Belonging

“Belonging to a community or group has a significant impact on an individuals sense of self”.
Peter Skrzynecki's poems "Feliks Skrzynecki", "Postcard" and “St Patrick’s College” explores complex ideas about belonging. The sense of belonging is affected by many different factors such as understanding, choices, culture, relationships and experience. It is also greatly impacted by the community and groups an individual interacts with. This connection can significantly affect feelings of self worth and belonging. The movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Neighbours” by Tim Winton also explore and develop the concepts of belonging and not belonging in their individual texts.
Feliks in Peter Skzynecki's poem "Feliks Skzynecki" feels a close connection to a community or group. His sense of belonging is strongly impacted by his close connection to his Polish friends who "reminisced/ About farms where paddocks flowered/ …Horses they bred.." Skrzynecki uses a number of positive verbs to illustrate the sense of nostalgia and shared pride in their cultural heritage. It is this heritage that connects them together and fosters a sense of belonging. However, the son in "Feliks Skrzynecki" chooses not to belong with his father's Polish friends. The negative connotation of the adjective "violently" creates a sense of his alienation from this group. The high modality when he says he "never got used to" the friends' "formal address[ing]" of his father as "Feliks Skrzynecki" further suggests his disconnection and choice not to belong with his father's community.
In "Postcard", Peter Skrzynecki once again struggles with his sense of identity and belonging.   He feels disconnected from the community and homeland of his parents, which impacts his sense of self. It begins with the arrival of a postcard of Warsaw "sent by a friend" that "Haunts" him "since its arrival." The emotive use of the verb "haunts" portrays the persona's unease and uncertain sense of belonging to this place....