The curative nature of relationships to revalidate and renourish an individual’s sense of belonging through personal growth is featured in the verse novel The Simple Gift (2000) by Steven Herrick, Lasse Hallstrom’s film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993) and Mitch
Albom’s prose fiction, For One More Day (2006). The texts endorse the remedial impact of positive relationships in bearing fruition to the individual’s familial and social belonging through a validation of their self worth.
In The Simple Gift, Billy and Caitlyn escape familial turmoil and superficiality for genuine relationships, whilst Old Bill’s new found friendships and reconciliation with his traumatised past witnesses the remedial impact of relationships upon the individual’s esteem and belonging. In “The Hobo Hour”, Billy’s rekindled faith encourages …show more content…
Here, negative connotations from the aural kinaesthetic imagery “bottle crash…” and the visual imagery “morning/but still dark”, metaphorically conceptualises the emotional penumbra between Billy and Old
Bill. Yet, the juxtaposition with “the sunrise/sharing the hobo hour”, infers a sense of unity and belonging, through positive connotations and alliteration, founded upon a growing and authentic bond between the Billy and Old Bill. This is abetted by the reciprocated friendship, acting to validate and nourish each other’s self value and sense of belonging.
In the exposition, Old Bill’s acceptance of his past and personal growth is fostered through the positive encouragement of Billy’s and Caitlyn’s friendship, exemplifying the hope for a renourished sense of self through belonging. Here, he orchestrates a rejection of his pained past with visual simile “my memory/flickered and grew dim/like the cigarette” coupled with personified metaphor and tactile imagery of “in the cold night