Belonging essay points Idea of belonging Belonging is the feeling of comfort and acceptance within ones environment and oneself. Despite all our differences we all belong to the one human race. Both poems show that strong cultural and linguistic ties enhance our sense of belonging. Texts Immigrant Chronicle * Written by Peter Skrzynekci * Feliks skrezynecki * St Patricks college Gran Torino * Directed by Clint Eastwood * 2008 * Main characters ( Walt Kowalski, Thao, Sue) Analysis Feliks Skrzynecki * Peter illustrates both belonging and not belonging in this poem. Belonging * Peter describes his fathers love and devotion for his garden. ???loved his garden like an only child??? showing his connection to this object.
The fathers hard work towards the garden shows how he nurtures it. This is a metaphor for his attempt to nurture his own belonging in this environment. Feliks feels that he can find peace within the garden thus why he belongs with it. * The father has a close group of polish friends who he is able to connect with.
???They reminisced about farms where paddocks flowered??? shows that they have a similar past which is connecting them in the present. By ???reminiscing??? about their shared memories of Poland the group of friends can belong with each other. By sharing this same experience they are able to relate to one another and this creates the group of which Feliks can belong in. Not belonging * The poet peter Skrzynecki illastrats how he does not belong in the environment in which his father does so well. ???Always shook hands to violently??? depicts Peter Skrzynecki lack of understanding for his culture and thus why he cannot belong within his father??™s environment. the notion of the hand shake is a symbol for the Polish culture and because the poet has neglected his culture he will not belong within this environment.
* The poets lack of belonging is shown through his quote of ???happy as I have never been???. Because the poet has never belonged he has not experienced the happiness his father has. * ???I forgot my first polish word??? shows the poets lack of enthusiasm for his culture. This lack of understanding creates a barrier to the sons belonging as he cannot connect with his father. * The metaphor ???watched me peg my tents further and further south of Hadrian??™s Wall.
??? Resembles his fathers passive approach to his sons distancing from his culture. This notion of moving further and further away illustrates the sons moving away from this sense of belonging. St Patricks College * St Patricks college illustrates the poet feeling isolated which leads to him not belonging in the school environment. * Peter Skrzynecki doesn??™t understand the culture of the school. His lack of clarity is shown through his misunderstanding of the school sculpture of ???Our Lady???. His describes her as having ???Her face overshadowed by clouds???. This is a metaphor for his lack of connection with the school.
* ???I stuck pine needles into the motto??? is a act of rebellion which depicts his lack of willingness to come to terms with the schools culture. Thus creating a barrier between him and the school. This leading to the lack belonging he is feeling with the school. * The schools motto ???Luceat Lux Vestra??? means let you light shine. The poet explains how the thought the motto was a ???brand of soap???. This shows his chosen ignorance towards the schools culture. By creating this barrier between him and the school he is creating a barrier between him and his belonging. * The repetition of ???8 years??? creates a sense that the school experience dragged on and became a chore which he did not enjoy.
* The simile ???like a Foreign Tourist??? illastrates the poets disconnection from the surroundings around him. * Passive verbs like ???carried??? create a tone of sarcasm. The word ???carried??? also shows that his schooling life was a burden and not a privalage. * In the 5th stanza the poet reiterizes the notion of the statue of ???Our Lady???.
He describes her as being ???unchanged by eight years of weather???. This is symbolic that he hasn??™t changed and he still * Peter Skrzynecki relates to the schools motto to resemble his unchanged state of belonging towards the school. ???that the darkness around me??? creates a dark tone that is ironic with the schools motto being ???let your light shine???.
The darkness symbolizes his inability to connect with the environment around him. * Gran Torino * There can be conflict between the need to belong to a group and the need to be seen as an individual especially for adolescents. * Walt??™s lack of acceptance for other cultures resembles him as a racist figure. This label enables the audience to see the extreme resent towards the foreign cultures who are slowly taking over the neighbourhood. * Early in the movie Thao is seen as disconnected from his family and his culture. This is shown by Thao walking out of the house during the middle of a traditional monk christening of a new born baby. Due to Thaos deliberate isolation from his culture he separates himself from the only group of people that he can relate to, leaving himself not belonging.
* The separation in Walt??™s family is seen through the giving of meaningless gifts like telephones and extended reach devices. Walts reaction to this is very negitve emphasising his dislike of the family??™s presence. Also the attempt by the family to move Walt into a nursing home shows the lack of understanding of Walts connection to his home of 50 years. The attempt to break this bond causes the immiedeate speration of the family. Conflicting perspectivesJulius Caesar * In Brutus??™ plans to murder Caesar, his reasoning??™s conflict with those of Mark Antony. Brutus??™ personality shows conflicting perspectives as he explains his inner turmoil as ???with himself at war???, metaphorically showing his confusion between Antony??™s views and his own. This confusion is shown in the contemplation of Caesar??™s death. Brutus exclaims ???it is not that I love Caesar less, but that i love rome more??? to show the inner conflict between his love for his good friend Caesar and his love for rome.
Ceasar also shows this inner conflict of brutus as he speaks of himself in the third person, indicating he is a divided man. * Brutus finally decides that it is his situational political love for rome that overrides his decision and believes he must kill his beloved friend Caesar to protect rome. Brutus??™ reasoning for this is Caesar??™s growing situational power over the vulgum commoners who ???make holiday to rejoice in caesar??™s triumph??? even though they should have been working. Through his defeat of Pompey, he became the commoner??™s new favourite ruler and wanted king. However Brutus disagrees on this political movement by metaphorically comparing Caesar to a serpents egg ???which, hatched, would grow mischevious???.
Thus refering to the famous quote ???Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely???. * The event of Caesar??™s assassination brutus and antony conflict on their perspectives as to what motivated Caesar politically. Brutus attempts to convince the plebeians that the assassination was not betraying Rome it was for the good. He says ???as Caesar loved me, i weep for him; as he was fortunate, i rejoice at it; as he was valiant i honour him; but as he was ambitious, i slew him??? using a rhetorical device where he offers three generally agreed upon qualities ???loved, fortunate and valiant??™ and follows with ???ambitious??™ encouraging this to also be truthful. Antony tries to sway the plebeians against brutus??™ ideas of Caesar. He uses irony in his speech to makes Caesar look unambitious and to make brutus look like the ambitious one.
Antony says ???when the the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: ambition should be made of sterner stuff; yet brutus says he was ambitious, and brutus is an honourable man.??? Antony also uses pause in his speech to give his audience time to unconsciously believe that brutus is the ambitious one. * Similarly talk about and dangers of a totalitarian governing power. Animal farm shows the satirical nature of this kind of government by highlighting the novels conflicting perspectives.
Similarity to brutus??™ inner conflict throughout Julius Caesar is shown with the inner conflict of napoleon. At first he and the other pigs made the 7 commandments and ???nodded in complete agreement???