Your Feedback On SECTION B : SUMMER OF 17th DOLL required please :)

[Gutthi]

Hey Guys, Can I please have your feedback?

Time is the enemy to belonging, as adaptation is to identity:

While our experiences over time teach us the better for ourselves, it is often the hasty nature of time itself which becomes the enemy of one’s belonging.

1996 had been the year of my birth in Mumbai, India. 1998 was when I had learnt to communicate childishly yet fluently enough to get a few points across. 2002 was the first time of my life that I had experienced the tedious nature of School and by no later than 2003 I had made friends “for life,” or at least I assumed so. Life was quick and time was never a friend. It was soon in 2004 that I had become a part of my parent’s spontaneous decision to migrate to Australia. “Did I have a choice”? A rather appropriate question to ponder upon is “Did I have time”? No. I didn’t. Though it hadn’t been eight years of my childhood, I was compelled to sacrifice my fragile belonging amongst my friends and relatives. It’s for obvious reasons that more time would’ve brought along a stronger sense of belonging for me, however, time was never a friend.

While time can bring about many experiences, it can also disrupt an individual’s sense of belonging in that nature. Much like the character of Roo in Ray Lawler’s “Summer of the Seventeenth Doll,” time is not necessarily empathetic towards an individual’s status. While Roo would’ve preferred to hold the position of top ganger, it was his aging personality which kept him from performing at an optimum level. It was rather time which never worked in his favour; at the age of forty-one, Roo had found himself to be disillusioned as he came to terms with the reality of life, hence the reality of time; time didn’t regard his sense of belonging as the leader amongst the group of cane-cutters.

Whilst on one hand is time, on the other exists one’s true sense of belonging. It is in a completely different scenario, yet a reasonably similar situation that the Muslim protagonist of “My Name Is Khan” is seen, trying to find a true sense of belonging in the midst of America just after 9/11 terrorist attacks. It was clearly not the right time for a Muslim to be seen in the United States; as time progressed, it had brought along probably the most unpleasant day of the American history, similarly it was the same time which became the reason for hatred amongst Americans towards the Islamic nations. Evidently yet indirectly, it was time that had become an enemy of both the Americans and the Muslims.

It is equally as reasonable to accept the swift nature of time as it is to regret it. As human beings, we have the ability to adapt to the change in our surroundings within a short span of time. While we may not prefer what time brings about, it is in our best interest to accept it; however time never seems to be a friend of any individual.

Though time may seem as the only important aspect of one’s sense of belonging, adaptation is yet another factor which comes into play for an individual’s identity.

It was soon half way through 2005 when I had found myself trying to adjust amongst those who were nothing more than foreigners to me. In the midst of an Australian city, there was not a single aspect which I could share with my new classmates. I could not adapt. Furthermore, I could not identify with any of them. No later than a few months into my new journey had I realised that my adaptation to Mumbai had become and obstacle for my new identity in Melbourne. This was merely a signal of the complications my identity would have to face in a completely unfamiliar niche.

While her adaptation to the Leech family comforts Bubba as a part of itself, it is soon enough that she realises how it acts as a barrier between herself and her new identity when confronted by Johnnie Dowd. Having been called “Bubba” all her life, she is known to find belonging amongst the company of Olive, Emma, Roo and Barney; however it is Dowd who indirectly challenges her true sense of identity by referring to her as “Kathie.”

In a similar way we see the protagonist of “Skin” disgruntled amongst her true adaptation and the implications that brings upon her identity. At first it is her isolated upbringing amongst her white family which seeds within her the false sense of identity of being phenotypically white. It is at her confrontation with the “outer world” including her School, where Sandra realises her true appearance, hence symbolically portrays the adversary nature of adaptation to identity.

While time is an enemy to belonging, adaptation is in a similar way an antagonist to identity. At times in life we may confront situations where our sense of belonging is challenged by the hasty nature of time, similarly we may experience circumstances when our adaptation becomes an obstacle for our identity.

Thank you Again