Belonging Essay

Belonging as an abstract, transitory concept presents human beings with a sense of association with a particular environment, another individual, or other beings. Some argue that humans have this inherent nature to connect, to feel a sense of attachment and acceptance so that they may feel fulfilled and secure. This sense of belonging can emerge from the rapport formed with people, places, groups, communities, and the wider world. Such affinity may be social, physical, mental, emotional, psychological or spiritual. However, different notions of belonging are shaped by or recognised in cultural, historical, personal and social contexts. It is a perception, a state of mind which offers a sense of enlightenment, felt when an individual gains an understanding of themselves in relation to others and the wider world. To be a natural member, a part of something, at ease, to have a proper or usual place, to be suitable or fitting, to have a home, a rightful place, those are some of the concepts that constitute belonging. Such aspects may be considered in terms of experiences and perception of identity, relationships, acceptance and understanding; Peter Skrzynecki based his poems Migrant Hostel, 10 Mary Street and Ancestors on his own personal experience and resulted in deeply insightful recounts of his migrant past, his family’s relationship with their home in Australia and his trouble with connecting to his heritage.
In these poems, Skrzynecki focuses on the theme of not belonging. In Migrant Hostel it’s particularly apparent, as he speaks about his family’s initial experience as migrants. The entire poem conveys a sense of isolation and dislocation on the part of the immigrants during this time. The mood of the poem is a dark, negative one, his description of it resembling a prison; Skrzynecki’s effusive use of imagery allows his responders to effectively depict this particular setting – “No one kept count of all the comings and goings-arrivals of new comers in