Premium Essay

The Simple Gift

In:

Submitted By FionaAlek
Words 981
Pages 4
Understanding nourishes belonging… a lack of understanding prevents it.
Demonstrate how your prescribed text and ONE other related text of your own choosing represent this interpretation of belonging.
Belonging is primarily about acceptance and developing a connection and identity. Belonging implies an understanding of the needs of the individual and the group and negotiating a way towards acceptance of those needs. Conversely, exclusion emerges when the individual and the group fail to understand each other. Steven Herrick’s “The Simple Gift” is the story of three protagonists who develop friendships and ultimately change their perceptions of self. Comparatively, John Duigan’s “The Year My Voice Broke” explores how the relationships of two people help each other reform their identity.
Belonging is about acceptance and developing a connection and identity. In Herrick’s “The Simple Gift”, Old Bill finds his acceptance when he develops a connection with Billy and Caitlin. The first person narration in ‘for the first few hours/I hadn’t thought of anything/but how pleasant it was/to sit with these people/and to talk to them’ demonstrates to the reader the depth and effortlessness of their friendship. This sense of belonging reforms Old Bill’s identity because it gives him confidence to come out of his shell. Herrick juxtaposes Old Bill’s perception of self as an “old drunk” and his new identity as a member of the community. The visual imagery in “his grey bread was stained with smoke, his hair long and swept back” allows the reader to picture an old man, dirty and broken down. This contrasts with the colloquial language in ‘These people nod and say hello, as though I’m one of them/ not an old drunk’, which shows that he is no longer ostracized from the community. Herrick shows that belonging is a process whereby individuals develop a connection and define

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Simple Gift Model

...The Simple Gift – Essay model A person’s relationship with others and the world around them influences their experience of belonging or not belonging. Discuss this view with detailed reference to The Simple Gift and TWO other related texts. Relationships and experiences contribute to an individual’s sense of belonging or not belonging. This view is clearly evident in The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick and the two related texts _______________ and __________________. The Simple Gift explores the characters of Billy, Caitlin and Old Bill. At the beginning each character feels a sense of not belonging, but this changes as their relationships with each other develop. Billy feels like he doesn’t belong in his world. He is neglected and abused by his father which is conveyed in the poem ‘Sport’. Billy expresses his father’s aggression through the line, ‘gave me one hard backhander across the face, So hard I fell down.’ He also shows his contempt for school in the poem ‘Wentworth High School’ when he begins to sign his name ‘Billy Luckett rhymes with…..’ The only place Billy does experience a sense of belonging is expressed in the poem ‘Westfield Creek’, which he describes as ‘my favourite classroom.’ The language used in this poem is much more positive. Billy’s relationship with Bendarat gives him a sense of belonging, that is carried through in his relationship with Caitlin and Old Bill. At first Billy doesn’t feel he belongs, he uses alliteration to express his preference...

Words: 767 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Simple Gift Review

...Steven Herrick’s The Simple Gift was published in 2004 by Simon Pulse. The story focuses on Billy, who is sixteen years old and living in Australia. Billy’s father is abusive. To escape familial turmoil, Billy hops on a freight train and settles in a small town. For his trip, he packs his school bag, cigarettes and alcohol, and says goodbye to his dog. Billy gets on a train going west in a rain storm. He ends up at an old railroad town called Bendarat. He is a survivor and figures out how to find food and keep clean. His homeless condition is a status that he accepts, and yet he also prides himself with his street smarts, which enable him to survive. He meets and falls in love with Caitlin whose life could not be any more different from Billy’s homeless life. She is from a wealthy family and largely dissatisfied with her life. Billy also becomes friends with Old Bill, a homeless drunk. He shows Billy how to earn money. Caitlin notices that Billy takes the leftovers off the tables in a McDonald’s and seeks to learn more about him. She has the menial job of mopping floors there. His compassion is a welcome change for Caitlin. This is the third novel that Herrick has written in free verse. The chapters are marked by the characters’ names. In the eleven chapters, each chapter begins with a brief extract from one of the poems within the chapter. A black-and-white image appears with the quotation and captures the essence of the section. The free verse poems are told by the three...

Words: 356 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

The Simple Gift Belonging Analysis

...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...

Words: 1054 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Steven Herrick's Novel The Simple Gift

...Being poor and homeless are well-addressed topics is Steven Herrick’s novel ‘The Simple Gift’. Billy, the main character, who has run away from home and his abusive father, has little money. He gets a job at a cannery and for a brief amount of time, casually works there. In the poem ‘Rich’, Billy is conflicted with the sudden money he has earned. In ‘Rich’, Billy feels unsure of what he should do with his money. He remarks that he is ‘worrying over choices (he) didn’t have to make a week ago’. Billy feels obligated to spend the money quickly, so that he has no more big decisions to make. He wants to go back to the freedom of carelessness, the freedom of being poor. Billy realises how Old Bill, another homeless character who influences...

Words: 360 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

The Simple Gift/Way Home Belonging Essay

...The idea of Belonging is a dynamic and essential aspect of life through an individual’s portrayal of identity, place, relationship and acceptance, it is also dependant on the person’s perception of what belonging is defined as. The free-verse novel ‘The Simple Gift’ written by Steven Herrick and picture book ‘Way Home’ composed by Libby Hathorn convey these different dimensions of belonging through characters and context. Both main characters of the texts share the same themes of homelessness and connections through people and even unusual materials consisting of personal things and places. The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick explores many aspects of how belonging is portrayed. Herrick composes the free verse novel through the perspectives of 3 main characters including Billy, Old Bill and Caitlin which gives the audience an insight of each person’s unique perspectives. The main protagonist Billy Luckett is illustrated as a 16 year old runaway who experiences abuse from his father and seeks to find his identity and form bonds with the other characters and unique places. Regarding this, Old Bill nicknames the freight carriages as The Bendarat Hilton in which Billy and him dwell in to create a sense of belonging which is not necessarily theirs and also creates a broader symbol of belonging through Billy’s quote “and I looked up into the sky, the deep blue sky that Old Bill and I shared” symbolising that belonging reaches beyond boundaries. Billy also explains through soliloquy how...

Words: 1081 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Afedxgcvnhbmnjbhvgcfxdxfcbgvnb

...The Simple Gift – Essay model A person’s relationship with others and the world around them influences their experience of belonging or not belonging. Discuss this view with detailed reference to The Simple Gift and TWO other related texts. Relationships and experiences contribute to an individual’s sense of belonging or not belonging. This view is clearly evident in The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick and the two related texts _______________ and __________________. The Simple Gift explores the characters of Billy, Caitlin and Old Bill. At the beginning each character feels a sense of not belonging, but this changes as their relationships with each other develop. Billy feels like he doesn’t belong in his world. He is neglected and abused by his father which is conveyed in the poem ‘Sport’. Billy expresses his father’s aggression through the line, ‘gave me one hard backhander across the face, So hard I fell down.’ He also shows his contempt for school in the poem ‘Wentworth High School’ when he begins to sign his name ‘Billy Luckett rhymes with…..’ The only place Billy does experience a sense of belonging is expressed in the poem ‘Westfield Creek’, which he describes as ‘my favourite classroom.’ The language used in this poem is much more positive. Billy’s relationship with Bendarat gives him a sense of belonging, that is carried through in his relationship with Caitlin and Old Bill. At first Billy doesn’t feel he belongs, he uses alliteration to express his preference to...

Words: 767 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

5 Love Language

...to provide enough positive affirmation of a partner's self-worth to motivate that person towards even more personal growth. By telling a partner or friend or co-worker how much you appreciate his or her efforts, you are speaking in a language he or she can understand. The second of the five love languages involves spending quality time with a loved one. This means setting aside a meaningful amount of personal time in which the friend or partner receives your complete and undivided attention. The idea is to have substantial conversations with another person, or take the time to indulge in a mutual interest, such as a movie or a hobby. Quality time can build up intimacy and trust in any relationship, romantic or otherwise. Receiving gifts is the third component of Chapman's love languages. Almost everyone enjoys receiving...

Words: 1459 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Business and Bribes

...Socheat Bourg Engl 110 Business and gifts. To start it is important to know what is a bribe. A bribe it is an amount of money given illegally to some one in return for a done favour. In certain countries, it is common to give cash gifts during business interactions. Some people would say these gifts are bribes and are dishonest. Others would say it's just a part of doing business in a culture. In the case of work it is possible to think, offer a gift during business meal is not a bribes. Therefore to describe it lets develop three different points, we will see in first it is possible to offer gifts in certain culture, then that depends on the amount of money invests in the gift, and for finish it is a simple way to thank a company or a person with whom you worked. Firstly it is possible to offer gifts in certain culture. Indeeed in certain cultures, the exchanges of gifts are necessary to conclude from the business, these practices are very present, and are very well seen in certain countries as in Italy. It is thus very important to differentiate two various categories of gifts: gifts offered by interest in the goal to sign a contract, and the gifts of thanks. One also gives presents quite simply because of being in our culture to do it, to maintain the good relationships with the customers and the business. Secondly according to the people the gift should not exceed a certain amount of money. Indeed some suggest that the value of a gift should not exceed the equivalent...

Words: 524 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Business and Bribes

...Socheat Bourg Engl 110 Business and gifts. To start it is important to know what is a bribe. A bribe it is an amount of money given illegally to some one in return for a done favour. In certain countries, it is common to give cash gifts during business interactions. Some people would say these gifts are bribes and are dishonest. Others would say it's just a part of doing business in a culture. In the case of work it is possible to think, offer a gift during business meal is not a bribes. Therefore to describe it lets develop three different points, we will see in first it is possible to offer gifts in certain culture, then that depends on the amount of money invests in the gift, and for finish it is a simple way to thank a company or a person with whom you worked. Firstly it is possible to offer gifts in certain culture. Indeeed in certain cultures, the exchanges of gifts are necessary to conclude from the business, these practices are very present, and are very well seen in certain countries as in Italy. It is thus very important to differentiate two various categories of gifts: gifts offered by interest in the goal to sign a contract, and the gifts of thanks. One also gives presents quite simply because of being in our culture to do it, to maintain the good relationships with the customers and the business. Secondly according to the people the gift should not exceed a certain amount of money. Indeed some suggest that the value of a gift should not exceed the equivalent...

Words: 524 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Belonging Speech

...Belonging speech 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...

Words: 1127 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Gift Of The Magi Sacrifice

...At what point does kindness devolve into self-sacrifice, when it is a simple gift of money or the loss of the most important items owned? O. Henry tells a fascinating tale in his work, “The Gift of the Magi”, about a coincidence in which a couple each trades their most valuable possessions to buy something for one another. Each of the gifts that they purchased happened to only be useful when their significant other has their most valuable possession. “The Gift of the Magi” leads to a deeper meaning about the interaction of social classes, showing the cruxes of the lower classes. Starting from the beginning of the story, references are made to the wealth of the main characters. When Della began to count her money, she came to the conclusion of how little she actually owns, “One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all.” The short story’s first two sentences, simple, but telling, go far in describing the social class of the lead characters. From this small piece of information, it is revealed that money is difficult to acquire. Following these opening sentences, the rest of the story recapitulates this idea throughout, “shabby little couch”, “Pier-glass”, and the “mendicancy squad”. O. Henry uses this distinction of class to emphasize the...

Words: 590 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Trust

...A/B Trusts An A/B Trust is any type of trust that splits into two separate and distinct trusts upon the death of the grantor. One of the separate and distinct trusts is a Credit Shelter Trust, which is designed to hold as much of the grantor's property as is sheltered from the federal estate tax by virtue of the unified credit; i.e., $2,000,000 for decedent's dying in years 2006, 2007, and 2008, and $3,500,000 for decedent's dying in the year 2009. The other separate and distinct trust is a Marital Trust, which is designed to hold the remainder of the decedent's property, which is sheltered from the federal estate tax by virtue of the unlimited marital deduction. These separate and distinct trusts are designed to eliminate or reduce the federal estate tax liability of a married couple over the deaths of both spouses. An A/B Trust arrangement can be created under a living trust or a testamentary trust, since these provisions do not take effect until after the grantor's death. See "Credit Shelter Trusts" and "Marital Trusts." See also "Family Trusts" and "By-Pass Trusts." Back to Table of Contents     Asset Protection Trusts An "Asset Protection Trust" is a type of trust that is designed to protect assets from the claims of creditors. There are two types of Asset Protection Trusts - a Domestic Asset Protection Trust (also known as an "Onshore Trust" or "DAPT") and a Foreign Asset Protection Trust (also known as an "Offshore Trust"). Both types of trusts are also referred to...

Words: 3639 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Chapter 1

...especially when things are given to them or personalized items, consequently our group decided to do the project, mug printing. We also chose this business because of its nature, which we can show and express our artistic side. We decided to do this project because it can be bought at different times. Mugs printing have multiple uses. They can be gifts, which you will offer to someone dear, can be used as promotional materials that will be offered for free for you clients, or as a marketing tool. A business mugs printed is a simple way to increase our income with a little investment. We can buy the necessary tool to print such objects and then we can develop this idea into a multitude of incredible possibilities. 1.2 General Description Mugs printing mean that you print on a mug certain images, logos of businesses, certain names, or you can simply personalize it with certain details. In this project the consumer will have the opportunity to design as they wish to design, they just need to explain the design and they can also put their photos or names. People love to make use of a product, especially if it was given as a gift from someone. Mug artwork is inkjet printer using special dye-sublimation inks and transfer paper. The transfer paper is only a temporary stop for the printed image. Once printed, the transfer paper is wrapped around and affixed to the mug or other dye-sublimation product. The image on the transfer paper is actually mirrored or backwards because...

Words: 2290 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Dowry

...marriage or to any other person at or before [or any other time after the marriage] in connection with the marriage of the said parties'. As per this definition, gifts of jewelry, clothes and cash traditionally given by the groom's family would also be covered by the anti-dowry law and hence declared illegal.  Introduction The types of property included in a dowry vary tremendously depending on the economic circumstances of the families involved and the customary expectations of the society. A woman's dowry might include personal possessions (such as clothing and jewels), money, servants, or land.  THE CONCEPT OF DOWRY IN DIFFERENT RELIGIONS Dowry (Dhaaj) is prohibited in every religion which cant affordable for the bridel’s family or more value demanding or asking form the Groom’s family.  DOWRY In Islam There is nothing called ‘Dowry’ in Islam a Muslim father does not have to bother for dowry . On the contrary, Islam enjoins the groom to give a ‘Bridal-Gift’ or ‘Dower’ as a token of love and assurance to his wife at the time of marriage. The practice of dowry among ignorant Muslims is a result of the influence of the evil practices of the society they live in. Islam does not put any financial burden on the father of the girl. A Muslim father is told to get her daughter married away in a most simple ‘Nikah’ ceremony solemnized by a ‘Qazi’ (priest) in a mosque)  The Holy Qur’an instructs the believers "And give the women (whom...

Words: 1041 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Simple Gitf

...Standard English Assessment Task “Composers create texts that deal with the way people come to feel a sense of belonging when they make connections with places or other people.” Belonging is a complex concept that is shaped by our interactions and experiences with people, groups and communities. It is evident that we can develop a strong need and desire to belong and our ability to achieve this is shaped by our behaviours attitudes and actions. This notion is evident in the novel, The Simple Gift composed by Steven Herrick. Where Herrick demonstrates many concepts of belonging, one being the need to belong to a group or a community shapes our behaviour, attitudes and actions. Herrick conveys this through the perspectives of Billy, Old Bill and Caitlin. In Steven Herrick’s novel ‘A Simple Gift’, he uses various techniques to portray belonging or the lack of belonging. We accompany Billy as he meets great role models which serve to inspire him thoughout the novel. Ernie's train whistle symbolises the beginning of Billy's new life contrasted favourably by Ernie’s accepting and helpful attitude. Ernie give Billy his first taste of hope in mankind, whilst allowing Billy to feel acceptance. His next positive role model is Irene, Bendarat’s Librarian, who welcomes him and encourages him to borrow books and broaden his mind, Irene accepts Billy immediately a helps him at stages of the story. A great technique used in the novel is Multiple Narrators, as the characters of Billy...

Words: 677 - Pages: 3