“Our sense of self is influenced by our interactions with our environment”
The interactions a person encounters are an essential part in the formation of identity. In Peter Skrzynecki’s poem, Feliks Skrzynecki, a linguistic barrier between the father and son is present due to persona, Peter’s lack of cultural identity. The poem examines the relationship with his father explores how he has a constantly changing identity as he encounters his surroundings. Similarly, in Postcard, the persona’s identity is altered through the interactions he has with the environment around him. Using his poems, the poet attempts to establish that one’s identity is shaped from the difficulties they go through.
Feliks Skrzynecki highlights how identity is formed
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The postcard is the stimulus for the persona’s continuous pursuit of his identity. He has a dynamic identity which constantly changes throughout the poem, as he can neither identify himself as Australian, nor Polish like his parents. The ever-changing nature and absence of a fixed identity is conveyed through the personification, “I never knew you/Except in the third person”. The poet does not have any recollection of life in Poland, but is constantly reminded of it through the postcard which symbolises the connection between the past and how it has an impact in shaping his identity. The psychological barrier hindering his attempt to form a concrete identity is the interactions with his past, forming uncertainty in whether he should reject or accept his Polish identity. The uncertainty of his identity is embodied in the rhetoric, “What’s my choice/To be”, highlighting his sense of self is altered through the connections he finds with the past. The undeniable attraction of his cultural identity is established through the monosyllabic plosive, “let me be”, whose tone suggests that the poet is weary from battling this attraction. Self-doubt plays a major factor as Skrzynecki’s opinions are swayed through his interactions with the past and those around him. Due to this, he initially attempts to