In Steven Herrick's free verse novel "The Simple Gift" Herrick wants the reader to understand how important it is to not be subjective towards people based on the way they look or how they live. In the novel Stephen Herrick's narrative poem demonstrates elements of belonging and acceptance through the pain and suffering of rejection, homelessness and 'dealing with death' by the characters Billy, Caitlin and Old Bill. The Simple Gift illustrates that if you give people a chance, they can surprise you with their outcome and make you a better person.
The protagonist Billy Luckett ventures into the world, leaving home on his own accord. Billy reveals himself as a reject, a thief and a troubled character. The cause of his troubles appears to be from the physical and
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Whilst running away from home, catching a train, uncertain where the train will take him, bad weather, wind and rain causes violent memories of his father "with the forces of a father's punch". The metaphoric term further reveals Billy's abusive living environment and why he is seeking to escape. Whilst aboard the train Billy comes across an influential figure, Ernie. Ernie shows kindness to Billy and let's him stay on his boat going with the train. Billy later on states that he wished his father had qualities like Ernie "There are men like Ernie and there are other men, men like my dad." Ernie's train whistle for the next stop symbolises the beginning of Billy's new life. His next positive role model is Irene, Bendarat’s Librarian, who welcomes him and encourages him to borrow books. However, at first, Billy states that "Her badge says Irene Thompson – Chief Librarian. Trouble I’m sure." But afterwards Billy realises his initial accusations of Irene were
and that we should help those less fortunate than ourselves. In this I essay I have shown how successful the poet was in making me share this view by using his thoughtful and intense language, word-choice and imagery techniques.
In the essay “Returning The Gift” Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about finding your gift and using it to show gratitude toward the earth. Kimmerer implies that we should each find our natural gift in the world and then use it to make the world a better place. Our society has become such a consumption-driven economy that instead of having gratitude we seek to consume more and more rather than being content. Everyday we are given gifts of the earth but fail to give back equal measure for what we take. In order for the Earth to stay imbalanced and to stay positive, and natural gifts to occur we must show our appreciation towards Earth. By showing our appreciation toward Earth we are ensuring a better tomorrow.
He later allows the reader to visualise his town through a description of his street. "Each deadbeat no-hoper shithole lonely downtrodden house in Longlands Road, Nowheresville." This repetition of colloquial negative adjectives expresses Billy's depressing feelings about his home. Billy's undesirable view of his town along with other factors such as being abused by his father aid his decision to leave and discover what else life has to offer. Because of his adverse position Billy decides to leave his town to seek a better life. To do this he becomes a homeless runaway which is his first transition in the
The main character, Tom Tin, faces hardships and struggles many fourteen year olds do not have to face so early on. His father has mistakenly got himself into trouble and it is up to Tom to save his father and help make his family’s future bright again. Tom has good intentions throughout the novel, but he gets himself into trouble. He turns out to be an unlikely hero after pushing through his doubts and finally triumphing over his mistakes along his journey.
us about a character’s (Billy Pilgrim) life during World War two and how Billy coped with
This poem includes quotes with informal language that children or teens would better understand. It’s narrative-based style is easy to follow, and although the poem covers very basic concepts, it’s message is still communicated subliminally. This particular poem is interesting because it focusses on the universal experience of pain and it’s relation to time. Similar to this is “The Householder”, written in a cyclical style, opening with a “house” and ending with a “home”. With only three stanzas, it is
Steven Herrick’s 2001 free verse novel The Simple Gift and the 2009 film The Blind Side directed by John Lee Hancock effectively highlight the importance of stability of place, which could offer comfort, security, and validation. This is reflected both Billy and Michael who had negative experiences within their formative contexts and seek belonging elsewhere in an effort to find the comfort and security of a place, showing that connection to place is a significant factor in achieving belonging.
Billy is used to showing that everything happens because of fate. As a prisoner, Billy has no control over his day to day life. While Billy is in Dresden, the city is bombed, because of luck, only Billy and a few others survive the bombing in a slaughterhouse. The people of Tralfamadore tell Billy that humans do not understand time because everything they do is in singular progression.
E. Cummings creates a critical and intolerant tone. He uses his work to criticize “most people” and how they blindly follow others. Cummings intolerance arises from others critical opinion of not normal people, whom the townspeople of the writing do not acknowledge. The uniqueness of both the main characters in the writing and Cummings is shown by the distinctiveness, inconsistency, and incorrectness of the writing. This tone directly relates to the theme and how anyone and noone are compassionate, caring people who actually recognize the value of life ,but are surrounded by townspeople who just stumble through life without a care or emotion. Cummings uses the seasons, bells, his unique composition and the repetition of “Women and men” and “anyone” to create and emphasize the unfortunate cycle of life. The use of the seasons in lines three,eleven, and thirty-four emphasise the passing of time and the unchanging ways of the townspeople. “Women and men”, in lines five and thirty-three,are used to remind us of Cummings definition of “most people” and how people tend to blend in and follow. The bells in lines two and twenty-four are used to indicate a change in the character 's, the first bell is before love and the second bell is rang before death.These significant life transitions show how love and death are final. life The character “anyone” introduces a person, unlike any others in the town, between him and his
These final words sum up her feeling of helplessness and emptiness. Her identity is destroyed in a way due to having children. We assume change is always positive and for the greater good but Harwood’s poem challenges that embedding change is negative as the woman has gained something but lost so much in return.
Through the view of 16 year old protagonist Billy, the reader is shown his struggles of being a homeless teen. Billy was in a state of homelessness because he ran away from "Nowheresville", and from his abusive father. This is proven on page 10, where in Billy's point of view it states, "The wind and rain hits you in the face with the force of a father's punch..." which implies that Billy knows what the force of a father's punch feels like. His abusive father is one of the main causes for Billy being homeless, and why Billy had hitched a train to Bendarat to start a new life.
The speaker chooses that he wants to be a writer rather than what his father does since he had “…no spade to follow men like them.” The speaker uses emotion to put himself down while praising his elders. The speaker does not retain the meanings or the cravings to live as his family did and decides to use his pen to write instead. The speaker creates art based on his emotion about his family which allows a connection for the audience to relate
As the first poem in the book it sums up the primary focus of the works in its exploration of loss, grieving, and recovery. The questions posed about the nature of God become recurring themes in the following sections, especially One and Four. The symbolism includes the image of earthly possessions sprawled out like gangly dolls, a reference possibly meant to bring about a sense of nostalgia which this poem does quite well. The final lines cement the message that this is about loss and life, the idea that once something is lost, it can no longer belong to anyone anymore brings a sense...
This world and its beliefs provide Billy with a way to escape the mental prison of his mind where even the sound of sirens caused him great distress. From the chronology to the diminishing reaction to the important moments in his life, Billy’s life becomes completely chaotic and meaningless, but he would not prefer any other alternative because this was the only one which was mentally
In doing this, the usher of the church on “Fifth Avenue,” abandoned someone less fortunate in order to maintain a good appearance. This “house of God,” which should be opening its doors to give a he lping hand, turns away a man in need of help. Hughes shows betrayal in the same poem, when the less fortunate man asks St. Peter if he can stay. St. Peter replies, “You ca...