Peter Skrzynecki Migrant Hostel Analysis

Belonging is usually defined as being accepted into and by members of a family, group, class, race, community or school. The term belonging means something different to everyone but most people will come up with the words acceptance, security and identity. In this speech I have chosen to talk about the aspects of belonging and not belonging in two of Peter Skrzynecki’s Poems, Migrant Hostel and 10 Mary Street and also in the 1997 film ‘Titanic’.

In Peter Skrzynecki’s Migrant Hostel, he talks about the 2 years of his life that he and most of his family lived in a Migrant hostel in Parkes after coming to Australia after World War 2 from Poland and leaving most of his family and polish heritage behind.

This poem gives the responder a sense of confusion about whether he belongs or not to this migrant hostel. Skrzynecki creates this confusion by contrasting the family’s
Another technique Skrzynecki uses is rhetorical device; this technique shows the confusion of the people inside the hostel, for example in the first stanza 6th line
“That left us wondering who would be coming next.”
This example shows the confusion the people had, and how uncertain things were for them, they didn’t know who was going to come through the gate next or who was going to leave.
Also in this poem Skrzynecki uses an extended metaphor. In this poem the bird symbol is also used as the extended metaphor. In this poem he uses refers to a homing pigeon to deepen the sense of instinctual behavior for example in the second stanza 1st line
‘Nationalities sought
Each other out instinctively
Like a homing pigeon
Circling to get its bearings’ this example shows how the people are coming together and finding each other through their background and where they came