Rainbows End by Jane Harrison and The Little Refugee by Ahn and Suzanne Do

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.
Jane Harrison uses relationships between the characters to create a sense of belonging to each other. The dear family are the heart of Rainbow’s End and their sense of belonging and struggling together is what provides the narrative momentum of the play. Nan dear is the matriarch and elder, who creates the home where the two other women find their sense of belonging. Dolly has a stronger sense of belonging to her grandmother, this shows how the aboriginal people are very close to each other and they all belong as one community. When we get further into the story we develop a connection to Nan Dear,of her aboriginality, and the wider aboriginal community. We see that Dolly has just gone and picked up the lino roll, as Nan dear was walking in the other direction spotted Dolly. Nan dear then discusses if Dolly has gone pass the cork trees, which Dolly has admitted to. Whilst Nan dear tells Dolly to never go pass the Cork Tress again, she says “Mark my works, I’ll wallop you”. Direct language is used to get straight to the point. Whilst Nan Dear overhears Dolly talking to herself, we see Nan Dear having connections to the Aboriginal community. W...

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...e accepted. Anh tried hard at school to make his parents proud and happy of him, but it was all so miserable for Anh. When Anh started school his English wasn’t very good and he was different from everyone else. “I had different food to the other kids and some of them laughed at me” Anh was new to the school and did not know English very well. He had different food from everyone else and it made Anh feel lonely as they teased and laughed at him.
Connection to people, family, and places are conveyed through the representation of belonging. “Rainbows End” by Harrison gives us the connection between Nan Dear with the Aboriginal Community, and a connection through family. “The Little Refugee” illustrates how Anh has had barrier that has prevented him from belonging, and how he has fitted in school, resulting in Anh creating friends along with being accepted.