Feliks Skrzynecki Poem Belonging

DHARA JSN!

Belonging is defined as acceptance and interconnection within social, cultural, historical and personal contexts of the wider community. This makes an individual feel comfortable and happy to live among similar people. A sense of belonging can emerge from the connection made with communities. Individuals have a choice of involving and committing

their duties by being part of the group for the purpose and ideals of the organisation. People's acceptance can result in closeness; however their exclusion from the community can generate isolation. This can change over time with new social and cultural experiences. However, an individual's identity, experiences, language, memories and generation gap can act as a barrier to a sense of belonging. This is explored in the text, 'The China Coin' by Allan Baillie, where Ke and Leah feel a sense of belonging to their Chinese community so they protest against the corrupt government to help China become democratic. This idea is also exemplified in the text 'A sacrificed shoulder, a loyalty pledged beyond words' by Alice Pung, where the persona's parents worked hard to contribute in many ways to belong and enrich the Australian community. Furthermore, this idea is also demonstrated in the poems "Feliks Skrzynecki" and "Post Card" by Peter Skrzynecki, which illustrates the persona's altering feelings of belonging and not belonging towards the Australian community.
Firstly, a sense of belonging can arise from an acceptance of one's identity. This is explored in the poem 'Felik Skrzynecki', through the use of historical allusion, "Watched me pegging .Hadrian's wall" depicts persona's isolation from his polish heritage and father as he is influenced by Australian language, culture and lifestyle. Thus he starts to accept the Australian identity in order to feel a sense of belonging to the Australian community. Furthermore, in the "Postcard" persona changes his attitude from "I never Knew you" to intrinsic desire "We will meet before we die". Through the persona's altering the use of personal pronoun from "I" to "We" portrays eventually persona was attracted to Warsaw and decides to visit sooner or later to experience his connection with his motherland, thus he accepted his polish identity to experience his sense of belonging to his polish community. Moreover, "A sacrifices shoulder loyalty pledged beyond words" exemplifies this idea through the use of assonance, "I was lucky enough to be born here" depicts the key idea that the persona was born and brought up in the Australian community. The Australian cultural and religion education gradually helped her to accept her Australian identity hence, creating a sense of belonging to the Australian community. Similarly, in 'The China Coin" through use of self-reflection and sibilance "She looks like me, The same size as me, the same smile as me. I could be her' creates emphasis that Leah independently concluded that she has an inextricable bond to China and the two halves of her heritage. Also. She reflects, "before the coin, the Chinese were them" but as a result of her self - conscious attitude and desire to fit in, "She wanted to pass as one of them". This shows she eventually accepts her Chinese identity to experience her sense of belonging in China. These texts depicts through the acceptance of one's identity an individual can achieve a sense of belonging.
Furthermore, a sense of belonging can be created through connection made with people or place. This is expressed in "Feliks Skrzynecki" through the use of simile, "loved his garden like an only child" emphasises he values and takes care of the garden to such an extent that he considers it as his family. Feliks strong connection to garden is due to garden symbolising as his past polish memories such as content farming lifestyle. His strong connection to garden assist him to reminisce his Polish identity, helping him to feel a sense of belonging to his polish identity. Similarly, in "Postcard" through the use of personification and personal pronoun "We will meet before you die" directly connects persona to his motherland. These interaction leads him towards sense of belonging to his heritage". In addition, this idea is also indicated in "A sacrificed shoulder loyalty pledged beyond words" uses simile, "As his business grew he was able to give jobs to more people" reflects through work he was able to interact daily helping him to better understand and build connection with his work community, enriching his sense of belonging to the working community in Australia. Moreover, in "The China Coin" this idea is also exemplified through Ke using an expression that Leah use of " relates to by describing his relationship with his mother as one of "mates, is it" mateship being a personal connection based on trust, love and shared experience. This dialogue is used to implement the importance of belonging to specific people. It also clearly shows Ke is trying to strengthen the connection between himself and Leah at this point by his use of an expression strongly linked to the Australian cultural psyche. These texts reveal strong connection to the place or people enriches an individual's sense of belonging.
A sense of not belonging can emerge from language barriers and a choice of not belonging, disconnecting individual from a community.

This is conveyed in the poem 'Feliks Skrzynecki', which demonstrates a sense of not belonging mentally through father still reminiscing in his past rather than accepting an Australian culture. This is displayed through the use of idiom and colloquialism, "Kept pace only with the Joneses of his own mind's making". This implies Feliks is not trying to keep up with his surrounded Australian community and living in his own world by holding on to his past. This conveys the detachment of progression in his life and disconnecting from the Australian community. The persona's father being rejected by a crew cut department clerk, who ironically asks "did your father ever attempt to learn English". This further emphasizes Feliks doesn't want to detach from his Polish culture and heritage so he faces discrimination leading to exclusion from being part of the Australian community and language barrier further disconnects him from the Australian community. Furthermore, "A sacrificed shouldered loyalty pledged beyond words" also exemplifies this idea through the Persona's mother being "felt isolated" because she couldn't speak English and she was "too shy to speak to anyone". The use of sibilance reflects the mother's quiet nature and implies the persona's mother chose not to be part of the Australian community due to her poor literacy and English skills. Moreover, in 'The China Coin', Leah rejects to accept her Chinese identity. The use of a rhetorical question, "couldn't the woman see?... not even an ABC", reflects Leah's negative attitude towards her Chinese identity and exposes no desire to belong, nor any empathy for the sights or new experiences. In addition, through the use of the third person pronoun, "After a while Leah became exhausted with the effort of translating the Cantonese in her head... conversation flow over her",

portrays Leah's difficulty to mentally connect to the Chinese community due to not knowing Cantonese and eventually Leah chose not to learn the language reinforcing isolation and disconnection from her Chinese identity. These texts reflect language barriers and disconnection from the community can lead to a sense of not belonging.
Experiences and memories can act as a barrier towards a sense of belonging. This is represented in the poem "Feliks Skrzynecki" through the use of imagery, "About farms where paddocks flowered...they were skilled in slaughtering", highlights Feliks is still reminiscing his past lifestyle where he was a farmer and content with his life. Even in Australia he "loves his garden like an only child" displays garden is a symbol for farms in Poland. This further reinforces Feliks strong connection to Poland through using his farmer skills to take care of the garden, meaning his experiences and memories of Poland, disengaging him from the Australian Community. In addition, this idea is further illustrated in the poem "Postcard", through the use of personification, "I never knew you/Except in the third person" emphasize his disconnection to his Polish heritage due to not having his own experiences and memories of Poland. Moreover, in 'A sacrificed shouldered loyalty pledged beyond words', highlights this idea through the use of negative connotation ,"being isolated in the shed all those years" displays the persona's mother's past horrible experiences and memories of Killing Field in Cambodia mentally affected her and fear of war influenced her to stay inside the house for" 20 years in the darkness", alienated her from the Australian community. Furthermore, this idea is also exemplified in 'The China Coin' through the repetition of "Dad's nose, Dad's freckles..." articulating Leah thought she was Australian as she had a similar physical appearance as her Australian dad and she was going to china "to solve her father's mystery". This illustrates she just went to china to fulfil her dad's last wish of finding the other half of the coin. Consequently, her experience and memories of her dad isolated her from accepting and connecting to the Chinese identity. In addition, through the use of dialogue, "Should have left you in the Chatswood..... It's your rotten china!, reveals a tension between mother and daughter due to Joan's emotional flashbacks of her terrible past memories. Her reminiscence of her own fearful memories provoked a physical and emotional confrontation in Shanghai with her daughter. Her fearful behaviour towards her daughter further dissociates them from each other, leading to a sense of not belonging to each other. These texts illustrate flashback of experiences and memories have great potential to generate disconnection.
A generation gap has the potential to disassociate the individual from their identity or family. This is explored in the poem "Feliks Skrzynecki" through the use of historical allusion, "Watched me pegging my tents Further and further south of Hadrian's Wall", interprets Peter's remoteness from his Polish community. This reveals persona's changing attitude by avoiding his parent's culture in order to be accepted and belong to the newly adopted Australian culture and language to feel a sense of belonging to the Australian community. Whereas persona's father was strongly connected to the Polish language and culture through reminiscing his past farming life by taking care of the garden, being in contact with his Polish friends and speaking Polish all the time. Consequently, Persona's father was concerned that his son was moving "further and further south of Hadrian's wall" so "He repeated it so I never forgot". The use of the second person pronoun depicts persona's father prefers that his son speak Polish so they can communicate and Peter can sustain his connection to his Polish identity. Similarly, this idea is expressed in "A sacrificed shoulder a loyalty pledged beyond words" through the use of negative connotation "She felt alienated from us" implying persona's mother didn't know English ,Australian heritage and culture. This isolated her from her children as they were able to speak English and " understand the bicameral parliamentary system", portraying they accepted and adopted Australian culture to feel a sense of belonging to the Australian community while their mother was unable to learn English thus, she was strongly connected to her Chinese identity. Moreover, this idea is also articulated in 'The China coin' through the dialogue and repetition, 'In Australia you are Australian, but in China you are Chinese, In Chinese, you are a Pear'. This expresses Leah's apparent removal and loss of her name which creates further detachment from her gradual relinquished relationship with her dad. Her singular idea of belonging limits her emotional identity, thus she is angry and afraid of losing her loyalty to Australian identity and her father.
An Individual 's refutation to be a member of the community can lead to isolation. This is exemplified in "The China Coin" through Leah saying "I hate it. I hate China" represents Leah's mental disconnection and lack of belonging to her Chinese heritage. This also depicts her physiological difficulty through not being interested in her mother's desires to find a connection with her cultural heritage. Thus, ultimately rejecting her Chinese identity . Moreover, " A sacrifice shouldered, a loyalty pledged beyond words Furthermore, the text "Postcard" also represents this idea through the use of first and second personal pronoun, "Warsaw old town/I never knew you" creates distance between Peter and Warsaw. This displays the disengagement and alienation of the persona from his motherland. Also, the repetition of " I never knew you" emphasizes the disconnection of the persona to his heritage due to not having his own memories and experience of Warsaw, hence he rejects to identify his connection with his motherland which alienates him from his Polish family.
Overall, the text portray belonging as connection through related identity, culture, place or beliefs where one's differences and similarities are accepted and respected. Acceptance can create intimacy, however rejection can result into segregation. There are various barriers such as choice, memories, language or experiences that can influence a sense of belonging and enrich or limit an Individual's sense of belonging over time.