Belonging

Belonging is a complex, multi-faceted concept that highlights the inherent desire to feel connection with our peers. Belonging has the ability to transcend all social and cultural constraints, with the sense of social inclusion and exclusion colouring the manner in which individuals perceive themselves and their surrounds. Inclusion within a society can develop a procedure of education and knowledge and it is through this process that individuals may come to apprehend that they may not exhibit the appropriate characteristics to inhabit the social facet of their choice. From this it can be suggested that the notion of belonging is an evolutionary process of self-discovery, resulting in residents of a community discovering their social identity, conforming to the dominant paradigms, or remaining true to their individuality creating a sense of inclusion or segregation through the various journeys they partake. I have arrived at this understanding of belonging through the study of Emily Dickinson’s ‘A Narrow Fellow in the Grass’ and ‘A Word dropped careless on a Page,’ and through Margaret Atwood’s, ‘A Handmaid’s Tale.’ ‘A Narrow Fellow in the Grass’ explores belonging through the natural world, within this poem one may notice Dickinson utilising the imagery of a snake to illustrate how acceptance constantly evolves and develops. Within ‘A Word dropped careless on a Page,’ Dickinson demonstrates the effects of one simple word upon future contextual developments on communities many centuries to come, and through this, it can be understood that approval can be defined as an aspect that has evolved both contextually and generationally. Atwood’s, ‘A Handmaid’s Tale,’ suggests that members of a community may be deceived into believing they are acknowledged when they do not, and they can only come to this understanding through a journey. The statement put forward in the query is plausible, belonging is immortal and I believe these texts illustrate the notion of belonging...