Belonging

Wahaha... 今日終於考左第一個試.....

English ge Belonging....

因為唔想俾個blog空置咁耐...

又唔想打D內容空洞ge文....

所以copy左我份Concept of belonging essay ge draft上黎...

講得draft...

裡面當然有錯字同錯grammer.... 連conclusion都未寫的.......



“We all need to belong to something.” Belonging is a feeling, connection and identity that created by culture, beliefs, skin colour, nationality, understanding background history, personal, object to live and fit into the community. The related text I chose are The China Coin, Rabbit Proof Fence, The December Boys and You belong with me.



In the book The China Coin, Lean and Joan travel to China in search of the other half of a broken coin, which Joan’s father sent her before h died. It is the only connection they have with their lost family in China.

In the novel, For Leah, Joan, ke and others there are barriers that prevent them form belonging. These may be caused either by internal barriers or perceptions, even unconscious ones, or by barriers that are set up externally to exclude a certain individual or group.

For Leah, growing up in Australia and having no knowledge of china or its people presents a barrier to belonging she reluctantly studied the language for a short time, which makes it difficult for her to connect and communicate. Initially she chooses to isolate herself from her mother and her desire to find family in china. Her purpose in going is to solve the mystery of the half coin for her father. ‘Let Joan find her family .She was going for dad.’(p 11) this choice distances Leah from her mother.

Furthermore, Leah’s physical size presents a psychological barrier to belonging. She sees herself as different and therefore not part of the wider Chinese community ‘Leah noticed a few young women looking curiously at her. Always looking up at her. I am a giant, she thought.’ (p 16) as she travels through china and lives with relatives, these mental barriers are pulled down, allowing her to connect with people despite her looks and her limited language and knowledge.

Likewise, Joan faces barriers which prevent her from belonging. Even though she looks Chinese she is viewed as being an ‘overseas’ Chinese by locals and is therefore treated differently. She has to pay for meals in foreign currency (FEC), not the local renmibi (RMB), which angers her immensely.

Belonging also is about identity, at the beginning of the novel, Leah is indignant about the air hostess not recognise her European features and treat her as Chinese. “Ah, you’re coming home.” She grow up in Australia with non-chinese friends. So she does not accept that identity. However, by travelling in China, She becomes accepted by her Chinese family and learn more their history. This indicates the concept of identity or belonging is created by the understanding.

In the novel, the composer uses different narrators to presents the concept of belonging. Leah allows the reader to understand her innermost feelings. For example the use of first person narrator inside Leah’s head, “I am being taken to a village so primitive they file their teeth and eat raw meat.”

Also descriptive language has been used in the book. For emaple readers can clearly visualise the beauty of countryside. “Leah found the market relief. The air is carried a tantalising ticket of salt, hops, dusty herbs, ginger and a touch of fish.” The whole whole Inage easily draw in the reader’s mind.



In the film of Rabbit-Proof Fence, It shows the belonging and not belonging.

The 3 girls belong to the Aboriginal community at Jigalong. They belong to each other and to the land. Both these aspects of belonging are established in the opening sequence and through the film.

Additionally, there is also a real sense of how women belong to each other. For examples, the hunting scene, when they mourn the stolen children, and powerfully at the end of the film as the women call to and sing Molly home. They also work together to escape.

The film is also about not belonging. It clearly shows that the girls and their peers do not belong at the mission which is portrayed as a prison. It restricts speech, behaviour, language and movement. In contrast, the opening scenes of the film show Aboriginal people living in harmony in open spaces with freedom and self-sufficiency.

The music and sound effects in the film establish the mood of the film. The film start is indigenous music. This builds a lingering danger.

The film has a really important indicate in this film. At the beginning of the film, A extreme long shot shooting an eagle in the mid Australia and Molly and her mum are watching the bird peacefully. At the end of the film when Molly almost arrives home and see her hum, the eagle appears in the film again. It indicates the connection between them.







The song You belong with me sing by Taylor Swift(2009). It is a country-pop style song. It is about the thinking of a girl who is a loser and a guy who is a jock. The girl likes the guy and thinks she should be his girlfriend instead of the one he is having, because she thinks the guys belong to him. It shows a point of view of belonging from a girl.

The song has a catchy rhythm can make audience easy to remember. Also acoustic guitar has been used in this song to create a volatility feeling.

In the song, Its used Juxtaposition in the song. “She wears short skirts I wear T-shirt.” It makes the song more interesting. It shows fashion Style can affect the sense of belonging. People wear the same clothes can create the identity.

Also, the experience of the life can affect the sense of belonging. “I'm the one who makes you laugh, When you know your about to cry” The girls thinks she helps the guy when he is sad. This can makes the guy to feel belong to her.









In the film, The December Boys(2006), the 3 boys loves in orphanage, because they have the same moth of the birthday, they had a chance to go to holiday in a small town which along the beach. The experienced a lot of things together to find out belonging.

Maps is the eldest of 3 of the boys. After he found out Clive is not rich as the 3 boy’s imagine and believe he does not have the ability to provide a lovely family, he tries to protect Misty to adopted by Clive. This shows Maps have a feeling of belonging, so he tries to protect Misty.

However, Misty does not understand Maps. The camera uses a extreme long high angle and the boys walks into different direction. This presents their relationship had been destroy and not belong together anymore.

The turning point exceeds in the last bit of the film. Misty dropped into the water and trapped. Maps which is a non-swimmer. He jumped in with no doubt and saved Misty. At the end of the film, Misty chooses to reject Clive to adopt him. “I’ve got a family. They will be lost without me.” This shows he already found where he belongs to which is the boys.



Therefore, the sense of belong can create and influence by a lot of factor...............