Area of Study: Belonging

The concept of belonging deals with the human need or desire to feel an affiliation with a person, place, community or thing. The composers which have chosen to explore this concept includes: The immigrant chronicles By Peter Skryznecki, Jean Dominique Bauby’s autobiography The diving bell and the butterfly and Michael Leuning’s cartoon ‘Welcome to Curly Flats’.Peter Skryznecki uses the Immigrant chronicles as a medium to challenge its audience about how it feels to change circumstances and overcome barriers of belonging. The poems deal with the displacement and rejection of belonging are Ancestors, Migrant hostel and In the folk Museum. The poems dealing with a positive aspect of belonging includes 10 Mary Street and Feliks Skryznecki. In the folk museum: Dark, sombre, mournful tone: “darkness in the rooms, betrays absence of voices” to explore how once not belonging Peter Skryznecki faces emotions of disillusion and isolation towards the Australian culture he is forced to assimilate into: “box iron, shoulder yoke..Tableland heritage, to remind me of a past which isn’t mine”

- Use of random imagery notes that Skryznecki has no clear knowledge or affiliation with the heritage or society.

- Produces a negative tone and response which co notates that he does not feel he belongs to the heritage.

The use of exclusive pronouns; “they sing to Christ”. Word ‘they’ implies a noted separation and alienation. Shift in tone between the Folk museum and 10 Mary Street.

- Wanting to leave as opposed to wanting to come home shows contrast in wanting to belong: “home from school earlier” in 10 Mary street and eager to leave: “wanted to leave without a final look” in the folk museum.

10 Mary Street: deals with the anticipation of wanting to belong, more light-hearted tone in which Skryznecki explores how one he feels at home that he belongsThe familiarity and security between their routine and recognition of their house: “each morning shut the house, like a well oiled key” shows he feels at home: “tendered roses and camellias like adopted children... ravage the backyard garden like a hungry bird”.

- Use of similes and strength in the choice of words been ‘ravaged’ and ‘hungry’ suggests that the garden is as much as a member of the family as much as Peter himself does.

The diving bell and the butterfly: The autobiography of Jean Dominique Bauby explores similar concepts of belonging as in the Immigrant Chronicles, yet the author has shown how although not expressing displacement within a geological perspective, there is still a paralleled imagery of barriers preventing belonging.The alienation and isolation he feels once circumstances change leads him to perceive the world in a new manner: “family man in the prime of his life, learning to deal with... shifting relationships...discovers that his nearest and dearest are in fact strangers”

- Loss and shift in relationships he experiences shows he no longer has that sense of possession: “I still say ‘my magazine’ as if that possessive pronoun were one of the fragile threads linking me to the real world”

Similar to shift in pronoun seen in ‘In the folk museum’;- Use of first person narration in contrast to third person: “they sing to Christ” highlights the detached and

removed attitudeSymbolism and figurative language has great importance in creating emphasis to frustration, isolation, and escapism.Title symbolic of the contrasts between the immobile physical state he is in as opposed to his state of mind

- Diving bell suit represents the restrictions and limitations of his physical state- Butterfly = reoccurring image of freedom and escapism: “my cocoon becomes less oppressive and my

mind takes flight like a butterfly”.- Similar to freedom and escapism P.S chooses to belong with: “naturalized more than a decade ago, we

became citizens of the soil” – imagery of nurtured garden

Welcome to curly flat: deals with the positive associations of belonging to a person, place, thing or community. The use of the title as the only text present in the image, suggests a clear and positive approach or calling.

- Words ‘welcome’ and ‘community’ co notates how it feels to belong; been accepted- This is then reflected in the characters smiling facial expressions and relaxed body language to

demonstrate he is at home and at peace as he enters new community- Similarity of characteristics seen in the image is evident with the curly shape seen on Mr Curly’s head,

the rooftops and the detailed attention to the word curly – emphasises the character belongs there already. Although his strange appearance may create barriers elsewhere, he is accepted into new surroundings.

Seen in 10 Mary Street: “kept pre- Europe alive... heated discussions and embracing gestures... Kielbasa, salt hearings and rye bread”

- Warsaw characteristics shows how familiarities in characteristics of food, behaviours brings community together in a positive, welcoming nature, hence the words ‘heated’ and ‘embracing’

Play on words with a ‘goated community’ as opposed to a gated community breaks down the barriers of not been accepted and the feeling of isolation.

- A gated community is a controlled residential neighbourhood with barriers surrounding it. Michael Leuning has used wide open spaces with roaming goats, alongside a warm, inviting colour palette to imply and emphasise the opposite meaning.