An understanding of one’s self through different life experiences provides contentment and thus, engenders a sense of acceptance. Each person’s experiences, social acceptance and accountability, based on their unique emotional experiences, can alter our sense of affinity. Understanding nourishes belonging while a lack of understanding prevents it; this concept of belonging is evident in “Feliks Skrzynecki” from Peter Skrzynecki’s analogy “Immigrant Chronicle”, examines the consequences of a lack of understanding where estrangement poses a drawback. Belonging refers to the notion of having a sense of self, acceptance and validation as portrayed in Skrzynecki’s poem “St Patrick’s College” where a sense of allegiance to any place or people starts …show more content…
Skrzynecki's ironic humorous reference to the school motto “Luceat Lux Vestra” demonstrates his incomprehension of its significant meaning, thinking that it “was a brand of soap”. The repetition of the line "For eight years" implies that his years at the school were an imposed, unpleasant time. Similarly, in "Feliks Skrzynecki", Skrzynecki chooses not to belong with his father's Polish friends. The negative connotations of "violently" create a sense of his alienation from them due to lack of acceptance to the culture he no longer feels a part of. The high modality when he says he "never got used to" the friends' "formal address[ing]" of his father as "Feliks Skrzynecki" further suggests his disconnection and choice not to belong with his father's friends. Instead, he pursues learning, "stumbling over tenses in Caesar's Gallic War", forgetting his "first Polish word". The contrasting use of camera angles in “The Constant Gardener”, capturing the littered huts, dirt floors and close-ups of the Kenyan black people, then panning over to a very wide angle shot of a flourishing green golf course restricted only to whites; this juxtaposes the differences between the blacks and whites and how they are each restricted to their own grounds. The dearth of acceptance between the two communities is not only as a result of the difference in status but also caused by the language …show more content…
Meirelle’s film “The Constant Gardener”, like Skrzynecki’s "Feliks Skrzynecki" explores how experiences in Justin’s garden provide him with his sense of comfort and affinity to Africa, which he is foreign to, since this was an activity he practiced in his London, home town so through continuing this activity, he was able to maintain his belongingness. Close-ups on Justin’s face and body language as he focuses on his gardening are used through both scenes of Justin in his Africa home garden, and his London garden, shows his familiarity to this particular activity, although he has lost his sense of belonging to place and people he is still able to maintain his sense of belonging through experiences. Fernando Meirelle and Skrzynecki both suggest that belonging can emerge through an astute understanding of common or shared experiences with one’s self or