I've pasted a practice essay for Identity and Belonging in Context below. The main text drawn upon is "The Mind of a Thief" and I've included an explanation because it is required for the SAC. Any and all constructive criticism is welcome. I'd appreciate it also if you marked it out of 10 or 30 if you have a rubric of that sort. Thank you!!!
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"Source" Journal
Issue 12 Volume 3[/b]
Abstract: "Source" is a student-written journal aimed at providing students with a trustworthy and understandable resource for their VCE studies. We better than anyone understand that sometimes teachers are unable to explain the key concepts and ideas in a way that students are able to understand. This piece focuses on the idea of "Identity" and how it is made up of what you are a part of, rather than who you are. It is written in relation to the text "Mind of a Thief", including reference from several other sources. We hope that this piece gives you a better understanding of "Identity" and how it is felt by all individuals, from all walks of life.
A sense of identity is something that everyone craves, whether they know it or not. Identity is not something that can be found just within the mind, but something that is dependent on the surroundings or the community of an individual, as identity is not who you are, but what you are a part of. Instead of focusing on themselves, individuals should look to their community and their own life to discover what their identity is made up of.
The story of Patti Miller detailed in her memoir of self-discovery "The Mind of a Thief" demonstrates how identity is truly about what you are a part of, and not who you are. In her memoir Miller describes how she, all of a sudden, found herself with no purpose or sense of identity. In a frenzy, she desperately looks for a connection to something, anything. This in itself illustrates how for everyone identity is really about what you are a part of, for if identity was about who you are then Miller would not have had to search desperately for somewhere where she belonged. Miller is seen by the reader as searching for something to fulfil her identity in several instances. Chronologically, the first instance where Miller attempted to find her own sense of identity was when she travelled to Paris. Miller instantly felt that the European capital was a place that she had an innate connection to. However, as life goes, she had to return home and thus the bond that she had found for herself was tragically severed. Thereafter Miller was lost again. By way of coincidence Miller found another culture to which she could possibly find a link to for herself. When Joyce, a Wiradjuri woman from Miller's hometown of Wellington in country New South Wales, declares to her that "we're cousins", within Miller a spark is instantly lit. After the idea that she could have a true connection to the Australian landscape is put into her mind, it cannot be escaped. In "The Mind of a Thief" Miller desperately searches for something to be a part of to affirm her identity as an Australian. Miller's desperation and her relentless search for something to be a part of shows how identity is really about what you are a part of and not who you are.
In his 2013 film "Charlie's Country" Rolf de Heer tells the tale of an Aboriginal man, Charlie, struggling to navigate the society he finds himself in and trying to reconnect with his traditional, submerged Indigenous culture. Charlie is immediately seen by the audience as both a mysterious and a loveable character, and it is made clear that he is struggling to affirm what makes up his identity when the local police confiscate a spear he had fashioned to use for hunting wild animals for their meat - just as his ancestors had done for millennium past. It is illustrated also in the film that how identity is what you are a part of and not who you are when an ill older man, whom Charlie had previously watched over for a younger man in the community, is put on a plane to fly to Darwin for medical treatment. Charlie watches on, unable to help, astonished that they would fly him away to die in a sterilised environment nothing like the land in which he was born, and which he identified with. Charlie utters under his breath that the man was going to die in the "wrong place". This scene of the film demonstrates quite emotionally that identity is about your land and that which surrounds you, not your mind. For all of the people in Charlie's community in Arnhem Land the land itself is an essential part of their being, as illustrated by Charlie's emotion when the ill, older man is flown off to Darwin and also by the undermining of his cultural heritage when the police confiscate his spear. Most prominently the make-up of a persons identity is shown to consist of what you are a part of when Charlie decides to leave the community and live his life naturally in the bush. The society which had been designed for him by the invading white men proved to be in too harsh a conflict with what affected his identity - the land and the natural way of life that Aboriginal people had lived for many, many years. As such, Charlie had to leave to amend this. The conflict between the way of life that white men wished to live and the way of life that Charlie and those in his community wished to live illustrate how identity is not who you are, but what you are a part of and the surroundings you find yourself in.
Like Charlie in the film "Charlie's Country", Wayne from "The Mind of a Thief" found solace in enveloping himself in his traditional Aboriginal culture. Wayne, similarly to Charlie, had suffered with drug and alcohol addiction throughout many years of his life and it had threatened to steal his life away from him entirely at many points. When he reconnected with his heritage and culture this void in his life - which he had previously filled with the use of drugs and alcohol - was filled with something far more positive. It could be said that before rediscovering where he came from Wayne was suffering from an "identity crisis", and in the process of rediscovering his Aboriginal culture he managed to form an identity for himself. Wayne's identity was not who he was, not his drug and alcohol addiction, not his flawed way of life. Wayne's identity instead was what he was a part of, the fight for control of traditional Wiradjuri lands alongside his people and also the culture itself. For Wayne, his identity was truly what he was a part of and most definitely not the person he once was.
A sense of family and connection to one's past is commonplace among those who seek a sense of identity. Jimmy, a character in Jane Harrison's play "Stolen", exemplifies this through his lamenting that he has "no place of [his] own." Jimmy was stolen from his mother at a very young age as a part of the Stolen Generations and for many years believed he was an orphan. Once he is no longer a boy he discovers that his mother may still be alive, as she had been sending him letters for many years that had all been intercepted by the people who were supposed to be caring for him. Finally he believes that he has a family with which he can identify, as for his whole life he had not been at peace with his own identity because he did not have some thing to be a part of and had only himself for comfort. His tortured childhood resulted in him turning to a life of rebellion and criminality, and when he found himself in prison he was told that his mother had passed away before he had gotten the chance to meet her. Incredibly saddened, he makes the decision to hang himself in his prison cell. The notion that Jimmy could not continue living without the presence of his family and thus a connection that could be a foundation for his identity illustrates tragically that identity is in reality what you are a part of and not who you are, for if identity were about who you are then Jimmy would have had the willpower and the purpose to continue living.
Identity is essential to everybody's way of life, and it is made up of many different things. However, most importantly a sense of identity is made up of what you are a part of and not truly about who you are.
EXPLANATION: In my expository piece posed as a journal article in a student-written journal described as having the purpose of being a "trustworthy and understandable" resource for students, I intended to explore the concept of Identity and Belonging as well as the prompt "Identity is not who you are, but what you are a part of." I did this by posing my expository essay in a creative situation with the purpose of informing students of the concept and how it related to the given prompt. I used the text "The Mind of a Thief" by elaborating and exploring the stories of both Patti Miller and Wayne Carr and the relation of this to the idea that identity is not who you are, but what you are a part of. As stated, my indeed audience is students who are struggling to understand the ideas of the Context, Identity and Belonging. I wrote in a purely informative fashion in order to elaborate upon my intent clearly and without confusing it with any unusual or creative tone.
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