Belonging: Speech
I want you to do something for me, I want you to think of your parents, now in the same thought put yourself there. Tell me, what have you inherited from your parents, is it just their physical appearance or is it their way of thinking also. What if I were to tell you that it’s something much more, that each and every one of us, have inherited our parents sense of belonging or not belonging.
This hereditary trait if you will, is revealed in such texts as Bruce Dawes ‘Lifecycle’, where young children inherit belonging to football. The movie “Ace Ventura 3” as belonging is present in the Ventura family by saving animals. And Cat Stevens’s song “Father and Son” which tells a story of a son thinking he belongs somewhere other than home. These texts all have belonging passed down from generation to generation.
You all know “Lifecycle”, a poem by Bruce Dawe, that runs football parallel to religion. Football is the centre of belonging for the newborn children. In the opening line “When children are born in Victoria they are wrapped in the club-colours”, it displays the use of hyperbole to emphasis the strength of the inherit belonging to a football club. A simile is used in “they break surface and are forever lost, their minds rippling out like streamers”, this shows the day the young children are committed into the cult of football, just like their parents before them. This belonging to their football club is also seen in, “they will not grow as those from the Northern States grow old”, this allusion to Ode To The Fallen highlights the fact that Southern states have an inherited belonging to football that cannot be rivaled by the Northern States that just follow a team for the sake of it.
“Ace Ventura 3” like “Lifecycle” has an immense connection to belonging being inherited. Directed by David Evans the movie is based around Ace Jr, a 12 year old boy that feels a kinship to saving animals, having never meet or told about his father, who was once a great Pet Detective, it can be seen that his belonging to saving animals has been inherited. Ace Jr repeatedly, throughout the film, uses mannerisms and idioms of his father, such as “Allllrighty Then” and the simile “Like a glove”. Having never heard his father, these saying are completely inherited and give Ace Jr belonging to the Ventura family. Visual puns are used in conjunction, which include Ace Jr having a comb over and wearing Hawaiian shirts. Once again these are his father’s trademarks in the two previous films. Ace Jr’s belonging of being a Pet Detective, has completely without question, come from his father’s genes therefore being inherited.
We can see another parent-child relationship similar to Ace Ventura 3, in Cat Steven’s, “Father and Son”, a song off his 1970 album “Tea For The Tillerman”. The song is a running commentary of a conversation of a son that wants to leave home and the father pressuring him to stay. The father of course knows what the son is going through, with his doubts of not belonging, due to the fact that is was passed down and inherited. The line “I was once like you are now” is a simile that alludes to this. Also repetition is used with the word “stay” describing the thoughts of the father about the son’s plight. The last line of the song “Look at me I am old but I’m happy” juxtaposes happiness with age, Cat Stevens does this, to signify that the Sons sense of belonging, develops with age just like his fathers.
This sense of belonging is therefore hereditary, both in this song, Ace Ventura 3 and Lifecycle, as well as all of us in this room now. We have inherited our sense of belonging.
