Barriers To Belong In 'The Simple Gift'

Barriers to belong (The Simple Gift)
Experiences
* Billy has experienced growing up in a dysfunctional family. His father is abusive and neglects * Billy feels no regret for leaving his father since there is a lock of love * Billy feels alienated or out of place at school and his community; he hates both- yet billy loves Westfield (he feels at home here) * Billy is estranged from his father because his father is uncaring and abusive * Billy appreciates the hospitality of Ernie and compares him to his father (Ernie is better than his father) * Billy experiences caring and compassion from Ernie who provides him with gifts of food and warmth * Billy experiences a whelming acceptance by the librarian

Aspects |
Textual evidence | Technique | How does the technique convey the idea | Alienated from home and community school (places) | “may you all get well and truly stuffed” pg5“dead beat no-hoper shithole lonely downtrodden house” pg4 | Expletive (swearing, vulgar language)Listing | Indicates his derision with his place of growing up demonstrates his lack of engagement with school like suggest his feelings of contentment | Feels secure at home at Westfield creek (place) | “Westfield’s creek, my favourite classroom”pg6 | Emotive language “favourite” | Suggests his feelings of contentmentConveys his affinity with this place which offers him nurturing and contentment | Detests his father, feels no love, estranged (people) | “the old bastard” | Disrespectful epithet (e.g. name tag) | Conveys his hatred of his father who has never loved him | Appreciates Ernie’s simple gift of hospitality (people) | “Make a cuppa… keep warm”“gave me one hard, backhander… so hard I fell down” | ImperativenessSymbolism of a simple giftContrast | Shoes Ernie’s compassion for a stranger Contrast, earnest and generosity with his father’s neglect and violence | Feels content in the library | “that’s me on the deserted island… in bendarat library” | Metaphor | That he seems isolated and secluded in his own world when he starts reading | Security is provided by a new home | “Carriage 1864... my motel bendarat” | Metaphor | Reflects the irony of his situation where a deserted carriage can be regarded as a home |

Varying over time
Relationships (to people and places)
Relationships to people Billy with old bill | Sharing the hobo hour | Humour/ metaphor | Conveys the comradeship of the homeless- companionship | | Piss off son piss off. Leave me alone | Expletive | Portrays the rejection | | Giving some smokers to “a bum like me” | Coarse, crude or vulgar language | Devalues he’s personal self-esteem emphasising his worthlessness | | I am listening to the saddest man in the word | Superlative | | | Bill had been ‘too busy for sitting down with people I loved. And now I’ve got all the time in the world | Irony | | | Keys | Motif of belonging | | | Two hobos laughing the morning away | | | | I laugh as well sure there’s hope in the world even for hobos like us | | | | I’ll work less on beer for a while. For the kids’ sake. | | | | Don’t worry about the house and its ghosts, I’m taking them with me | | | | I love the house. I said to old bill | | | | I looked up into the sky, the deep that old bill and I shared | | | Billy with Caitlin | And me a badly dressed satellite spinning crazily in her orbit | | Disorienting but pleasant effects of falling in love and feeling adoration devotion | | Green emerald stones mall and shinning like her eyes | Symbols | Represents a token of love acceptance and devotion | | It was like falling headlong into the clear waters… the phosphorescent bubbles of light | | | | The special world and we could float safe for a lifetime lost and hoping never to be found | | | | I hope for someone to talk to look in the eye and knowing they will look back | | | | It was like falling headlong into the clear water of the bendarat river | simile | | Caitlin with billy | Goodnight Caitlin | Salutation | Familiarity naming emphasises the need to be known | | Did you know that Caitlin… meaning pure and innocent? | Rhetorical question | Portrays how billy trues to form basic connections with Caitlin | | Business card unemployed friend | Irony-humour | Appropriates the conventional ways in which we identify and introduce ourselves | | It was like stepping into heaven. No less than perfect. You should take something, a gift, when you go visiting | | | | I looked at Caitlin and liked what I saw | | True friendship without the veneers, facade | | Not able to be bought in any damn store | | Friendship is not a commodity, it can’t be purchased | | We really did just sleep together contest to waste the hours close | Qualifier- just or confiding tone | | | His favourite the grapes of wrath and the honour of poverty | Literary allusion | | Caitlin with others | Feel like a real dork | Colloquial language | Reveals her estrangement from her peers when her father’s money establishes her as different | Billy with his abusive father (not belonging) | He slammed the door on my childhood | metaphor | | | Drink this to celebrate your son leaving home | | | | Reference to the ‘old bastard’ | Expletive language | | Billy with Ernie | Make a cuppa keep warm | | | | There are me like Ernie… men who share… and there are other men like my dad | | | With the librarian | You can borrow that if you like… call me Irene, I’m old but not that old | | |

Relationships to places The family home | The place has never looked so rundown and beat | Derisive tone (putting something sown) | Reflects billy’s lack of emotional connection to a home that has provided no love | | Caitlin- this ugly 5 bedroom million dollar brick box | | | School – not belonging | Billy luckett rhymes with | Defiant tone | Conveys billy’s lack of connection or engagement with his school experience | Westfield creek | I love this place, l love the flow of cold clear water over the rocks | Anaphora/ desctiptive language | | | Silver- eyes currawongs.
Kookaburras laughing | | | | My favourite classroom | metaphor | | The railway carriage | Carriage 1864 … my motel bendarat | Metaphor/ humour | Emphasise through irony the need for a place of security in order to belong | | A warm safe little cave… billy’s cave | Metaphor | Emphasising the tranquillity and sanctuary felt towards his little “cave” | | Living in this carriage is special, its mine | | | Old bill’s home | Bendarat Hilton | Metaphor/ humour | | | (his family home) the paint jobs of a thousand everyday dreams | | | | As old bill introduces billy to his family home. The swallows celebrating a birth in the nest above the veranda | Bird motif | | | Watching the swallows swoop and play | | | Bendarat | Bendarat is the perfect town. A friendly librarian, a warm McDonald, luxury train accommodation | Listing | Reveals the requirement for security | Bendarat river | Bendarat laundry | Metaphor/ humour | |

Identity – requires: others to value you, your own self esteem – how you regard yourself * Being homeless changes billy’s
identity Notions of identity | Textual evidence | Technique | Explanation | Changes in identity – his lowered status | “me, the bum” | | | | “I’m poor, homeless but I’m not stupid” | | | Billy | Unemployed friend | Image of a business card | | Old bill | A bum like me | | Reveals his low self esteem | Old bill | A bums stumbling memory | | |

Acceptance
Acceptance is an aspect of belonging which requires both the individual and society’s involvement.
It also requires: * Degrees of tolerance of diverse cultures, values and personalities * Mutual respect or regard * Compromise * Participation and interaction
In the simple gift Bill does not seek or find acceptance in his home town (due to the effects of an abusive upbringing) and leaves to find a better world. He chooses the life of a homeless and fins acceptance in the town of Bendarat. Bendarat society is represented by Irene the librarian, Old Bill and Caitlin. Conversely Billy accepts Old Bill and Caitlin who are both in need of meaning in life. Lack of acceptance | | | | | Billy is alienated from parental love and from other relationship as a result of abuse | | Beginning Billy seeks acceptance through relationships with Old bill –quoteCaitlin – quoteIrene – quoteThey reciprocate and accept him for the unique and compassionate person he is – quoteEndBilly has found acceptance through the exchange of love with Caitlin – “Through the gift of the house (key) from old bill – quotes | | | Old Bill has turned his back on society as he can’t find acceptance without his family | | Old bill seeks acceptance back into society (rehabilitation) be reconciling his grief – “look at me now, I’m following this kid” | | | Caitlin can’t find acceptance within her parents wold; their aspirations and meaningless consumerism | | Caitlin finds acceptance through her love for Billy which she sees as providing meaning, interdependence and hope for the future | | |

Understanding

Barriers to belonging Aspects | Textual evidence | Technique | How the technique conveys the idea | Billy’s fathers abuse creates a barrier to belonging | | | | Grief – old bill | Thinking of my darling Jessie | Confiding tone | | | Piss it (money) all away | Slang | | | I called for another (beer) as all thoughts of truth and beauty washed from my mind | Despondent (sad, dry) tone | | | | | | Tragedy – old bill | Took to the tree with an axe. I was there for hours mad with rage and pain… | Emotive words | | | I fell with her and I’ve been falling ever since | Metaphor | | | My wife died of signing the form (taking Jessie off life support). She died of making me sign more that she died of driving drunk… | Sad tone or irony | | | | | |