...Life is about noticing the people and places around you. The best way to live is being active and constantly learning. My grandma always says to see the world and the people within it. I can honestly say my grandma is a nice person because of the different cultures she has seen. I want to grow as a person by allowing myself to see the world and the people During the fall semester I took a class called Political Belonging. There were two major themes of the class that we constantly went back to and that will help me in the future. One was rethinking everything we knew, and the other was looking at how cultures shape people. If I am accepted into the program I would like to look at another country first hand and get to know the people and the...
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...alone in his room, sitting on his bed restlessly. It’s the day after the rally and William is confused and lost, questioning his belonging to the house and his connection with the land. He feels a sense of isolation and separation from his uncle after the events that occurred during the rally.} Do I belong? [Pause] I just don’t know anymore. After my father’s death, I feel like I’m trapped in this derelict house where everyone wants something from me. They want me to understand the reality and grow up! But it’s not like I don’t try, I try every day to fit in, to belong to Kuran Station, to feel a connection with the land. That’s what my uncle wants, right? I just need to impress him, feel a connection with the land. Then why am I feeling confused and lost in a sea of isolation. I feel helpless, excluded and anxious. I don’t belong and how can I? I’ve been separated from my farm, the place where I grew up, where all of my reminiscent, unforgettable memories reside. That’s where I belong. I remember my farm, it was miniature and obsolete but it was home. [Happy tone, reminiscing...
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...A mother leaves her daughter a map, but no legend to later unlock its true meaning. A relevant figure in this instance is Danielle Geller, a renowned writer of personal essays and memoirs who wrote “Heirloom.” Geller focuses on the idea that artifacts, especially heirlooms, can hold the weight of family traditions, memories, and even one's identity. In “Heirloom,” she explores how these objects represent connections to the past, even when those connections are filled with loss, pain, and complications. Geller’s essay analyzes how these heirlooms assist her in understanding and coming to terms with her own identity as she sorts through the remnants of her mother’s life following her passing. Pathos is evident throughout the essay as Geller deeply explores her emotional connection to her mother’s belongings and the memories they evoke. Geller sets the stage by describing a specific scenario in which she goes through her mother’s possessions, especially the family photos. Those images act as pathways between Geller and her mother’s past, helping her gain a better understanding of it. There are Already Vue moments where she can piece together a puzzle. Geller also mentions her resignation, knowing she would never be able to meet her mother’s parents—her grandparents—who have all unfortunately passed away. They are now merely pictures of family members whose names she will never know; a chronicle with no storyline. This emphasizes that heirlooms have the ability to inspire a connection...
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...prepare a scaffold before you write, you have a solid base to begin further planning of your response. This scaffold shows the stages and organisation of a typical comparison response. Each box represents a paragraph. What new insights about a sense of belonging are shown in The China Coin and one other text? How has the composer conveyed these new insights to the responder? Put some ideas in each box to help you plan. The notes on the right are not complete. They provide some examples for you to see how to present your argument. The words in bold are linking words. |Introduction |A sense of belonging can emerge from relationships with people and places. When | |Mention aspect(s) of belonging |people experience a strong cultural connection to a place, their sense of | |Make a statement about how this aspect is |belonging is strengthened. This can change over time. The novel The China Coin | |represented in the set text and one other |and poem ‘We are going’ both have strong cultural images and personal statements.| | |These are revealed through the composers’ use of flashback, narrative voice and | | |descriptive language. | |Examples: |Notes: ...
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...Diasporic Cross-Currents in Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost and Anita Rau Badami’s The Hero’s Walk HEIKE HÄRTING N HIS REVIEW of Anil’s Ghost, Todd Hoffmann describes Michael Ondaatje’s novel as a “mystery of identity” (449). Similarly, Aritha van Herk identifies “fear, unpredictability, secrecy, [and] loss” (44) as the central features of the novel and its female protagonist. Anil’s Ghost, van Herk argues, presents its readers with a “motiveless world” of terror in which “no identity is reliable, no theory waterproof” (45). Ondaatje’s novel tells the story of Anil Tessera, a Sri Lankan expatriate and forensic anthropologist working for a UN-affiliated human rights organization. Haunted by a strong sense of personal and cultural dislocation, Anil takes up an assignment in Sri Lanka, where she teams up with a local archeologist, Sarath Diyasena, to uncover evidence of the Sri Lankan government’s violations of human rights during the country’s period of acute civil war. Yet, by the end of the novel, Anil has lost the evidence that could have indicted the government and is forced to leave the country, carrying with her a feeling of guilt for her unwitting complicity in Sarath’s death. On one hand, Anil certainly embodies an ethical (albeit rather schematic) critique of the failure of global justice. On the other, her character stages diaspora, in Vijay Mishra terms, as the “normative” and “ exemplary … condition of late modernity” (“Diasporic” 441) — a condition usually associated...
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...Standard English Assessment Task “Composers create texts that deal with the way people come to feel a sense of belonging when they make connections with places or other people.” Belonging is a complex concept that is shaped by our interactions and experiences with people, groups and communities. It is evident that we can develop a strong need and desire to belong and our ability to achieve this is shaped by our behaviours attitudes and actions. This notion is evident in the novel, The Simple Gift composed by Steven Herrick. Where Herrick demonstrates many concepts of belonging, one being the need to belong to a group or a community shapes our behaviour, attitudes and actions. Herrick conveys this through the perspectives of Billy, Old Bill and Caitlin. In Steven Herrick’s novel ‘A Simple Gift’, he uses various techniques to portray belonging or the lack of belonging. We accompany Billy as he meets great role models which serve to inspire him thoughout the novel. Ernie's train whistle symbolises the beginning of Billy's new life contrasted favourably by Ernie’s accepting and helpful attitude. Ernie give Billy his first taste of hope in mankind, whilst allowing Billy to feel acceptance. His next positive role model is Irene, Bendarat’s Librarian, who welcomes him and encourages him to borrow books and broaden his mind, Irene accepts Billy immediately a helps him at stages of the story. A great technique used in the novel is Multiple Narrators, as the characters of Billy...
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...essay, I will discuss my experience of interviewing a family and constructing a genogram guided by their narrative. For this task, I purposely chose a family that is very different from my family of origin in terms of their cultural heritage. I will reflect on differences and similarities between our families as well as my prejudices and hypothesis that I inevitably constructed before and during the process. To identify this family, I had to approach some colleagues proposing to them to participate in the interview. Fortunately, one of them introduced me to her friend. Francesca had an interest in psychology, and since she was free and not much committed, I did welcome her with a cup of coffee to share more about the interview. After I formally introduced myself to her, I laid down to her the framework of the interview, and she agreed to participate with her husband, Matteo. Family context The family I interviewed comes from Italy, but they moved to the UK 3 years ago. I noticed that knowing these few details I was already constructing hypothesis based on stereotypes. I was dreading the interview because I was expecting to have difficulty in stopping them talking since I was concerned about getting enough information to construct the genogram. I also hypothesized whether being new to the UK makes them consider participating in projects like mine to increase a sense of belonging. Another hypothesis where I imagined them to have very firmly attachments to their extended family was...
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...VATE INSIDE STORIES 2014—MABO INSIDE STORIES MABO Film directed by Rachel Perkins Teaching notes prepared by Sarah Catton Edited by Marion White CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................3 WAYS INTO THE TEXT ..............................................................................................6 RUNNING SHEET AND STRUCTURE OF THE TEXT...............................................8 PERSPECTIVE ON THE TEXT.................................................................................13 CHARACTERS..........................................................................................................15 THEMES AND ISSUES.............................................................................................20 LANGUAGE AND STYLE..........................................................................................24 CLOSE ANALYSIS....................................................................................................28 FURTHER ACTIVITIES.............................................................................................31 KEY QUOTES ...........................................................................................................34 TEXT RESPONSE TOPICS ......................................................................................36 REFERENCES ........................
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...various rhetorical strategies—metaphor, imagery, and narrative structure—to engage readers and invite them to participate in his introspective exploration. This essay argues that Schrand’s use of the Bone Road as a metaphor, his vivid descriptive language, and his non-linear narrative techniques effectively draw readers into his exploration of family history and personal identity, reflecting broader themes of searching for meaning in a...
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...The narrative of Venture and the database of slave voyage illustrates different parts of the slave trade. The narrative of Venture Smith tells of his journey before reaching the slave ship in more detail and with more passion and emotion, although it is based of memory and could have distortions. On the other, the slave voyages database give us reliably general data on the journey itself, and it can be used as a reference to check the validity of a narrative but also to see what was left out or excluded and for what reason. By putting Venture’s narrative and the voyage database information together, we can see the general journey that the overall slave population took, and how the ship started in north America, then went to Africa, followed...
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...By close analysis of the extract, taking account of narrative methods, show how effective you think McCabe is in presenting the outsider Francie Brady’s alienation and separation from society. In ‘The Butcher Boy’ Patrick McCabe transforms, according to John O’Mahony, “the microcosm of the small town, a neglected and disparaged corner of Irish experience into an arena for burlesque humour and biting satire.” “McCabe is a true original,” says critic and novelist John Banville. “Like Roddy Doyle writing about life in working-class Dublin suburbs, McCabe has used the stuff the rest of us didn’t bother with and made a peculiar kind of rough poetry out of it. He catches that particular kind of bizarre, insane world of Irish country life in the 50’s and 60’s. People like O’Faolain and Frank O’Connor wrote about it in lyrical mode, McGahern wrote about it in tragic mode, but McCabe writes about it in a kind of anti- black comedy that is absolutely unique.” Such aspects of McCabe’s unique style are vividly captured within the given extract from the novel, where McCabe’s unique hybrid bog-gothic style is clearly evident. The theme of Francie Brady’s alienation and separation from society is a dominant concept that develops and intensifies throughout the novel. Alienation refers to the sense of being separated and isolated from others, of not belonging, and in the specified extract McCabe successfully develops the reader’s understanding of Francie as an outsider in a society neither...
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...Personal Narrative Essay Title: “For Sale” Everyone knows that phrase: “The grass is always greener on the other side”. But as a child it was a hollow statement for me. Until the day I perceived it as my philosophy of survival. This story is of my purest memories following my relentless battles. Simplistic flashbacks of virtuous kids. Full of laughter and play with nothing to be feared except for the day’s end. All before the moment where the innocence was dissolved away by the acidic misfortunes of life. [a series of sentence fragments] To illustrate, the first setting in this world was in the town called “Ocala”. It was in South-central Florida, a place where nature thrived and creatures of all walks of life roamed. The most business we had there was a prison thirty miles away, and a Wal-Mart 30 miles further down the same road. So one would say it was pretty rural. Just a quaint ole town, where the trees outnumbered the people. My best friend Samantha and I loved the fact that we had mother-nature as our playground. Spending most of our waking moments playing in the open forests, we’d sneak around concocting strategic methods on how to collect lizards and insects, then place them in small decorated cages. Once we obtained our new pets, we would examine and befriend each one, always setting them free later. However, our nights were different, pictures were taken, video games were played and even dress up was included from time to time. Videogames helped enable our...
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...For instance, I had an entire section dedicated to asking questions such as, “Do these people [the Japanese] not have the right to be seen as separate individuals from their brothers and sisters who have caused the wrongdoing themselves? Why are we the only ones blessed with the opportunity to ask for forgiveness, but fail to pass along that option to others when showing mercy doesn’t fit into our personal agendas?” Personally, I believe those were very thought-provoking questions. However, I do understand that there were some areas that called for improvement. A mechanism that could have enhanced my overall narrative would be to essentially elaborate more. As I reread what I wrote, I discovered that I was vague in my explanation. This can be seen when I wrote about seeing my Japanese neighbors packing up their belongings along the side of the road. I never really talked about how they felt. I merely wrote about how they looked distraught for less than a paragraph. Shortly after, I talk about how “Involuntary internment is amongst one of the most immoral discriminatory acts a person could commit.” Yet, I never elaborated on the...
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...call his name. In this poem, identity is not seen as something that is solid and concrete but as something that is situated and constructed by others, a glimpse of poststructuralist view on identity. Recently, language learning has been seen as participation and negotiation of self (see Higgins, forthcoming; Kinginger, 2004; Lam, 2000; Morita, 2004; Ohara, 2001; Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000; and Solé, 2007 among others). The trend is resonated in the growing interest in language learner identity and the studies in narratives. In this paper, a case of heritage language learner will be investigated upon the theoretical frame of poststructuralism. Narrative inquiry will be used to analyze how she negotiates her learner identity. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: First, by looking at the struggle a language learner makes to acquire her heritage language, I reclaim the centrality of identity in defining heritage language learners. Second, to widen the horizons of narrative studies to the cyber space as it provides an ample source of easily accessible data and it has become one of the commonplace media of daily communication. Heritage Language Learners and Identity To refer to the Heritage Language Learners (HLLs), various terms have been implemented such as ‘native speakers,’ ‘quasi native speakers,’ ‘bilingual speakers,’ or, from the dissatisfaction with the prior terms, ‘home background speakers,’ and ‘heritage language speakers’ (Valés, 2005: p. 412). There has not yet been...
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...homes or schools. Overall, Susan Cain's Quiet illustrates the unique perception introverts have of the world and the value they hold in it. Narrative (1st Person) A story or written account of events The novel is frequently interspersed with first-person narrative, where the author accounts for her own personal journeys. The use of this thematic element broadens the message in allowing for more emotional appeal and casual prose. It separates itself from a more informative, textbook-like feel and reiterates the fact that this book, at its core, is about humanity. Quiet mentions the idea that introversion and human experience are not black and white; the first-person narrative brings this principle to the forefront by letting perspective shape the writing. "I've paid $895 in exchange, according to the promotional materials, for learning how to be more energetic, gain momentum in my life, and conquer my fears. But the truth is that I'm not here to unleash the power within me (though I'm always happy to pick up a few pointers); I'm here because this seminar is the first stop on my journey to understand the Extrovert Ideal" (Cain 35). The author, Susan Cain, writes about her experience going to a seminar. Rather than describing events like this in objective detail, she tells her own personal tale. The writing includes personal touches and feelings. It welcomes (even urges) the reader to see the world through an introvert's eyes and consider her point of view. In describing...
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