...Belonging Critical Essay “Belonging to a community or group has a significant impact on an individual’s sense of self” Introduction Individuals desire a sense of belonging within various groups in the community to engage with others in an enriching and meaningful way. Displacement from a community, culture or family can have a significant impact on individuals’ sense of self and where he truly belongs. Peter Skryzynecki’s poems, “Feliks Skrzynecki” and “Migrant Hostel” explore the effects of displacement due to migration and the consequential lack of identity and place. Bruce Dawe’s poem “Enter without so much as knocking” and an image from Shaun Tan’s book “The Arrival” explores various aspects of belonging suggesting that belonging to a place is central to an individual’s identity and sense of security. Feliks Skrzynecki ‘Feliks Skrzynecki” explores the hardships experienced by migrants growing up in Australia. Skrzynecki highlights the underlying idea of Peter’s difficulty in trying to accept his inherent Polish culture, which is evident in the third stanza “His polish friends always shook hands too violently…I never got used to” while at the same time unconsciously assimilating to a new civilized Western culture. Skrzynecki utilizes an extended metaphor of Hadrian’s Wall; “Watched me pegging my tents further and further south of Hadrian’s Wall” to epitomize the confusion and choice surrounding Peter in the ethics and values of each culture to which he must choose. Peter...
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...Eden’s Draft of essay (without intro and conclusion) Bruce Dawe effectively utilises the poem ‘enter without as much as knocking’ as a tool to explore in depth the not only physical but emotional influences from modern society. Dawes poem is a political and social statement of contemporary culture and the cyclic web of conforming and consumerism that we follow consciously and subliminally. The persona is born into a clinical, inorganic world of ‘Blink, blink. HOSPITAL. SILENCE’, where feelings of isolation and distance are evoked, where loss of connectedness and belonging is created. Dawe comments upon the superficial world we are brought into from the start. Without warning, without consent we are stripped from our innocence and taught what is right and what is “true”. Even from a place of safety, from a haven in a “mothers arms” the allusion of “Bobby Dazzler on channel 7” from the cradle so to speak, introduces the influence of the character and opinions of his modern external world. From the ‘set-up’ of the personas life individuality is robbed as he becomes part of a stereotypical family where reality is superficial and abiding family and society norms begins control. The frame work of this conformed civilization compel the persona to exist as a commodity of a nuclear family that runs all too often on the middle class dictates of consumerism, wealth and keeping up with Jones image. Even as a child, within his family he is introduced into a world of control...
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...us to define who we are.’ Context 4, Sample B This sample uses the prompt to show understanding of the text, brings knowledge of various texts to the discussion and shows good control in the writing. Bruce Dawe suggests in the introduction to his anthology of poetry, that ‘Each of us is both a private person and a public person.’ Despite this simple truth, our personal sense of identity and individuality is under serious threat from two entirely separate, though equally negative entities, alienation and conformity. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye struggles to find a sense of belonging in a world that he feels is increasingly demanding conformity, resulting in his self-imposed isolation and lack of genuine sense of self. As a young person, about to embrace a largely foreign world, it is imperative for myself and other young people to find a balance between our own individuality and the concession we choose to make in regards to our individuality when seeking connections or relationships with others. Everyone must realise that while we are each unique, we are also members of the human species, sharing universal characteristics and experiences. Therefore, the relationships we have with others will inherently help determine much of who we are. Only once we have made these realisations can we begin to gain a coherent understanding of the functioning of society and avoid Holden’s predetermined fate of loneliness. From birth, we are...
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...strictly reserved. While we’re at it, I’d like to keep the movie rights too. Unless you can get Paul Newman to play me. Ideavirus™ is a trademark of Do You Zoom, Inc. So is ideavirus.com™. Designed by Red Maxwell You can find this entire manifesto, along with slides and notes and other good stuff, at www.ideavirus.com. This version of the manifesto is current until August 17, 2000. After that date, please go to www.ideavirus.com and get an updated version. You can buy this in book form on September 1, 2000. This book is dedicated to Alan Webber and Jerry Colonna. Of course. Unleashing the Ideavirus 2 www.ideavirus.com STEAL THIS IDEA! Here’s what you can do to spread the word about Unleashing the Ideavirus: 1. Send this file to a friend (it’s sort of big, so ask first). 2. Send them a link to www.ideavirus.com so they can download it themselves. 3. Visit www.fastcompany.com/ideavirus to read the Fast Company article. 4. Buy a copy of the hardcover book at www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970309902/permissionmarket. 5. Print out as many copies as you like. Unleashing the Ideavirus 3 www.ideavirus.com Look for the acknowledgments at the end. This is, after all, a new digital format, and you want to get right to it! The #1 question people ask me after reading Permission Marketing: “So, how do we get attention to ask for permission in the first place?” This manifesto is the answer to that...
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...THE B L A C K SWAN The HIGHLY I mpact IM of the PROBABLE Nassim Nicholas Taleb U.S.A. $26.95 Canada $34.95 is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpre dictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9 / 1 1 . For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives. A BLACK SWAN Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don't know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate oppor tunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the "impossible." For years, Taleb has studied how we fool our selves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. Now, in this reve latory book, Taleb explains everything we know about what we don't know. He offers...
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...Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1 BRAIN POWER Myth #1 Most People Use Only 10% of Their Brain Power Myth #2 Some People Are Left-Brained, Others Are Right-Brained Myth #3 Extrasensory Perception (ESP) Is a Well-Established Scientific Phenomenon Myth #4 Visual Perceptions Are Accompanied by Tiny Emissions from the Eyes Myth #5 Subliminal Messages Can Persuade People to Purchase Products 2 FROM WOMB TO TOMB Myth #6 Playing Mozart’s Music to Infants Boosts Their Intelligence Myth #7 Adolescence Is Inevitably a Time of Psychological Turmoil Myth #8 Most People Experience a Midlife Crisis in | 8 Their 40s or Early 50s Myth #9 Old Age Is Typically Associated with Increased Dissatisfaction and Senility Myth #10 When Dying, People Pass through a Universal Series of Psychological Stages 3 A REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST Myth #11 Human Memory Works like a Tape Recorder or Video Camera, and Accurate Events We’ve Experienced Myth #12 Hypnosis Is Useful for Retrieving Memories of Forgotten Events Myth #13 Individuals Commonly Repress the Memories of Traumatic Experiences Myth #14 Most People with Amnesia Forget All Details of Their Earlier Lives 4 TEACHING OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS Myth #15 Intelligence (IQ) Tests Are Biased against Certain Groups of People My th #16 If You’re Unsure of Your Answer When Taking a Test, It’s Best to Stick with Your Initial Hunch Myth #17 The Defining Feature of Dyslexia Is Reversing Letters Myth #18 Students Learn Best When Teaching Styles Are Matched to...
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...PART ONE • UNDERSTANDING SERVICES SERVICES IN THE MODERN ECONOMY As consumers, we use services every day. Turning on a light, watching TV, talking on the telephone, riding a bus, visiting the dentist, mailing a letter, getting a haircut, refueling a car, writing a check, or sending clothes to the cleaners are all examples of service consumption at the individual level. T h e institution at which you are studying is itself a c o m p l e x service organization. In addition to educational services, today's college facilities usually include libraries and cafeterias, counseling, a bookstore, placement offices, copy services, telecommunications, and even a bank. If you are enrolled at a residential university, campus services are also likely to include dormitories, health care, indoor and o u t d o o r athletic facilities, a theater, and perhaps a post office. Customers are not always happy with the quality and value of the services they receive. People complain a b o u t late deliveries, r u d e or i n c o m p e t e n t personnel, i n c o n v e n i e n t service h o u r s , p o o r p e r f o r m a n c e , and needlessly complicated p r o cedures. T h e y grumble about the difficulty of finding sales clerks to help t h e m in retail stores, express frustration about mistakes on their credit card bills or bank statements, shake their heads over the complexity of new self-service equipment, m u t ter about p o o r value, and sigh as they are forced to wait in line almost everywhere...
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