Romulus My Father Speech Essay Example for Free

Romulus My Father Speech Essay Understanding and acceptance are the building blocks for a good relationship, and Relationships are essential to finding a true sense of belonging. This sense of belonging can grow from the connections made with people, places and the larger world. It is these connections that influence where we search for meaning in our lives and ultimately, where we belong. Without understanding and accepting these connections, can you ever truly belong? The biography â€Å"Romulus My Father† and the short story â€Å"Up Taree Way† show how belonging is often deeply connected to place and for both Romulus and Millie there is an obvious dislocation from this place. For instance Romulus is a Romanian living in the unfamiliar landscape of Australia whilst Milly from Up Taree Way is an Aboriginal child living in the unfamiliar landscape of Sydney city. In both of these texts, Romulus and Milly eventually understand that no matter how long they live in their new environments they will always belong to their culture and in turn accept the values of where they originally came from. It is obvious that throughout both texts understanding and acceptance has strengthened the characters relationships with their friends, family and the larger world to which they belong. As much as understanding can increase ones sense of belonging, lack of understanding can decrease it. I mean how easy is it to misunderstand someone these days? For example after Niel Symon, an aboriginal story teller, comes to Milly’s school and shares his knowledge and experiences with them they begin to understand his culture and appreciate it. After this, Millie admitted to her school friends that Neil was her uncle, learning that when she stopped trying to belong she realised she, in fact always did belong. This is because her friends were always interested and impressed by her childhood stories and did not act any differently towards her when they found out that it was actually Taree where she grew up and not Brisbane like she had lied to them out of embarrassment before. Her mum was embarrassed of their Aboriginal culture but she definitely didn’t need to be as Millie was always accepted. Milly didn’t understand that it is not the actual landscape that changes, it is her attitudes and acceptance of it that changes and no the place itself. Millie’s mum has a biased view of the world and this is what shaped Millie’s lack of understanding about who she was. Millie’s mum would use short sentences to say things to her like â€Å"thats the past Milly. I wish you would stop harping on about it. Forget those places. Thats the past. Its dead. We live here now. Were new people now†. Unlike Romulus, Milly lost her moral compass and was constantly asking questions like â€Å"who am i? † and â€Å"who is it that I am allowed to be? † which shows her interest in exploring her past and also her lack of understanding to her background. When she realises she knows Neil Symon, she acknowledges that they are in fact family and accepts that she is from an aboriginal culture by proudly telling her friends about it. Words containing negative connotations are replaced by the positive where she describes Taree as the lovely country town that she used to love so much which shows her acceptance and appreciation of where she once belonged. Just like I understand that although Grays Point has 1 way in and 1 way out and people call it a hole, It is the lovely suburb that I have grown up in. Her ability to associate with Neil came as a result of their shared connection with the landscape. Whenever Neil spoke about the aboriginal dreamtime of his ancestors, memories came flooding back to Milly. However, In Romulus, the gentle European landscape is juxtaposed with the severity of the Australian one. He was always trying to find new ways to belong in Australia. He would seek other Romanians in an attempt to connect through language and culture. This shows that the need to belong to a group or a community shapes our behaviour, attitudes and actions. These themes also reappear in Up Taree Way, for example Millie’s mum wanted to hide the fact that they were from Taree and had an Aboriginal heritage because she was afraid that people in society including her new boyfriend or Millie’s school peers would not accept them. This is seen through the metaphor â€Å"The dreamtime had turned into her nightmare†. Her strategy to belong was to forget all about her aboriginal past and focus completely on making a new connection with the city. She tries to convince Milly to do the same and move on just like Romulus had convinced Raimond that the European landscape was better that that of Australia. Just like i could convince you that Grays Point is the best suburb in the shire. When the characters experience a strong connection to a place, the notion of belonging is strengthened and enriched. Therefore, understanding our past and accepting these identities can strengthen our sense of belonging, even if sometimes we have to disagree with the people we belong to. Throughout the study of Romulus My Father and Up Taree way we have learnt that relationships with people, places and past identities can grow through understanding and acceptance. The pathway to understanding and acceptance in these texts is very complex as we have seen characters like Romulus lose the will to live whilst other characters like Millie and her mum and also Raimond learn to understand their past and let it be a part of who they will become. This allows them to grow as people because they get a better sense of who they are, expanded knowledge of the world around them and deeper relationships with people and places can be developed. We belong when we ultimately feel connected to others and the world, so â€Å"until you accept who you really are you can never belong to yourself, and until you belong to yourself it is impossible to belong to anybody else†, proving that by understanding our inner selves, individuals are able to belong harmoniously in the world where they can mature and grow as people.