Feliks Skrzynecki Essay

An individuals upbringing fabricates their social and cultural expectations which inevitably influences their ability to belong. The poem Feliks Skrzynecki, composed by Peter Skrzynecki depicts a nostalgic yet perplexedly negative description of the writers father. The readers are taken on a journey from Peters child-like admiration for his father to the pairs developing detachment throughout the poem.
Peter and his father have contrasting social and cultural expectations as a result of their different upbringings which influence their ability to belong. Through the use of possessive pronoun, sarcastic tone and cliché, this essay will discuss two main ideas, firstly despite the fact that Peter and his father are different there is still respect there. And secondly, due to the fact that the two have had different upbringings they find it hard to relate to eachother.

Despite the fact that Peter and Feliks have different social and cultural expectations as a result of their different upbringings Peter still respects his father. At the beginning of the poem there is a tone of esteem and admiration that is experienced by Peter for his father. A specific example of this is when he refers to Feliks as ‘My gentle father,’ through the use of the possessive pronoun in the word ‘my’ the sense of pride that the poet feels for his father is depicted. This conveys to the readers that regardless of the differences between father and son, Peter still feels as though there’s a closeness uniting them and idolises him in spite of these cultural distinctions. Overall the actual existence of the poem and the fact that it is based on Feliks displays the complete and utter respect that Peter feels for him. This confirms that the different social and cultural expectations as a result of Peter and Feliks’s different upbringings are disregarded and the pair are still connected.

Contrasting to the idea above, although Peter and Feliks are father and son they lack the comparable