The first beatitude that Mary Mackillop lived out was “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. I chose this beatitude because Mary showed this as soon as she began the Saint Joseph’s school. This was the first Catholic school that Mary Mackillop setup and it was free for all boys and girls. By her beginning these schools and the children being able to go there for a free education, Mary was showing that she believes anyone has the right to and can have an education. The world is anyone's if you put in hard work and effort, which I strongly believe Mary thought. As she enabled children in rural town areas across all of Australia and parts of New Zealand to have an education, which if it wasn’t for her they may never have gotten that chance to. The kingdom of heaven is the poor’s as they are understanding and thoughtful.…
Mrs Mary Martins is an eight four year old lady who was admitted to a local community hospital after falling at home while going to the toilet in the early hours of the morning. Mrs Martins had sustained a chipped bone in her left foot, had no plaster cast in situ and was non weight bearing.…
‘10 Mary Street’ provides readers with the insight of Skryznecki's relationships with his family and his home. The relationship between the family and the home is shown through Skryznecki's use of imagery of…
Skrzynecki also feels isolation and insecurity when he states “Our lady watched with outstretched arms, her face overshadowed by clouds.” He uses negative connotations which are symbolic of an unhappy place. This is also symbolic of his future. Skrzynecki could never belong since he did not create the intricate mix of social relationships and individual identity.…
Mary Sadie is a thirteen years old, 2004, champagne colored, Honda Accord. The chipped champagne paint covering her body is fading but Mary Sadie is brighter than ever in my eyes. Over the past two years, my car and I have experienced road trips across the Causeway, to Baton Rouge, to the beach, through the broken roads of Lakeview, and countless trips to the French Quarter, which have truly strengthened our bond with each other. Just because a car is old and used, does not mean that it sucks, is one of the many valuable lessons that I have learned from owning my first car, along with many adventurous experiences that I will cherish for my entire life.…
In “10 Mary Street”, their connection to their house is established through the nurturing of their garden. A simile is used “tended roses and camellias like adopted children” to emphasise this strong connection to their garden and their immense care towards it. Peter gains joy and fulfilment from his garden and this enables his attachment to his home to grow. The personification of the house with its “china blue coat” gives a sense of security and warmth to the house, highlighting its significance in terms of their belonging. In the forth stanza, it is evident that the family has established connections with people of similar cultural background, where a sense of familiarity is provided. They have a strong connection with their past and through the use of listing, Peter demonstrates the various memories and common values that they share. The “embracing gestures” evokes a sense of comfort and reassurance with this particular community. This reveals the strong connection that the family has with their house.…
Feliks Skrzynecki is a poem that shows a tribute to Peter Skrzyneckis father. Through the use of powerful and vivid imagery, the poet successfully conveys Feliks as a man who is comfortable, content and secure in his own identity. In this poem, concepts of belonging and not belonging occur within place, family, community and culture.…
Mary Pleasant, also widely referred to as “Mammy Pleasant”, is the considered Mother of Civil Rights in California due to her work with the Civil Rights movement during the 1860s. She was an icon during the Gold Rush and Gilded Age San Francisco because of her political power, mainly due to her large fortune and as well as her influence, in the cause and in her fellow citizens. Her achievements as an abolitionist went unmatched until the late 1960s, during which other laws regarding slavery were passed; although her achievements were surpassed, it was her work that helped set off the chain reaction of events that led to the greater triumphs of the Civil Rights movement. Following the Civil War, Pleasant brought her battles to the courts in the 1860s, and claimed a handful of human rights victories. One of those victories, Pleasant vs. North Beach & Mission Railroad Company, was heavily cited and advocated in the 1980s, which is the main reason behind why Pleasant is known today as “The Mother of Human Rights in California”. Pleasant was a woman of half African descent. She helped shape early San Francisco and furthered the Civil Rights movements. Her ability to “love across boundaries of race and class without losing sight of her goal –the equality for herself and her people” is what makes Pleasant the person that she was, and is what makes of her what people see her for today, as The Mother of Human Rights in California. (Pleasant’s Story)…
Belonging is an instinctive factor in human nature which is embedded in everyone. The sense of belonging or not belonging can have a significant impact on a person’s life, their personality and their position in society. A person may find a strong sense of belonging through representations of symbolic places, relationships or events. Through these different aspects which create a sense of belonging, a strong individual identity can also be formed. Peter Skrzynecki explores these concepts in his poem “Feliks Skrzynecki” and presents the idea that there does not always have to be a conflict between an individual’s desire to belong and their duty to themselves. In this poem, Skrzynecki demonstrates how Feliks’ bond with his home country of Poland and his desire to continue to belong there, play a defining role in shaping his own individual identity in his new country, Australia. He retained his individual identity throughout the many experiences in his life and it is this strong sense of personal awareness that fuelled the desire to further strengthen his sense of belonging with Poland, as opposed to Australia. Through this motion, Skrzynecki demonstrates how Feliks does not feel obliged to change his identity in order to feel a part of or fit into his new society. He does not have a distinct desire to belong to his new life, rather he chooses to surround himself with what reminds him of Poland – his home country in this new environment, hence eliminating the conflict of the individual’s duty to themselves and their desire to belong. Along with this, Skrzynecki is also able to portray how his father’s behaviour has affected him by making it difficult for Skrzynecki to develop his own sense of belonging in Australia. This representation of a significant place is shown through Feliks’ garden…
The focus on these ideas is most evidently reflected in the way his poem is framed by temporal references such as “for nineteen years” and “back at 5p.m.” These phrases create a sense of security which is further developed by the extended listing in “we departed each morning, shut the house… hid the key.” Moreover, this specific focus on the inane details of life such as hiding the key “under a rusty bucket” and walking “over that still too-narrow bridge” establishes a colloquial tone which in turn, represents the sense of familiarity associated with everyday life. Thus a sense of belonging is founded in this regularity. Moreover, this routine is portrayed in highly favourable light as is seen in the leisurely and bucolic interrelationship between work and play; “my parents watered plants – grew potatoes… tended roses and camellias.” This Arcadian imagery becomes even more significant as an empowering sense of reciprocity is generated by the simile of the “roses and camellias like adopted children.” In addition to this, the lines “washing clothes and laying sewerage pipes” draw upon familial conventions of the ‘handyman’ father and domestic mother to render a scene of unity. Also, the house becomes the irrevocable scene of his childhood where he would “ravage the backyard garden like a hungry bird.” However, these nostalgic reflections take on a somewhat lamenting tone as the house’s transience is fully realized;” the whole block has been gazetted for industry” and it is with this attitude in mind that his dwindling Polish religion is treated in the following paragraph. Thus the first person plural pronoun “we lived together” illustrates a collective cultural unity which “kept pre-war Europe alive.” It is by adhering to this unique culture…
In this regard the struggle to belong is not significant for Feliks, as he has found his place. The persona, however, struggles to belong in the same way that Feliks, his father, belongs. This is most apparent where the persona recounts “On the back steps of his house,…///My father sits out…/With his dog, smoking, /Watching stars and street lights… /Happy as I have never been.” Here a sense of belonging is once again represented by way of a collage that culminates in the luminous imagery of “stars and street lights”. These things combine to convey with a certainty that Feliks had found his “place” in the comfort of his home and as a result was “Happy”. But at this point the belonging Feliks enjoys is already largely established, so this representation of belonging has greater effect in that it contrasts with the son’s situation. Whilst the list of images suggest the desire of the son to have what Feliks has, it is the final line…
In “Feliks Skrzynecki”, the poet writes “His Polish friends/Always shook hands too violently,/ I thought… Feliks Skrzynecki,/ That formal address/ I never got used to.” Here the poet is establishing a disconnection to culture through the people, whom behaved in a manner that he never got used to. This said, in “10 Mary Street”, Peter very much feels a sense of connection to his Polish heritage, but it seems ironically to be his connection to other migrants, his parents’ friends, which allows him to construct a sense of self. His dislocation from culture is because he has an inability to relate to this ideal nation about which his parents talk, except through the friends of “10 Mary Street” who “drink to freedom/ Under the White Eagle’s flag”. This cultural belonging through relationships with individuals allows Skrzynecki to construct a sense of belonging to self. “On the Road”, too, speaks primarily of a friendship between Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise, and they feel a strong sense of connection to one another; however, they both feel isolated from other important figures in their life. Dean is constantly searching for his absent father, and Sal is searching for relationship in the context of romantic love, expressed in the lines “’I want to marry a girl,’ I told them, ‘so I can rest my soul with her till we both get old. This can’t go on all the time – all this franticness and jumping around.” He expresses in these lines an explicit plea for love through the usage of the novel’s characteristic first person, informal, internal monologue style, also expressing simply Sal’s desire for consistency, and a steady home to rely on, through the relationship with his wife. In contrast, “The…
In the piece written by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, she writes a letter to her daughter on how she believes her granddaughter should be educated. Lady Montagu discusses how knowledge affects a woman's life in that time period. She also discusses how she feels a woman should be educated. In order to effectively communicate her views she uses rhetorical devices.…
In Peter Skrzynecki’s ’10 Mary St’, the poet expresses a strong sense of belonging towards his family home and garden. The use of the first person perspective, enjambment, simile, metaphor and alliteration in describing everyday routines create vivid imagery of the family’s activities and reinforces the concepts of belonging. The recount poem utilises effective images of the family’s daily routines, such as securing the house “each morning … like a well-oiled lock”. The concept of time runs throughout the poem, such as the repetition of the term” nineteen years”,…
In the poem ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ belonging has been demonstrated through connections and people. “Talking they reminisced/about farms where paddocks flowered/with corn and wheat”, here Peter has explored through these lines where his father, Feliks, achieves a sense of belonging through his past. The technique being used in these lines is Feliks successfully connects through his past with his polish background which makes him feel like he belongs. The short film, “New Boy”, directed by Steph Green, explores the past of a young African boy, who is starting school in Ireland. This illustrates the director’s exploration of his sense of belonging when he was back in Africa. During school, he finds out what it’s like to be the new kid. Feeling isolated amongst all the other students, the young boy has flashbacks of him back in Africa. These are good moments compared to reality. This illustrates how he felt a…