Good morning/Afternoon teachers and students today I will be showing you how a sense of belonging or not belonging greatly influences an individual’s identity. A change in identity occurs when belonging is found through meaningful, intimate relationships, with senses of place, community, safety and familiarity. The free verse novel, The Simple Gift, composed by Steven Herrick, the dramatic fairy tale film, Edward Scissor hands, directed and created by Tim Burton and the novel Matilda composed by Roald Dahl, all explore the concepts of belonging and relationships through the strong use of literary techniques; and focus on a changing Identity as a base for belonging. All texts have significantly different perspectives of belonging and identity. Edward yearns to belong and become part of society’s conformity and routine, whereas Billy aspires to a life of solitude and self-reliance and Matilda tries to belong somewhere in her life.
Billy is a misfit in high school, having no significant relationships and a heartless abusive father, the ‘old bastard’. Before he embarks on journey for belonging, it is evident that he lacks a sense of belonging at home and in his community. Billy describes his home house as ‘Deadbeat no hoper shithole lonely downtrodden house in Long lands road, Nowheresville’. This string of informal negative description emphasizes Billy’s emotional isolation and dislocation within his community. His missing sense of belonging gives him the identity of an outcast, which proves belonging or not belonging greatly influences an individuals’ identity.
Billy’s escape from his town, Nowheresville to Bendarat coincides with his discovery of relationships, acceptance and nourishment from strangers. Herrick has used the characterization of Billy’s father figures to portray his desire to belong. When Billy first escapes his town, and we first see the weather motif, mirroring Billy’s belonging to place, the rain is personified as Billy