Belonging is being a part of something and being happy with it. A true sense of belonging is best found in different places for every one, not one particular place. Rabbit Proof Fence (RPF) by Phillip Noyce and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (TBitSP) by John Boyne, demonstrate connections with others and the world around. Molly and Shmuel belong in their homeland. The friendships Molly and Shmuel have help them to overcome everything. However, the world as depicted in each text, doesn’t see Molly and Shmuel as belonging to it. Belonging is important. Home is belonging.
Molly and Shmuel feel a sense of belonging at home. It’s where they feel most comfortable and free to be themselves. In the opening scene using wide and close-up shots, Philip Noyce shows Molly with her family going out exploring her homeland. They are hunting as a family and are shown really happy. Molly has a connection to the land that makes it important for her. Putting that scene first helps to tell just how important the land and family are. Shmuel is a 9-year-old boy who belongs at home with is family. Whenever John Boyne talks about, Shmuel at the fence, he sounds sad.
He sounds because he is in the camp and he isn’t with his family. The only slight happiness is when Bruno visits him. Shmuel tells Bruno all about his mother and life in Poland. ‘Mama is a teacher in my school and she taught me German,” explained Shmuel. ‘She speaks French too. And Italian. And English. She’s very clever. I don’t speak French or Italian yet, but she said she’d teach me English one day because I might need to know it. ‘ It is reinforced how much Shumel belongs with his family when he asks Bruno to help him look for his father.
“And ou could help me look for Papa. ” Family relationships and friendships can help a person to forget about every negative thing going on in their life. Shmuel starts off sad and depressed, because he is in a death camp because of who he is. Shmuel lights up with happiness when Bruno appears at the fence illustrated through the narrative description, “Shmuel’s face brightened up and he broke into a wide smile. “Bruno helps Shmuel to be a child again and have some fun despite his situation. Shmuel can talk to someone while being in the camp to make life easier for him.
Molly gets taken away from her family with her younger sister and cousin. Molly wants to get back to her family because she feels a greater sense of belonging there. She escapes Moore River with younger sister and cousin. Molly wants to get back to Jigalong with her sister and cousin because of her sense of belonging with family there. The walk would be about 2,400km (9 weeks walking) by foot. The family relationships these girls hard helped them to push on and reach Jigalong despite the fact Gracie was captured and never seen again.
A person belongs with their family. Family can be a real support for anytime and anything you need. The world sees Molly and Shmuel as different and wrong. Molly is a half cast (half Aboriginal and half White). Mr. Neville sees half casts are impure and need to be breed out. He does that by taking all the half cast children to the Moore River settlement. There the children will be taught wrong from right. They will be taught the Christian way or the “White way” of life by matrons at the camp. This is re-inforced by the matron insisting on English being spoken.
Her condescending tone in “We’ll have none of that jabber here,” suggests that Molly’s Aboriginal language is inferior and wrong. In 1943 Hitler was lead of Germany. He hated anyone that wasn’t German or Aryan (blue eyes, blond hair, light skin and tall). Shmuel comes from Poland making him Polish. Hitler hated Polish people and put them in camps or death camps. Hitler didn’t think people like Shmuel deserved to belong in the world. He put them in camps and death camps. The camps broke people and took them to the breaking point of existents. Death camps were where people were eradicated.
Belonging is feeling a part of something and being happy with it. Molly and Shmuel were taken away from where they belonged to strange places. Molly has a strong personality and desire to be back in the place she belonged. It had shaped her identity. Shmuel never returned to his home as the forces preventing his ability to return to where he belonged and they had long since destroyed his ability to do so and so he died at the camp, not alone, but with a friend. It is possible to be from very different places in different times and have similar things happen to you. Molly and Shmuel are examples of this.
