Essay
Belonging is explored within many various aspects in texts. My first text is Rainbow’s by Jane Harrison, the aspects that are involved are “A sense of not belonging gives people the power to challenge a group or community” and “Barriers can prevent people from belonging”. My second text is “We are going” by Oodgeroo Nonnuccal, the two aspects that are presented in this poem are “Belonging to a certain place can build a strong connection” and “A sense of not belonging can be formed when people are marginalized from places”.
Rainbow’s end has conveyed many aspects of belonging towards the characters in the play. One aspect that is listed is “A sense of not belonging gives people the power to challenge a group or community”, which is shown in Act two, where Dolly receives an incoming letter for a job to work at the bank, but Dolly doesn’t seem to show any signs of interest to work there. Dolly gets disapproval from Gladys, as Gladys suggest that she should pay more attention to her own concerns. Gladys picks up her items and tells Dolly and Nan Dear that she is going “To fix the house (Quote)”. Technique that is presented here is metaphor, shows that Gladys is going to act towards her own concerns, as of throughout the entire play, Gladys begins to slowly squeeze and fit her way into the white society. She then finally realizes that it will never happen and begins to take considerable action to improve the living conditions of Aboriginal people. This therefore shows that afterwards, Gladys has realized that there’s no way that the blacks would be able to fit into the white society due to the outcome of prejudice. My second aspect is “Barriers can prevent people from belonging”. This is evident when Dolly and Errol were at the Miss Mooroopna Shepparton Ball; Dolly was suddenly confronted by a mischievous girl named Nancy, while she attempts to embarrass Dolly. Quote “Love your dress, Dolly. Love the fabric”, techniques that are shown is sarcastic language played by Nancy, saying that Dolly’s dress is nice, but in actual fact, meaning the opposite, therefore she’s using that as her advantage to demoralize Dolly, so as a result Dolly would fall under embarrassment leaving her emotionally wounded and having no chance to fit in. So therefore Nancy’s racist attitude has left Dolly to believing that she could never
Belong into the white society. Barriers placed between the white society and the Indigenous population has caused many flaws that could never be undone, due to both sides having negative connotations towards each other, resulting in disconnection.
My second text is “We are going” by Oodgeroo Nonnuccal. My first aspect is “Belonging to a certain place can build a strong connection” – the quote …the white tribe are the strangers, we belong
