Skrzynecki and Gordon Bennett Belonging
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Belonging is a complex and often intangible concept based upon new insights and a developing sense of identity. Identity can be shaped through connections with a community. Peter Skrzyneckis poems Feliks Skrzynecki and Migrant Hostel explore and exemplify the barriers of assimilation and migration into a community.
In his poem Feliks Skrzynecki Peter Skrzynecki describes the personas fathers contentment within his new community as he is “sitting outside in the evening with his dog, smoking”. The father is also depicted to be as “happy as I have never been”. This metaphor is a comparison between the persona and his father. The persona is described to be pegging his tent “further and further south of Hadrians Wall” which enhances the personas trifling connection to the community. The persona believes he “inherited unknowingly” his polish heritage as he describes the language his father uses. He believes he lacks a connection to either community, Polish or Australian. The personas father is satirized by a “grey haired department clerk” who asks “has your father even attempted to learn English?”. Although the father is content this enhances the judgment of the immigrant by the Australian culture.
This poem can be compared with Gordon Bennetts “Outsider”. The painting is a metaphor for the artists anguish from not belonging. The artist discovered at eleven years of age that he was not only of European descent but also Aboriginal descent. The artwork depicts a headless aboriginal in ceremonial body paint invading and appropriating two of Van Goghs works The artists bedroom in Arles and starry night. Bennett uses grotesque combine with disturbing imagery to portray his lack of connection to a community. The headless figure is spraying blood upwards from the neck, which then combines with the blue and white swirls from van goghs starry night. These swirls use aboriginal painting techniques to yet again combine aboriginal with European features. This feeling of no connection to two separate communities is also featured in Feliks Skrzynecki. This sense restricts the personas sense of belonging.
Peter Skrzynecki also writes Migrant Hostel, another poem about migrants. This poem depicts “newcomers arrive in busloads from the station” which uses an impersonal and indirect tone to portray the immigrants as figures. The poem uses the simile of “nationalities sought out each other like homing pigeons”. The metanomy of “nationalities” enhances the impersonal tone the author is conveying. This simile also describes the importance of connection of groups to achieve a sense of belonging. The metanomy of nationalities describes the need for categories for individuals to sort themselves into, independently