...poems by Peter Skrzynecki, ‘10 Mary Street’ and ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ highlights the idea of belonging in a way that depicts the sense of connectedness of various people in a cultural community and a physical place. The poem, ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ refers to how Peter Skrzynecki’s father felt like he belonged to his garden hence making his son, Peter Skrzynecki felt like he did not have any connections with his father. The poem uses various techniques to depict the feelings of the persona towards his father. The quote “further and further south of Hadrian’s wall” in line 58 is a metaphor as it represents the fictional barrier between the persona and his father. Hadrian’s wall was built centuries ago to keep opposing forces away from each other, not exactly that the persona opposed his father, but it gives the responder a context on how distant they were from each other, as if there was a wall that separated them hence making it hard for them to try to build a relationship. The effect of the metaphor is that it allows the responder to understand something similar such as when the poet tried to compare the Hadrian's wall as the barrier between son and father. This quote gives the poem a sense of disconnection between Feliks Skrzynecki and the persona, Peter Skrzynecki. The persona showed how his father, Feliks Skrzynecki felt this immense connection with his garden. In line 4, “loved his garden like an only child” uses simile as its technique to show how Feliks Skrzynecki felt like he...
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...The aspect of emotional challenge of adapting, assimilating and coping with change is coexistent within the migrant experience, the persona struggling to reconcile Polish and Australian life and to regulate emotional and cultural incongruities. Skrzynecki harnesses a dichotomy within ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’; that of identification and disunited belonging. The persona faces the emotional challenge of adhering to his Polish connection whilst adjusting to Australian values, and this is directly contrasted to his father’s stoicism in confronting adversity and synthesising both cultures to a medial platform of contentment. Evidence of this is divulged in the exclusive tone of ‘With his dog… happy as I have never been’. This illuminates the sense of disconnection and grief the persona experiences when reflecting on his father’s life. Feliks’ bliss...
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...In the poem ‘In the Folk Museum’ Peter Skrzynecki recalls feelings of alienation and cultural isolation as he reminisces on his experiences in his poem ‘In the Folk Museum’ and expresses his failure to connect to Australia's rural history and heritage. The composer is unable to relate to the memorabilia within the museum, and as a result, his presence in the museum lacks purpose and becomes meaningless. The atmosphere is introduced with "the absence of voices" creating a sense of silence and stillness suggesting the persona is deserted within the "darkness" of the museum. The rambling listing of displayed items in "machinery, clothes, transport, a Victorian Bedroom" suggests a lack of engagement and appreciation of objects of cultural importance....
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...The concept of belonging highlights our needs of acceptance through relationships and communities. This is clearly exemplified through Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicle (1975), which depicts the challenge of developing a sense of belonging. Peter Skrzynecki has evidently communicated this to the responder through ‘Migrant Hostel’ and ’10 Mary Street’. The novel ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ by Doris Pilkington, 1996, effectively improves on these ideas, where the protagonist, Molly, lacks a sense of security. Each composer has used a variety of techniques to convey a sense of belonging. Peter Skryznecki portrays a lack of belonging through the poem, ‘Migrant Hostel’. It explores the dislocation and insecurity the migrants feel. This is stated through the simile “nationalities sought each other out instinctively like a homing pigeon” as it highlights the desire that the immigrants felt they needed to seek familiarity. Despite the fact that they were in a new environment that didn’t offer a strong sense of comfort, they chose to establish their own sense of belonging through other migrants of the same culture. Whilst this promotes a sense of belonging, it also means that the migrants isolated themselves from other groups of the hostel. This is mainly due to memories of “hunger and hate” which emphasis the fact that they are haunted by their past which is an example of alliteration. Peter Skryznecki shows a connection with a sense of belonging involved with the migrants. In...
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...The concept of belonging is a broad term that centres on the feeling of being wanted and respected. It can be viewed differently by each person and is influenced by factors such as culture, personal values and relationships, which are explored in the poems ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ and ‘Postcard’ by Peter Skrzynecki, and the film ‘Little Miss Sunshine’, directed by Jonathan Daton and Valarie Faris. These texts have broadened my understanding of belonging and extended my views of family relationships in different cultures and with different values. Peter Skrzynecki’s poem ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ shows a critical view of the relationship between himself as a young boy and his father, Feliks. The way the poem discusses Feliks, Skrzynecki’s father, represents...
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...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...
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...have a significant impact on individuals’ sense of self and where he truly belongs. Peter Skryzynecki’s poems, “Feliks Skrzynecki” and “Migrant Hostel” explore the effects of displacement due to migration and the consequential lack of identity and place. Bruce Dawe’s poem “Enter without so much as knocking” and an image from Shaun Tan’s book “The Arrival” explores various aspects of belonging suggesting that belonging to a place is central to an individual’s identity and sense of security. Feliks Skrzynecki ‘Feliks Skrzynecki” explores the hardships experienced by migrants growing up in Australia. Skrzynecki highlights the underlying idea of Peter’s difficulty in trying to accept his inherent Polish culture, which is evident in the third stanza “His polish friends always shook hands too violently…I never got used to” while at the same time unconsciously assimilating to a new civilized Western culture. Skrzynecki utilizes an extended metaphor of Hadrian’s Wall; “Watched me pegging my tents further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall” to epitomize the confusion and choice surrounding Peter in the ethics and values of each culture to which he must choose. Peter is unknowingly moving away from his Polish heritage and gradually moving towards a western culture resulting in his consequential lack of identity as he is yet to establish a sense of belonging. Skrzynecki uses descriptive language such as “gentle” and visual imagery of the garden with its “geraniums” and “golden cypress...
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...a Journey Is Not Where You Go, but What Occurs along the Way" Summary: The importance of the journeying process was explored and exposed by Peter Skrzynecki and a variety of other composers. Skrzynecki, using the powerful textual vehicle of poetry explores the importance of the journeying process and its various outcomes, a journey often results in the confused and mixed emotions of the traveller and this was reflected within Skrzynecki's poems, "Crossing the Red Sea" and "A Drive in the Country." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step..." The importance of the journeying process, and the positive and negative outcomes of the journey, is not so much about the destination to which the travellers are headed, but the various occurrences that affect the traveller along the way. The importance of the journeying process was explored and exposed by Peter Skrzynecki and a variety of other composers. Skrzynecki, using the powerful textual vehicle of poetry explores the importance of the journeying process and its various outcomes, a journey often results in the confused and mixed emotions of the traveller and this was reflected within Skrzynecki's poems, "Crossing the Red Sea" and "A Drive in the Country." A person is always emotionally involved in the journeying process, highlighting its' importance, this is shown in Julius Caesar's public memoirs "De Bello Gallico", the political...
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...Title: Immigrants at Central Station Composer: Peter Skrzynecki Source: Poem Date: 1975 The poem composed by Australian poet Peter Skrzynecki, Immigrants at Central Station, explores the various journeys of a family who arrives in Sydney from a migrant camp during 1951. Throughout the poem, a combination of sensory and visual imagery recreate the scene Skrzynecki’s family undertook during their immigration to Australia, describing their emotions and current environment. The purpose of this poem was to portray the mental challenges of immigrants back in 1951 and the challenges that would impose each of them personally as well as time and one’s future. This poem firmly supports the generalisation of a physical journey leading to unexpected encounters and destinations. It is most evident with the use of visual imagery in the line ‘Like a guillotine/ Cutting us off from the space of eyesight’ that suggests the intensity and uncertainty of the final destination and expectations of the persona in this poem. Skrynecki uses this line to emphasise on another generalisation of a journey encompassing sudden changes as this line illustrates the swiftness of the alteration of their journey, as well as the use of juxtaposition of that event to that of “along glistening tracks of steel’ symbolising hope and freedom. This creates a powerful effect through the sudden contrast of two intensely different situations. Immigrants at Central station also portray the notion of inner journeys...
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...community. It is something we all feel whether we mean to or not. This belonging gives us an attachment to other people or things and we can gain other certain feelings such as security, happiness, pride, sense of value and acceptance by others as social human beings. It gives us an awareness of identity and builds our self-confidence and self-esteem as we feel part of something bigger. There are also implications for not belonging, our inability to connect can lead to isolation, alienation, vulnerability and dislocated from society. These universal experiences are explored through the poetry of Peter Skrzynecki’s “Immigrant Chronicle”, in particular, Migrant Hostel where barriers limited the migrant’s experience of belonging and Feliks Skrzynecki which portrays the father and son’s contrasting experiences to belonging in a new land. Sean Penn’s 2007 film Into the Wild also examines a person’s quest for a sense of...
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...Chosen related text – 10 Mary street- Peter Skrzynecki To form a true sense of belonging individuals must actively participate in the communities in which they exist, as understanding and consideration of societal culture and customs, have a strong bearing on one's ability to form relationships, and thus a true of sense of identity and belonging. This connection is apparent in Peter Skrzynecki Immigrant chronicles poems - '10 Mary Street' and 'St Patrick's college' where the persona experiences a sense of self and belonging through his relationships with his home and family, and conversely a feeling of spiritual alienation through lack of said connections. By employing a variety of literary techniques Skrzynecki has represented how relationships are a landscape for identity, and thus how they affect one's experiences of belonging or not belonging. Relationships significantly impact belonging and are shaped by an individual's participation within particular communities. In '10 Mary Street' and 'St Patrick's College' the persona forms bonds with his family and European migrants,and is conversely isolated at his school due to a lack of consideration for the social values and customs present. The persona's understanding of the set “pre war-europe” routines and customs within the home is enjambed “My parents watered plants - grew potatoes And rows of sweet corn: Home from school earlier I'd ravage the backyard garden” this reinforces the relationships formed with his parents...
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...Using a scaffold for extended writing to compare texts A scaffold is a framework or structure from which you can build something. If you 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. ...
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...personality, security and cultural identity, when an individual gains this sense of belonging a sense of fulfillment is achieved. This is evident in Peter Skrzynecki’s poems Feliks Skrzynecki, Migrant Hostel, Tim Wintons short story neighbours and Looking for Alibrandi directed by Kate woods. Peter Skrzynecki’s poem ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ explores the need to belong through his use of describing his father through his childhood memories. The first stanza express’s the poet’s admiration for his father by using first person pronoun, ‘My gentle father’ this shows familiarity and possession. Which is then again shown through his hyperboles ‘from sunrise to sleep’ and ‘ten times around the world’ it puts emphasis’s on Skyryznecki’s will to exaggerates his father and the sense of connection to his garden, cleverly using the garden as a symbol highlighting his father’s creation of his own world to find that fulfillment and connection of that sense of belonging when he felt he had a detachment from the Australian society. Furthermore Skrynecki uses the simile ‘Loved his garden like an only child’ to emphasize the parental aspect of his father demonstrating how his father nurtures his garden to form a sense of security. Through this individuality we can see how an individual can create their sense of belonging. Skrzynecki used the first stanza to show his admiration to his father whereas he now uses the third stanza to highlight his disconnection to his father’s cultural identity and background...
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...belonging. The migrants feel alienated and want to belong but the Migrant hostel won't let them, they are being forced into alienation. Skryznecki uses similes to convey his thematic concern of alienation. Perceptions and ideas of belonging, and of not belonging, vary. There is no definite truth to where someone belongs. A person can belong somewhere different to where they are assumed to belong. and can not be forced on someone. People belong to different groups than others. Perceptions of belonging are shaped by personal, cultural and social context. Peter Skrzynecki and Tim Winton explores this idea, in his poem Feliks Skrzynecki, and his short story Neighbours. Both composers have there own perception of belonging and personal context, and this is reflected in there texts through a variety of techniques and language. I didn’t know how to word this. Peter Skrzynecki uses a possessive pronoun in his poem Feliks Skrzynecki...
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...Immigrants at Central Station, 1951 The first poem in Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicle is set in Sydney’s main railway station. As it is dated “1951” it is some years after the arrival of the Skrzyneckis here in Australia and also provides us with the context of the poem. The first lines of the poem, “It was sad to hear the train’s whistle this morning...” induces sadness whereas it usually induces joy. This tell us that the Skrzyneckis were sad almost certainly due to the fact that they were about to travel into the unknown. The imagery in the first stanza is a depressing one, “All night it had rained.” The poems tone here is mournful. As the poem goes on it says, “But we ate it all...” This is used metaphorically for positiveness. No matter how gloomy, they enjoy it. In the first line of the second stanza it says “Time waited anxiously with us...” The technique of personification is used to emphasise that the immigrants waited although they did not exactly know what they waited for. “And spaced hemmed us...” depicts the crowded station on that fateful night. Skrzynecki and his family are crowded together, “Like cattle bought for slaughter.” This is a very strong simile in which Skrzynecki is illustrating the appalling and crowded conditions in which the immigrants are experiencing. In the second stanza, it says that the immigrants stood with their families, “Watching pigeons that watched them.” This portrays an image that the immigrants are fascinated by the native...
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