Social interactions are an essential part of all relationships; they are the determining factor of one’s perceptions of the world around them as well as their own identity. This idea is presented in uniquely an array of texts including, William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing and The Blind Side produced by John Lee Hancock. Society and its expectations can make a significant impact on one’s ability to fit in to an environment. Some individuals’ however challenge society and break down social barriers in order to improve or limit an individual’s aptitude to assimilate. Being affiliated with a particular individuals or groups can leave a person feeling accepted as they can gain a new sense of perspective of the world. People’s connections with society and others can enhance or constrict their views on belonging.
Society’s expectations can create social barriers preventing someone from maintaining a sense of acceptance. Society and the world try to find a place for everything to fit into and individuals that do not belong in society are often ignored. The society in Tan’s picture book The Lost Thing finds a place for everything to fit into and for everything that is left out, the “objects without names”, the “troublesome artefacts of unknown origin [s]” and for the “things that just don’t belong”, there is the “Federal Department of odds and ends”. This suggests that there must be a solution for individuals that don’t blend into society, preventing one’s ability to be accepted. Likewise in Shakespeare is play As You Like It, disconnection and banishment from the court or more technically from society meant that characters no longer fit into the social standards. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony when the audie...
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... “then in [his] own person [we will] die”, Shakespeare’s is exaggerating his views on love and belonging. However the marriages concluding the play represent the restoration to a place where all belonging in their proper place. Marriage is “when earthly things made even / atone together”(a5 s4). Consequently both texts amplify the importance of relationships and draw parallels with one’s sense of acceptance being directly proportional to one’s personal interactions with others.
Therefore it can be seen that belonging is fundamental to how individuals are characterised. One’s connection or acceptance emerges from relations with people and places. Belonging is a diverse distinctiveness characterised by association, acceptance and relationships. This is portrayed throughout out Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Hancock’s The Blind Side and Shaun Tan’s The Lost thing.
Ultimately, belonging is not simply a state of security and acceptance, but also involves fear, insecurity, conflict and exclusion. Through Arthur Miller’s exploration of this paradoxical nature of belonging, we see the importance and necessity of belonging to oneself, even if this means exclusion from the community.
To belong is an inanimate desire to be respected and to respect those whom you want to be with through association of similar values. To feel a sense of belonging is to feel loved for our entirety or to be loved due to and aspect of your person that is common with those you who belong as one. An individual has the capacity to belong to people, physical places or ideas. Baz Buhrmann’s film “Strictly Ballroom” explores the concept of belonging, to the subculture of Ballroom dancing, through the non-conformist antagonist Scott Hastings and his inexperienced partner, the daughter of a Spanish migrant family. The Picture Book “The Rabbits” by John Marsden and Shaun Tan, confronts belonging through clashing cultures, disrespect of different beliefs and loss of identity.
The concept of belonging can be seen in the associations and relationships made with people and our interactions with these people. Ideas underpinning belonging include; identity, acceptance and a larger understanding of where we are placed within society. These perspectives of belonging can be seen in the work titled ‘Immigrant Chronicles’, and more so the poems ‘10 Mary Street’ and ‘Felix Skrzynecki’ by Australian poet Peter Skrzynecki.
Whenever a stranger enters an unfamiliar society, a clash between the outsider’s practices and society’s guidelines undoubtedly occurs. Whether the resulting conflict minimally or powerfully affects the people involved depends on the situation, but usually the results are monumental. In the short stories “The Blue Hotel,” “The Displaced Person,” and “Bernice Bobs her Hair,” and the novel In Dubious Battle, society’s fear of the stranger has severe negative consequences for the newcomer, as the community’s rules prevail over the outsiders in the end.
Identity is 'how you view yourself and your life.'; (p. 12 Knots in a String.) Your identity helps you determine where you think you fit in, in your life. It is 'a rich complexity of images, ideas and associations.';(p. 12 Knots in a String.) It is given that as we go through our lives and encounter different experiences our identity of yourselves and where we belong may change. As this happens we may gain or relinquish new values and from this identity and image our influenced. 'A bad self-image and low self-esteem may form part of identity?but often the cause is not a loss of identity itself so much as a loss of belonging.'; Social psychologists suggest that identity is closely related to our culture. Native people today have been faced with this challenge against their identity as they are increasingly faced with a non-native society. I will prove that the play The Rez Sisters showed this loss of identity and loss of belonging. When a native person leaves the reservation to go and start a new life in a city they are forced to adapt to a lifestyle they are not accustomed to. They do not feel as though they fit in or belong to any particular culture. They are faced with extreme racism and stereotypes from other people in the nonreservational society.
The concept of belonging and how it’s conveyed is through the connections to people, places, groups, communities and the wider world. For someone to feel that they belong, they must feel the support of friends and family. Barriers also exist for people not to belong to a group or society and can lead to negative repercussions. This is explored both in Jane Harrison play “Rainbows End” and “The Little Refugee” by Anh Do and Suzanne Do. Both texts explore the stages of a physical connection to a place, while being alienated, from the desire of not being accepted for being different of unalike.
“A human being’s sense of self is established in the context of their ethics and morals. The concept of identity is related to ‘who I am’. Individuals situate themselves in a contextual environment that may include their relationships with family and friends, and their abilities and the occupations in which they are, or have been. This identifies what is ultimately important to an individual and how that relates to where their identity is in relation to this.” (Thomas, 2013)
middle of paper ... ..., suggests that Shakespeare’s exploration of the theme of love is to bring us closer to the nature of the reconciliation harmony which it embodies. This is because everyone is peacefully engaging with each other and enjoying the play, since the conflict has been resolved. Not only this, but different social classes emerge together. This is paralleled with, the relationship between Titaina and Oberon. Shakespeare explores the theme of love by the tensions built up to create comic resolutions, therefore helping to diffuse possibly unpleasant impact of themes.
Belonging is a fluid concept that adapts and shifts within a person’s lifetime. It is subjective and can encourage feelings of security, happiness and acceptance or conversely alienation and dislocation. One's perception of belonging, and therefore identity, is significantly influenced by place and relationships established within one's environment. This is evident in Steven Herrick's free verse novel “The Simple Gift” and the short story “The River that wasn’t ours” by Ashley Reynolds.
In what ways does this text explore the development of belonging through connections to people, places, groups, communities or the larger world?
The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had effected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it take the experiences and knowledge of others to help you learn and build from them to help form your own personal identity. In the essay, O'Brien speaks about his experiences with a man by the name of Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodge that O'Brien stays at while on how journey to find himself. The experiences O'Brien has while there helps him to open his mind and realize what his true personal identity was. It gives you a sense than our own personal identities are built on the relationships we have with others. There are many influence out there such as our family and friends. Sometimes even groups of people such as others of our nationality and religion have a space in building our personal identities.
By analysing the free verse novel The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick, the song Numb by Linkin Park and the film The Matrix, it has been shown that some individuals deliberately separate themselves from having affinities with other individuals because for them to belong they would first have to alter their personality, a person’s life choices can encumber or support them in forming associations with other people and a person’s evaluation of how much they belong is defined by their perceived popularity or social status amongst other citizens. The composers of the novel, song and film have effectively shown that humans by nature crave to have connections with other individuals in order to have a sense of self value.
Centuries ago in Elizabethan England there were many traditions about marriage and the treatment of women. One strong tradition of these times was the practice of marriage between races. Interracial marriages were considered extremely taboo. (High Beam). In this era marriages were arranged by the parents with strong help from the local church. The individuals had little choice as to who they would marry. (Elizabethan England Life). Yet another example of these traditions was the respectable treatment of women. While the husband was in charge of his wife, as was the father, the husband were expected to treat the women right (Elizbethi). In spurning all of these traditions, Shakespeare demonstrates a view of marriage far different from that of Elizabethan England, in doing this he is trying to plant new ideas in the people who read or view the play.
To some degree everyone is influenced by social identity, the theory composes the idea that the social world is divided into ...
It is the loss and gain of love that makes us who we are. Loss of a parent, who you thought you might be, whom you thought you could trust, and the people you love. . One of the things Shakespeare revealed was that love makes life complicated. Whether you were a peasant or nobility attending this play; everybody can relate. Love brings struggle but it also brings so much joy in the process. It opens your heart to new beginnings and chances. The same way Claudio opened up to Hero’s doppelgänger or the way Beatrice forgave Benedick and loved him anyway. It opens your heart to new places. Love isn’t a fantasy we all hope exists, it is real. We just have to work to find it and work even harder to keep it. Who do you love?