Belonging is a universal need common to different societies and cultures across time. Have you thought about your sense of belonging? 'The Secret River by Kate Grenville' adapted as a play by Andrew Bovell is set in the 1800's in the convict settlement of Sydney along the Hawkesbury River and 'The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas’, a film produced by David Heyman, set in World War 2 in Germany, both explore the ideas of belonging to violence, death and friendship. Inter cultrural belonging
Violence in any society destroys the ability to live happily.In the 1800s violence was an accepted part of white society and is seen in
In our 21st century society we are thankfully not exposed to the levels of violence that are explored in these texts. Smasher’s stage directions in The Secret River ‘He flicks the whip catching Braniyamala full in the chest and the black skin blossoms with a long red slash.’ displays physical abuse through the use of colour imagery,destroying any sense of happiness for Braniyamala. making us to feel uncomfortable and forcing us to mentally recoil from his actions. The imagery of ‘spread with broken plates Birtles stands pinned to a tree with a spear in his gut’ demonstrates that violence is contagious and results from the feeling of not belonging to another society.the prevalence of violence that occurred in the colonies in the 19th century allowing us to gain a greater understanding of past societies sense of belonging to violence. In the later period of the 20th century violence is still a part of the world but is more covert and restrained. dislocation of concoured peoples is conveyed In The Boy in the Stripped ‘Lieutenant Koilter dragged Pavel into the kitchen to beat him up privately’, confirmed through diegetic sound confiming that absence of happiness is directly linked to a lack equalityallowing us to conjure up our own response to the differing responses of Bruno and his families responses to physical violence.
The concept of belonging to death and resulting un happiness is paralleled in both texts. ‘Sal opens her hand and lets the broken piece of tile from Wapping New Stairs fall onto the grave of her dead child’, symbollising the death of her dream of returning to England. Sophie’s experience of ‘Lost three babes. One after the other…Buried all four of them... Went swimming. Would have helped if she knew how’ shows that a similar experience happened to Sophie and how the death of her children lead to her emotional depressive state extreme unhappiness leading to her death. Similar concepts are conveyed when’ Bruno walked into the gas chamber where he died leaving his family to search desperately for him.’ When the message becomes clear that Bruno is dead there is a brief silence then we hear the cry of agony from Bruno’s mother which is shown from high angle shot, Bruno’s father stops and a close up of his face shows us his grief stricken emotions allowing us to gain a greater sense of the characters loss and the effect that belonging to death has on the individual. Zooming out from the gas chamber