled with rhetorical questions, highlighting the entirety of the personas disconnection from his past. This is further compounded by the words who are these shadows.what secretswhere do they point towhy do they never speak....why do you wake This poem showed how his disconnection from his heritage and custom had lead to repudiation because of his unfamiliarity with where he was from. In the poem we also that the bearded men in his dream had accepted each other and this shows how they all had a sense of belonging, shown by the body language standing shoulder to shoulder. This further compounds the notion that acceptance of ones past and oneself is necessary in the search for belonging.

Amrinder Singh Ghuman

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These three poems all highlighted how Acceptance of oneself, ones past and ones future is essential in a search for belonging. We see lack of acceptance has consequences such as alienation and estrangement. And acceptance of oneself, past and future can lead to a built sense of security and happiness.

Amrinder Singh Ghuman

Page 2