The idea of belonging is an important and fundamental value in our lives. Belonging most commonly emerges from experience of identity, relationships, and understanding. The sense of belonging is represented in various ways throughout texts such as “Feliks Skrzynecki” and “10 Mary Street” by Peter Skrzynecki and the related text, “Sorry” speech given by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the Aboriginal people who experienced mistreatment because of their race. Each of the texts have a wide range of ideas on how belonging is created though personal experiences.
“Feliks Skrzynecki” is a detailed poetic portrait that offers readers a glimpse into an enigmatic man from the subjective perspective of his son. It is a reflective appraisal to a man who was admired.
“Loved his garden like an only child” the use of the simile and hyperbole in this line represents Feliks desperation to feel a notion of belonging, even to an inanimate object. However, the first line of the first stanza, “My gentle father” uses a personal pronoun, ‘my’ which shows the relationship between the poet & the father. It shows that connections to people can bring a sense of belonging.
Similar themes contrast in Kevin Rudd’s Speech and 10 Mary Street. As dialogued in Kevin Rudd’s sorry speech that was given on the 13th of February 2008. The use of anaphora in the speech leaves responders of the text remembering repeated quotes that occur in the speech. The repeated phrases “We apologise” and “we say sorry” evoke the emotion of sorrow in the responders. The predominant use of anaphora depicts that the speech is about moving forward from the alienation of the Aboriginal people, and reconciling as one nation of Australia, but ultimately, giving back the substitute of belonging. As a consequence of previous governments, the aboriginal community were forced to assimilate to traits foreign to them. They were forced to leave their families, homes and land, to become what was referred to as a...