Thank you Maya.
It has taken us a long time to write our response, and we have had a lot of
help from our teacher, but we have finished it at last.
Book rap extended response
>From Sydney International High School Year 12 ESL
Peter Skrzynecki’s collection of poems, Immigrant Chronicle, tells us about
his own experiences of immigration. In these poems, he describes his
childhood memories of arriving in Australia from Europe. He also talks about
his parents, and the way their experiences of war and migration have
affected their lives, as well as the way he has grown away from them through
his own experience of growing up in Australia. He communicates these
personal perspectives mainly through descriptions and comparisons.
In Migrant Hostel he communicates the feelings he had as a newly-arrived
migrant in a hostel. From his perspective as a child, the barrier at the
gate looked like a finger “pointed in reprimand or shame’. This gave him a
feeling of shame that he and his family needed permission to go in and out.
The words “For over two years We lived like birds of passage” show his
perspective of how temporary and unsettled life was in the hostel, with
people coming and going all the time.
The poem 10 Mary Street describes Skrzynecki’s perspective of life in the
family home after leaving the migrant hostel. He tells us how his parents
had to work at unskilled jobs: “the polite hum-drum of washing clothes and
laying sewerage pipes”, and how they loved their garden which they tended
“like adopted children”. They “kept pre-war Europe alive” in their memories
by looking at old photographs, eating Polish food and having “heated
discussion” with other immigrants. As the young Peter was growing up in
Australia, he was not familiar with many of the things they talked about.
The same perspective is clearly communicated in the poem Feliks Skrzynecki,
which describes the poet’s father. Feliks “loved his garden like an only
child” and “spent years walking its perimeter from sunrise to sleep”. This
poem also gives a picture of Feliks’s Polish friends who, from the poet’s
perspective, “Always shook hands too violently” and greeted him too
formally. This shows how his parents’ generation were still influenced by
their European culture, while the son was becoming more and more Australian.
The words “watched me pegging my tents further and further south of
Hadrian’s wall” show how Peter was gradually growing away from his parents
and their culture.
Post Card tells us that the picture of Warsaw reminds Peter Skrzynecki of
what happened to Warsaw during World War II, and shows the perspective of
his parents’ generation. His own perspective is that he doesn’t want to know
about Warsaw. He is happy with his life in Australia. The words “Warsaw, old
town, I never knew you except in the third person” tells us that he has
never been to Warsaw but has only heard about it from others. “What’s my
choice to be?” communicates a feeling of being torn between his parents’
cultures, and “we will meet before you die” tells that one day he will visit
his father’s city, even though at present he does not want to.
The above four poems clearly explain Skrzynecki’s personal perspective of
immigration, from the point of view of both a child and later of an adult.
He uses many comparisons to describe the experience of immigration and its
effects on his own life and also of his family.
>From: <mayapuiu@ozemail.com.au>
>To: immigrantc_rap@ituws1.itbcorpweb.det.nsw.edu.au
>CC: immigrantc_teachrap@ituws1.itbcorpweb.det.nsw.edu.au
>Subject: immigrantc_rap End of Rap
>Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 8:30:10 +1000
>
>Hello everyone,
>
>I just wanted to let you know that the rap will remain on-line until the
>end of the term. If you would still like to post your extended response,
>evaluations or questions, please do!
>
>Thanks,
>
>Maya Puiu
>rap coordinator
>
>This message was sent through MyMail http://www.mymail.com.au
>
>
>
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