Belonging Essay Example for Free

Belonging Essay Belonging is about how one views their self and how one interacts with those around them. It colours who and what we are and how we fit into the world around us. People seek belonging for identity, relationships, acceptance, and understanding. Steven Herrick’s free-verse novel, ‘The Simple Gift’, effectively explores the notions of belonging through the protagonist’s journey. In a similar way, David Michod’s film ‘Animal Kingdom’ and Tim Winton’s short story ‘Neighbours’ both present protagonists that go through long journeys to find belonging through developing meaningful relationships and discoveringa sense of place. Steven Herrick’s free-verse novel ‘The Simple Gift’ clearly portrays that alienation and a lack of connection with people will lead to a lack of belonging. Immediately Herrick introduces the readers to Billy, a sixteen-year-old runaway who is alienated and isolated. Herrick implicitly displays that Billy’s father has abused him, which is the cause of his alienation. This is evident as Billy recounts how his father â€Å"gave me one hard backhander across the face, so hard I fell down†¦. And slammed the door on my sporting childhood. This metaphor allows readers to understand that his father’s abuse led to Billy’s disconnection to from normal childhood experiences, thereby not allowing him to ‘fit in’ and belong to society. Billy’s isolation from the community is reinforced as he leaves the neighbourhood throwing â€Å"one rock on the roof of each deadbeat no-hoper shithole lonely downtrodden house in Longlands Road, Nowheresville. † Colloquial adjectives and expletives make evident Billy’s feelings of disconnection and resentment towards his hometown, suitably named â€Å"Nowheresville† by Billy. It is from this place that Billy seeks escape, and so chapter one ends as he begins his journey towards belonging â€Å"on a speedboat out of town†¦ heading to the Waggawang Coalfields. † Herrick portrays that Finding a sense of place and meaningful relationships leads to belonging with Billy’s arrival in Bendarat where he is metaphorically and literally entering a new life. Although at first Billy is anxious, upon entering the town, he feels it brings a sense of hope for his future as he â€Å"walks slowly into Bendarat†¦with the sun finally lifting. Through this use of weather motifs and personification of the sun lifting the fog, hope and positivity are unveiled for Billy after a life of negativity and uncertainty. He finds â€Å"Bendarat is the perfect town† and he makes â€Å"carriage 1864 home. † Billy begins his movement as he finds a physical sense of place. While the town of Bendarat Billy begins to move towards belonging through meaningful relationships, when he meets Caitlin; a representative from the ‘other’ society from which Billy and Old Bill are hiding. Ironically, Caitlin has everything she wants, but is still discontent. She represents her family’s wealth, acknowledging that her â€Å"Dad is too rich for his own good. † Caitlin and Billy develop an immediate bond, as they are able to talk and listen to each other without judgment or prejudice. As they meet, the narrative perspectives begins to overlap, and the reader gains insight into Caitlin through her strong voice, suggested through the use of personal pronouns â€Å" I felt good†¦ I kept mopping. As their relationship develops, Billy finds meaning and purpose for his life as seen through this extended metaphor that Billy’s life has become â€Å"a circuit of plans with Caitlin at the centre, and me a badly-dressed satellite spinning crazily in her orbit. † With Caitlin in his life, Billy is centered and feels connectedness: she is someone to whom he can belong. Similarly, Billy begins to find belonging through a relationship with Old Bill; a h omeless alcoholic with a sad past. Through the use of superlative in Billy’s description of Old Bill as the â€Å"saddest man in the world† the reader understands that Billy and Old Bill have the chance to change each other’s lives through meaningful relationships. Old Bill is the catalyst for Billy’s movement towards belonging, just as Billy is able to help Old Bill re-entre society. Billy’s journey from alienation to belonging is completed as he enters with Caitlin into his new â€Å"home†, the tangible address that Old Bill offers them for their â€Å"simple gift†. The key to his home that Old Bill offers Billy is the most significant gift in the novel. This key is a motif symbolizing Caitlin and Billy’s joining together and entering a new life â€Å"I insert the key†¦ and push the door†. They enter this new life together. Ironically, Old Bill finally belongs again through moving away and experiencing freedom. For Billy and Caitlin, the ultimate connectedness comes through love making. The reader understands the significance of this moment through Billy’s use of a simile; â€Å"it was like falling headlong into clear waters of the Bendarat River’†. Billy finds a place to call home, a place to which he can belong, in Bendarat, where he forms his own family and in turn gives simple gifts to and helps other find their own sense of belonging. Like ‘The Simple Gift’, David Michod’s film ‘Animal Kingdom’ effectively explores the concept of belonging through its protagonist Joshua ‘J’ Cody, a teenage boy thrown into a world of crime after his mother dies of a heroin overdose. Similar to Billy, J is alienated due to family circumstances. It is J’s first person narrative voice over that draws us into the world of the Cody family. He speaks to us: â€Å"After my mum died this was just the world I was thrown into. † This way of having him speak to the audience, allows us to be a part of his search for belonging throughout the film. Michod also utilizes the animal motif throughout the entire film. It is established in the opening credits through the artwork that is shown through extreme close ups. The Cody family is a den of lions and J walks in as a cub â€Å"The weak survive when they are protected by the strong†. From the beginning of the film there are a number of times this motif recurs, but perhaps the most significant moment is the conversation where Detective Leckie tells J all about the bush and the creatures in it and says â€Å"you’ve gotta work out where you fit†. J’s journey throughout the film is a search for belonging within this ‘animal kingdom’. Although J needs to choose where he belongs, we see he does not really have a choice due to the Cody family constantly dragging him into their problems. Viewers clearly observe this when J is having dinner away from the Cody family and at his girlfriend Nicky’s house. The diagetic sound of the family having dinner fades out and the eerie and ominous music comes in, suggesting something negative and frightening. The camera shows a close up J’s face as he views the news on the television, emphasizing J’s fear of his family. J’s eyes are now glued to the television and the medium shot of him having dinner loses focus forcing the viewer to watch the television just like J. Camera shots are used in many other significant parts of the movie to display J’s slow journey to belonging. Long and medium shots often used to show Smurf kissing her sons, significant because the final shot of the film is a long shot of J holding Smurf in a position of authority over her because he has killed Pope. This symbolizes him becoming one of them and perhaps even suggests that within the animal kingdom he has taken his position as leader like Craig encouraged him to be at the start. J has finally found belonging with the Cody family as leader of the animal kingdom. Similar to the previous two texts, Winton’s short story ‘Neighbours’ begins with a young couple that is in a state of alienation â€Å"like sojourners in a foreign land†. Like ‘the Simple Gift’, the lack of understanding prevents meaningful relationships and therefore leads to alienation. ‘Neighbours’ opens with the young couple having just arrived in their new suburb. Winton chooses to tell the story in third person, creating a distanced and simplistic quality throughout. Leaving all characters nameless only to be referred to by generalized titles such as â€Å"the Macedonians†, â€Å"the Polish widower† and â€Å"the young couple† enhances the texts impersonal nature. This opens the story up so that anyone can see themselves in each of the roles allowing them to connect with the characters and storyline in a unique and powerful way resulting in Winton being able to effectively portray his message of belonging. Another element to the piece is ‘The 20th Century Novel’ a project ‘the man’ is working on for what could be a university extra honors degree, that soon becomes a reoccurring motif. The novel is a symbolic tool used to represent the abstract world of intellectuals; however its presentation becomes a contrast with the real world that the couple discovers within this suburb. As the story progresses Winton uses the seasons as the structure of the story and the young couple’s journey to belong. In Autumn the young couple plant vegetables to live on, by beginning this common activity to their neighbours the Macedonians feel comfortable enough to begin to bond and also offer the young couple help and give them a gift of garlic cloves. Like ‘The Simple Gift’, through small gifts and acts of kindness come understanding, building of relationships and belonging. This significant event marks the beginning of the couple’s path to belonging â€Å"the neighbours come to the fence and offer advice about spacing, hilling, mulching†. As winter began the young couple smile in return to their neighbours and receive a visit from their parents who they were once like. The juxtaposition of the parents and their children show how much the young couple have changed and begun to belong â€Å"They felt superior and proud when their parents came to visit. Their parents are in complete shock of the neighbours behaviour as they do not understand the beauty behind their lifestyle, this juxtaposes the young couples behaviour as they have accepted their neighbours behaviour and have begun to understand their lifestyle and see the beauty and freedom of it. The final significant experience for the couple is the unexpected pregnancy of the woman, followed by her natural home birth. Throughout the pregnancy the couple are constantly approached by well- wishers in the neighbourhood, presenting the ommunities acceptance of them despite any differences and joining them in the celebration of this impending birth. During the home birth of their child the couple unexpectedly experience both interest and support from their new neighbours, displaying their final connection as a community. The birth process is rich with descriptive language, highlighting not only the beauty and power of this moment but the final step in claiming their place in this community with this new life. Each of the moments experienced above are all highly natural, reflective of the traditional European culture they are now living amongst, forever making ‘The 20th century novel’ more redundant as the story progresses. The man is developing his understanding of the 20th century world however the one he really needed to understand to find his sense of belonging was the one surrounding him, â€Å"The twentieth century novel had not prepared him for this. † People seek belonging for identity, relationships, acceptance, and understanding. Steven Herrick’s free-verse novel, ‘The Simple Gift’, effectively explores these notions of belonging. Through Billy’s character, the reader sees that belonging comes when there is acceptance and understanding, especially through meaningful relationships and human connectedness. In a similar way, David Michod’s film ‘Animal Kingdom’ and Tim Winton’s short story ‘Neighbours’ both present protagonists that go through long journeys to find meaningful relationships and a sense of place to discover their own sense of belonging.

Abbie Hoffman: A Present Day Monologue :: essays research papers fc

My name is Abbie Hoffman. Steal this speech while square dancing in the Ice ages, it’s soon to be a major motion picture†¦ Yippie! Do you know what that means? That means that there’s a revolution on, that we can change an H to a Y., that we can bring more than 10,000 people to Lincoln Park in Chicago on a myth, a rumor, a story. Yippie! It means the home of the FREE and the land of the BRAVE. Chicago was a place for the brave to fight for their freedom. When we came to chicago, we thought, hey, they’ll put up some resistance, but they’ll give us a permit to have our little Yippie! get-together in the park. I mean shit, it’s our right. Mayor Daley, he didn’t give a shit about our â€Å"rights† he didn’t want one goddamn hippie in his city, let alone 10,000. He didn’t want chicago to have that reputation, HE didn’t want to have that reputation. Do you know what happened in Chicago? According to Mayor Daley, only a few minor injuries due to resisting arrest and rioting; according to some outside sources, and my own count, a couple people died and a lot of people were wounded because the pigs were beating on us for practicing our right to assemble peacefully. Hell, we were peaceful, a damn sight more peaceful than the cops. We were assembled to protest war, all we wanted to do was get together and smoke a little weed. The cops, they came at us with arms swinging. But I get ahead of myself. You’re all so young, you don’t know about Chicago’s other, meaner side.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Chicago, we Yippies wanted to have a rally, and Chicago was really central to the movement, so we petitioned the Chicago Parks Department for a permit to have bands come play during the week of the Democratic Convention in 1968. They stalled, and pretended to have little problems with the permit. No one was fooled. We sued them for denying us our constitutional rights; but we withdrew our suit when we saw who our judge was. His name was Judge Lynch, and he was mayor Daley’s friend or cousin or something. Very ironic...the next judge that we went before because the city was stalling was Judge Stahl. S-T-A-H-L. So in a nutshell, we said â€Å"can we have a get-together in the park?

Google the Best Company Essay

The competition is steep for any company seeking to become one of the Best, and certainly for any company that shows up in the #1 slot. Yet Google chose a great role model to help them create the special culture that has supported their success. While definitely creating and following their own path, leaders at Google also turned to Genentech (#1 on the Best Companies list in 2006) as a source of ideas and wisdom to guide their growth as a company. And they have grown well, with confidence that their unique culture and approach to work life have contributed to the overall suc- cess of the organization. In their Culture Audit (a key component of the Best Com- panies evaluation process) they state, â€Å"There is no hard data that can ever prove that a free lunch and a multicultural, campus-like environment con- tribute to the organization’s success and profit. What can be proven is that Google is growing at an immense pace – retention of employees is high, attrition is low and revenues are strong ($6. 1B in 2005). People are eager to work at Google and applications to our job openings are exceedingly high (approximately 1,300 resumes a day). † Google’s employees confirm what is reported in the Culture Audit, with 95% of the employees who responded to the employee survey part of the Best Companies evaluation process saying, â€Å"Taking everything into account I’d say this is a great place to work. That’s an extraordinary sentiment for a fast paced, stressful yet exhilarating work environment. Even people who leave Google to try something different do so reluctantly (SF Chronicle, 1/7/07). Google’s leaders have figured out the formula that works for them by treating people with respect, supporting their creative endeavors, and working hard to adhere to their motto of â€Å"Don’t be evil†. It’s not magic, or rocket science or paternalism or entitlement. In some ways it is plain common sense. As they explain in their Culture Audit: â€Å"Our employees, who call themselves Googlers, are everything. Google is organized around the ability to attract and leverage the talent of exceptional technolo- gists and business people. We have been lucky to recruit many creative, principled and hard working stars. We hope to recruit many more in the future. As we have from the start, we will reward and treat them well. â€Å"

Rhetoric and Stereotypes Politicians, Tattooed People,...

Rhetoric and Stereotypes: Politicians, Tattooed People, Feminists, and Elderly People PHI 103: Informal Logic Rhetoric and Stereotypes: Politicians, Tattooed People, Feminists, and Elderly People Rhetoric pertains to the use of language to create an effectively persuasive argument. Stereotyping is taking the description of an individual and applying it to a group as a whole. There are many generalizations made when it comes to politicians, tattooed people, feminists, and elderly people. This essay will discuss stereotypes connected to each of these groups, explain the images and feelings these groups raise, if the stereotypes are positive, negative, or both. This essay will also discuss whether or not there is any truth to these†¦show more content†¦For example, I work for the County of San Bernardino and I am not allowed to wear clothing that makes my tattoos visible, so there are not very many people that know I have them. When people have found out that I have tattoos, they seem surprised because I am well mannered, nice, smart, wear glasses, and as they say â€Å"don’t seem the type that would have tattoos†. They aren’t quite sure what to say when I ask, â€Å"and what type is that?† I have tattoos, I am for equal rights, and I have worked with and for many senior citizens so I don’t have any stereotypical views regarding these classes of people. I would have to say that I do have very stereotypical views of politicians, and it is in a negative aspect. These are things that I already knew about myself. I am sure that once upon a time, there was such a thing as an honest politician, but unfortunately I can’t remember any politician that has not disappointed me. There are many generalizations made when it comes to politicians, tattooed people, feminists, and elderly people; and pretty much any class of people out there. Unfortunately we all seem to fall victim to stereotypes, either by using them against a certain class of people or being lumped into one. References Parry-Giles, S. J. (2008). Rhetoric and Politics. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from International Encyclopedia of Communication:Show MoreRelatedRhetoric and Group Stereotyping 1500 Words   |  6 PagesRhetoric is language meant to bring about intense emotions causing people to have certain attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors (Moore Parker, 2007, pp.117-118). There are many different types of rhetorical devices that can give positive or negative feelings about a subject. These are often called slanters (Moore Parker, 2007, p.118). Stereotyping is one type of rhetorical device that is used quite often. It generally occurs when people attach certain images or thoughts to groups that are not basedRead MoreStereotyping and the Logical Fallicies Essay1002 Words   |  5 PagesFrederick Howard Giovanni Colombo Informal Logic 12/13/2010 Stereotypes and rhetoric 1 Types of People and Stereotypes 1 People are always judged by what they do. It doesnt make a difference if your personality matches others in the same profession or hobby, you are stereotyped by what you do. Its common rhetorical thinking, which, while it can be amusing and sometimes correct, is often incorrect. Computer geeks for example, for a long time were seen as losers. Then the dot com boom