Analysis Of Feliks Skrzynecki

Feliks Skrzynecki explores how the author feels the disparity between his father’s strong sense of cultural identity and his confusion about his own identity. The quote “did your father ever attempt to learn English?” emphasizes Feliks firm sense of identity and his choice to isolate himself to world in which he is comfortable. Whereas peter experiences anxiety about his identity when he realises “remember words he taught me, remnants of a language I inherited unknowingly” the enjambment of “unknowingly”, highlights his lack of involvement in his cultural inheritance and his consequent lack of understanding/belonging. His father, “kept pace only with the Joneses of his own mind’s making” the metaphor highlights a sense of belonging to Australia

as only being surface deep as it uses an Australian idiom, this highlights the fact that Australian culture is not a part of his identity the way Poland and its heritage is. “Loved like an only child”, this shows a link between his father and his garden, it shows ownership of his garden, a place he created for himself belong in.

The attachment of his father to his garden is evinced in, "swept its paths ten times around the world", the hyperbole emphasizing Feliks strong connection with his garden: it’s the only place in his world in which he truly belongs. But it also shows the author's sense of isolation from his father and resentment for the garden. It also explores familial belonging through the relationship between the poet and his father. In, "my gentle father", the use of the personal pronoun highlights that his father belongs to him and likewise, creates a sense of intimacy and ownership. In “stumbling over tenses in Caesar’s Gallic war” and “after that like a dumb prophet, watched me pegging my tents further and further south of Hadrian’s wall” uses symbolism, metaphoric language, intertextuality and allusion to show the sense of temporary alienation he feels from his father. “...reminisced about farms where paddocks flowered…” the cumulation of positive verbs emphasizes a sense of pride in their heritage and a sense of nostalgia they share. This heritage connects them together and cultivates a sense of

belonging. It is moments like these when the author feels a disconnection from his father and heritage. In the quote, “his polish friends” the use of the word “his” highlights the isolation he feels from his father’s polish friends. “They dug cancer out of his foot, his comment was: ‘but I’m alive” highlights the father’s resilience to adversities in life, and the author’s admiration of his father.