Themes of the story:Identity, heritage, racism and prejudice are the main themes of the story. Billy/William is strugglingbetween two identities as the names show. William Jacob is the white boy doing well in school,being a great football player and an talented artist. Billy is the aboriginal boy who left his pastwithout looking back, being hated in the eyes of his own people for trying to be somebody else.Even though no matter how he acts, his skin will always be black and his eyes brown.He is raised by aborigines, so he will always be affected by the black heritage. He is raised in thiscertain way, and even though he tries escaping it, he will not succeed. While the heritage affectshim, the people around him will also judge him because of his looks. The story proves that peoplewill always be prejudice towards him, even though he tries his hardest to become white. He will bereminded of his past every time a black aboriginal looks him in his eyes.The racism towards aboriginals is very extreme in this society. All the aboriginals look like drunkenbastards, and it’s almost impossible to escape the stereotypes. That’s why the government andpolice are trying to stop the aboriginals committing crimes - ALL of them, even the innocent ones.The Past:The Past is a poem about a man sitting in suburbia, in a home with an electric heater. He falls intodream about his past, where he was sitting in the nature in front of a campfire. He is probably alsoan aboriginal who has moved away from his camp. He describes that he’s (..) haunted by tribalmemories, which could indicate his aboriginal past. Also seeming that he has this aboriginal past isthe quote; (..) But a thousand thousand camp fires in the forest - Are in my blood. The man in “ThePast”, and Billy from “Going Home” both have an identity crisis. They are aboriginals and belongin the forest, but the live in the white man’s modern world. The differences between these two arethat Billy does not miss his past, but the man in “The Past” does.