1/1 Ray Road
Epping
NSW 2121
14/2/2012
Dear Chris,
What’s up Chris, how’s going? I’ve only been in Sydney for one and a half years, but I’m enjoying it. Sydney is a huge, teeming and multicultural city. How is L.A., I’ve only been there for a short trip. Are you enjoying it there? Do watch some NBA games there? That would be awesome! I hope you are having a great time with your parents in L.A. Is it your final year there? Best wishes for your exams.
I am in my last year here in Sydney and I think I can help you with your work. I am glad to share with you some Area of Study ideas from my school. We are doing belonging here. Belonging is how people feel accepted by others or have a connection to people, places or objects. It is a topic which is related to us and quite useful for people like us who have moved into a new environment. What do we need to do is to choose three related texts for Area of Study, belonging and we have to identify the techniques used by composer and explain how these techniques have reflected these aspects of Belonging. These three aspects are my point of view of Belonging: First is identity, second is friendship and the last one is not belonging. These aspects will be shown in my three chosen related texts which are the film, “The Incredible Hulk” directed by Louis Leterrier, a poem “Belonging” by Crystal Maresh and the picture book “The Red Tree” by Shaun Tan. The reason why I chose these three texts is because they made me feel in touch with my own situation being in the new environment which is an English speaking country, Australia.
Do you do belonging at you school as well? In my words, belonging is an acceptance as a natural member or part of a group. Some of belonging is uncontrollable which means can’t choose whether or not you belong to a group, like your family which you already belongs to when you were born. But, there are a lot of belongings that you can choose to belong or not belong. No one can change the truth that they part of their family or their nationality. You can, however choose who is going to be your friend or which school you want to go to and the groups you associate with there.
The first aspect of belonging is of belonging is identity, which can be defined from your characteristics, personality, the way you see yourself or the way you would like to be. In my first related text, “The Incredible Hulk”, there is a scene in which Bruce Banner is being surrounded and he is going to be hit by three gangsters. The composer used a middle angle shot to emphasize Bruce’s facial expression. Bruce said seriously: “Stop. Please. Me… angry… very bad.” And “Oh no. You don’t understand!” And his face is worried and serious, which shows how bad the situation is, because Bruce knew that once he get angry, he will change into Hulk who is uncontrollable. That means Bruce understands his identity and belongs to himself. It is important to see clearly that you own your identity.
The second text, The Red Tree also involves belonging to one’s identity. The page with the quote “Who you are meant to be” and the picture of the girl drawing a self-portrait on the wall is the one I think best explains the concept of identity. The painter is spacing the quote that can lead the audience’s attention to the picture. In the picture, the girl is drawing herself very simply where the painter used metaphor to reflect how the girl recognizes her identity. The image on the wall is simple and uncompleted that tells us the girl cannot define the truth of herself, she only roughly knows what she looks like and her identity. She is confused about her identity and how to discover it. The page is colourful except for the picture being drawn by the girl. Here, contrast is used to emphasize she is lost and how she cannot really tell who she is meant to be. She does not know much about herself, the shape on the wall is empty and colourless which tells us that the girl is confused about her identity and is
