Belonging101
Belonging Essay
Belonging is about finding a sense of place in the world. Without this sense of place, people do not feel like they belong and belonging is a natural need, as stated by “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”. So to achieve this natural feeling of belonging, people strive to find their sense of place in the world.
In Peter Skrzynecki’s “Migrant Hostel” the whole theme of the poem is people thrown into this hostel searching for their own nationalities “like a homing pigeon” to find a sense of place in that camp, Australia as a nation, and the whole world. They are searching for belonging.
In the song “How to make gravy” by Paul Kelly, Joe, the speaker in the phone call/ song, is trying to establish his sense of place in the outside world again while he is serving time in prison. “Tell ‘em all I’m sorry I screwed up this time” is a quote in which the conversational tone of the poem and jargon is shown. This poem is set out as a phone call from Joe to his brother Dan and he conversationally apologises and tries to ask who’s going to do his job, make the gravy, at the family Christmas get together.
In Peter Skrzynecki’s “St Patrick’s College”, the author reveals how he did not have a sense of place in his schooling life and he did not belong. Skrzynecki describes how he felt the school was a waste of “eight years” of his life through the repetition of “For eight years”. He also in the whole history of those “eight years” never talks about a friend, a necessity to belong. He describes how they all wore the same “blue, black and gold” uniform and there was no individuality or finding a sense of place. He sums it all up by being “like a foreign tourist”.
“The Pianist” a movie directed by Roman Polanski, shows a Polish man’s journey of survival and endurance though an era of which Hitler and his Nazi’s strove to extinct the Polish race and as a side effect, the survivors sense of place in the world due the fact they were hated and hunted by all and had no-one
Belonging is about finding a sense of place in the world. Without this sense of place, people do not feel like they belong and belonging is a natural need, as stated by “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”. So to achieve this natural feeling of belonging, people strive to find their sense of place in the world.
In Peter Skrzynecki’s “Migrant Hostel” the whole theme of the poem is people thrown into this hostel searching for their own nationalities “like a homing pigeon” to find a sense of place in that camp, Australia as a nation, and the whole world. They are searching for belonging.
In the song “How to make gravy” by Paul Kelly, Joe, the speaker in the phone call/ song, is trying to establish his sense of place in the outside world again while he is serving time in prison. “Tell ‘em all I’m sorry I screwed up this time” is a quote in which the conversational tone of the poem and jargon is shown. This poem is set out as a phone call from Joe to his brother Dan and he conversationally apologises and tries to ask who’s going to do his job, make the gravy, at the family Christmas get together.
In Peter Skrzynecki’s “St Patrick’s College”, the author reveals how he did not have a sense of place in his schooling life and he did not belong. Skrzynecki describes how he felt the school was a waste of “eight years” of his life through the repetition of “For eight years”. He also in the whole history of those “eight years” never talks about a friend, a necessity to belong. He describes how they all wore the same “blue, black and gold” uniform and there was no individuality or finding a sense of place. He sums it all up by being “like a foreign tourist”.
“The Pianist” a movie directed by Roman Polanski, shows a Polish man’s journey of survival and endurance though an era of which Hitler and his Nazi’s strove to extinct the Polish race and as a side effect, the survivors sense of place in the world due the fact they were hated and hunted by all and had no-one