Immigrant Chronicle: Analytical Response Plan

Plan your ideas by:

· Reading relevant poems in Immigrant Chronicle and related texts(of your own choosing)

· Researching how meaning is created through textual features in each text.

· For each question come up with:

a) an introduction

b) a conclusion

c) at least six main topic sentences

d) your main ideas in point form underneath each topic sentence

e) key quotes that support your points

f) written body paragraphs for each paragraph

g) reference to at least ONE related text of your own choosing.

HSC-style question

‘Belonging to a community or group has a significant impact on an individual’s sense of self and the community.’

Discuss this statement, focusing on how composers of texts represent the concept of belonging.

In your answer, refer to your prescribed text and at least ONE related texts of your choosing.

Before you begin writing, brainstorm ideas about the question and your possible approach to the question.

Thesis (introduction) ideas:

Introduction

As humans we constantly strive to belong within families and cultural groups. We all need to belong, to connect to others in a meaningful and enriching way. Families can create a safe environment for us to belong, but this is not always possible. Displacement from a family, community or even homeland can therefore have a significant impact on how an individual sees themselves. The impact of migration on an individual’s sense of belonging is explored in Peter Skrzyneck’s ‘Immigrant Chronicle’ and in particular the poem “Felik Skrynecki”, highlighting the significance of how displacement from a person’s heritage can affect identity. (Add your ideas about other poems and the related text here.)

Conclusion

The stories of countless migrants in Australia form a significant part of our heritage and contribute to our understanding of the communities we live in. The determination of migrants to belong and find their unique place and sense of self despite the harsh conditions and prejudices they endure, make their stories even more admirable. Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicle highlights the devastating, but sometimes enlightening effects of migration on the individual’s sense of self and the inherent desire in all of us to find a place to belong and feel connected to the world and its people.

First body paragraph

Topic sentence

In ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’, the poet explores the ideas of how family and respect for family members has an impact on an individual’s sense of self and their perception of culture.

Main points

• The poet is paying tribute to his father in order to demonstrate the strong link between the family and feelings of belonging
• The poet is in awe of how his father has overcome pain and suffering and yet still feels a sense of contentment, which can be associated with belonging
• The poet feels isolation and distance from his parent’s heritage
• The poet regrets that he will never know his father’s heritage

Key quotes

• the Joneses of his own mind’s making’
• ‘Loved his garden like an only child’
• ‘shook hands too violently’
• ‘golden cypress’ border and the ‘geraniums’
• ‘After that, like a dumb prophet, watched me pegging my tents/Further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall’

Body paragraph

In ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’, the poet explores the ideas of how family and respect for family members has an impact on an individual’s sense of self and their perception of culture. The poet is paying tribute to his father step father, Feliks Skrzynecki, in order to demonstrate the strong link between the family and feelings of belonging. The poet depicts how well his father has adjusted to being away from his native Poland. He is in awe of how his father has overcome pain and suffering and yet still feels a sense of contentment. In observing his father, the poet also explores his own sense of place and meditates on how he can not escape his own cultural heritage if he is to understand himself. In stanza 1, the metaphor ‘the Joneses of his own mind’s making’ suggest that his father’s identity is strongly linked to individualism and that he wants to do things simply in his own way. The simile ‘Loved his garden like an only child’ suggests that his father takes pride in his garden and finds a sense of himself there. In stanza 3, the poet’s isolation and distance from his parent’s heritage is demonstrated through his observation of how his father interacts with his Polish friends. He suggests through visual imagery they ‘shook hands too violently’, as if their interaction would not be acceptable and conducive to belonging in Australian culture. This behaviour also excludes the son from his Polish heritage. Visual imagery of the garden with the ‘golden cypress’ border and the ‘geraniums’ illustrates the poet’s admiration for his father, and the sense of contentment that he has worked hard to achieve. The poet uses this image to show his sense of regret that he will never know his father’s heritage nor feel the contentment that his father feels. The poet’s sense of loss of self is further represented by the Hadrian’s Wall metaphor: ‘After that, like a dumb prophet, watched me pegging my tents/Further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall’. The son is aware that he will move further and further away from his father’s heritage and there is nothing his father, a ‘dumb prophet’ (‘dumb’ meaning mute or unspeaking), can do about it.

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Sixth body paragraph
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