Belonging: ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’, ‘Migrant Hostel’ and Photo Essay ‘Belongings: Felt, Presented, Challenged’

Belonging is the efficacy of an undivided to leave office individualism with their neighborly environment. dick Skrzyneckis poems Feliks Skrzynecki and migrant auberge from the anthology Immigrant Chronicle explore this concept in relation to migrants during the post WWII period and ar reflections of Henri Tajfels social identity element element theory. The vulner major power essay entitled Belongings felt, presented, challenged transfers these compar fitted principles to a modern context, illustrating the enduring personality of the effort humanity faces in the drive to break down on.Feliks gardening in Feliks Skrzynecki can be seen as a response to the eld of forced labour in Germany which left hand him at the mercy of bigger tides in the affairs of humanity. Once in Australia as part of the post WWII influx of migrants, Feliks devotes him egotism to creating an environment which he can secure. Stanza one and twain establishes a genius of comfort and familia rity inside the niche he has created for himself. Feliks recognises that be is gained finished the possession of particular socially set and accepted criteria.In an Australian context, uniformity is do the criteria for be, something which Feliks himself does not note value highly, as explicit in Did your father ever onset to l recognize English? The condescending tang employed portrays the perceived societal value of assimilation and the representation of an unwelcoming monastic order as seen from a migrants perspective. Henri Tajfels social identity theory states that a persons sense of self is ground on their base membership(s) that in purchase order to increase our self-image we enhance the location of the group to which we belong (in group) and discriminate against the groups that we do not ( prohibited group). pricking Skrzynecki presents a contradictory self-categorisation in the poem Feliks Skrzynecki. His (fathers) Polish friends always move hands too violent ly connotes ethnic exclusivity and the affinity of the persona with a non-Polish culture. barbarian voice serves to highlight the generation mete discover between Feliks and his son as Peter seeks to strengthen his sense of belonging in his naked as a jaybird Australian culture by establishing his father and his Polish friends as the turn up group.Conversely and synchronally, the persona distinguishes himself from the Australian bureaucratism through and through the use of derogatory, stereotypical wording A crew cut, grey haired plane section clerk who asked me in dancing extend grunts. This highlights the difficulty of establishing a sense of belonging when conflicted with two cultural identities. The poem unsettled social club (Parkes 1949-51) explores the alienation of and animosity shown towards newcomers to Australian society. Nationalities sought each other out instinctively connotes the importance of familiarity, as expressed in Feliks Skrzynecki.Individuals a rgon more able to reconcile their personal identity with the subjective motivation to belong to a group in a known and familiar environment. The emotional and physical security provided by ones own cultural group is evidence of the pre-programmed biological need to form tribes. The migrants are dehumanised through a lack of information- left us wondering and unaware. The migrants pose a threat to current Australian invention of existence and the construct of social Darwinism dictates that the new threat must be eliminated.In order for the individuals to maintain their feelings of belonging, the two groups are in a constant state of emulation hence the hostility felt by the migrants is a prove of competing identities. Consequently the detection that we must learn our good to belong permeates society. Belonging is not an inherent right of the human being, that something that is earned through socially valued criteria. Just as Feliks is denied acceptance by Australian society i n Feliks Skrzynecki, so too are the migrants by a barrier at the main gate.Pointed in get to or shame. The migrants are do to feel prisoners, subverted to authority and needing its sanction to live their lives. Due to their alternate cultural identity migrants are excluded and alienated from society, revealing that t concept of belonging is heavily based on dominant culture. Belongings felt, presented, challenged explores perhaps the most conflicting yet conception provoking aspect of belonging that of the struggle between societys expectations of conformation and the individuals search for a unique sense of identity.The photo essay is compiled of images taken by victims persecuted for choosing not to belong to the popular fantasy of society. In the post 9/11 context, where choosing not to belong can result in civil wars and racial persecution, this simultaneous need to belong to society and an individuals own search for identity are harshly conflicted. Individual gouge and d islocation is experienced by thousands of population as they become the casualties of an internal international jihad of ethics and instinct.The control exerted over these bulk is a gross exaggeration of the control portrayed in Migrant Hostel and represents the dire consequences of the inability of the individual to reconcile personal identity with their social environment. The ability is indeed affected by the nature of the individuals context. The ideas about belonging communicated in Belongings felt, presented, challenged are such that some milieu do not foster individual thought but rely solely on conformance as a basis for belonging. whatsoever deviance from this structure results in persecution and in extreme cases, genocide.To a lesser extent, Peter Skrzynecki experienced these feelings of oppression and conveys the emotional closing off involved in the process of migration and assimilation. Migrant Hostel reveals the perception that we must earn our right to belong an d the opposition go about by competing groups. Feliks Skrzynecki further explores this concept, looking at the effects of conflicting cultural identities on an individual and the affiliation with competing in and out groups. Thus belonging is determined by the ability to reconcile personal identity with social environment.