Belonging to a group of community can provide opportunities and disappointments. Belonging is described as being properly or appropriately placed .
The poems in the free verse“The simple gift” demonstrate the ideas and struggles of belonging. The novel is simply the journey of a young man by the name of Billy and his hunger to belong to a society which will not disappoint him as his father has .The film gran torino directed by Clint eastwood also shows the opportunities and disappointments allowed by belonging to a community.The main character of “The simple gift” billy is unsatisfied with his original community which he sees as a disappointment that he was a part of ,“ ….shithole lonely downtrodden house in long lands road ,Nowheresville” vulgar language used in “shithole” emphasizes the extent of billys dislike and disappointment towards long lands road. This ends up wilth billy taking control and moving out.
Even with out many resources billy manages to gather a feeling of belonging in his new found town of Bendarat .Encountering opportunities along the way. Such as his encounter with Ernie the friendly train driver“There are men like Ernie and there are men like my dad”, the use of juxtaposition of billys dad and Ernie creates contrast and emphasizes Billy’s like for Ernie’s character and value.The main reason for billys like of earnie is that ernie makes billy feel like he belongs.
Billy has an initial feeling of worthlessness and a lack of control over his destiny “ wait for the three whistles to dump me in another State”. the negative verb emphasizes billys low self worth and lack of emotional support in his community. This is one example of how belonging to the wrong community can lead to disappointments.Korean war veteran walt Kowalski struggles to cope following the death of his wife Walt faces a challenge belonging in his hometown as the Hmong people have moved in to his previously white neighborhood. Walt is not very keen on this happening naming the Hmongs “swamp rats” emphasizing how unusual It is for Walt to have to live in a non white society.
This highlights his racial prejudices due to his experience at warWhile Walts initial disappointment of loosing his wife was tragic for him it also lead to opportunities for him to create a bond with a people he never though he could “ I have more in common with these gooks than my own damn family“, the use of strong adjectives such as “damn” emphasize the difference between the hongs(gooks) and Walts family emphasises walts surprise to how people he formerly thought were so different to him had things in common with him.having common grounds is a crutial part of feeling like you belong to someone or something .Both texts explore on the concept of belonging after a tragedy or series of tragedies. With Billy it is his need to feel like he is wanted Billys father is the main reason for him wanting to leave bendarat. Billys father causes alienation and isolation “slammed the door on my sporting childhood.” the verp slammed ephasise the emotional stress billy had to endure because of his abusive father.
In walts case the tragedy is the death of his wife, the initial response to the death of his wife for walt was bitterness towards all the people in his life especially his hmong neighbors.“Relax, Zipperhead.” the derogatory term zipperhead emphasizes walts disregard for the hmong people.Once common ground is covered when both walt and billy start to feel positive effects of belonging to a community.
Billy relates to his carriage that he lived in at the station once he arrived at bendarat .“It was like a little cave, a warm, safe little cave.” the repition of the phrase little cave highlights billys feeling of security and belonging to the carriage. Billy also shares a moment with old bill when billy offers him a packet of cigarettes.
We shared the hobo hour” the metaphor of the hobo hour emphasises that two people whom have a common thing with is lack of wealth creating a sense of belonging can share a pack of cigarettes.In walts case it is when yum yum calls walt funny , walt is taken back and surprised “ve been called a lot of things but never funny” yums impression of walt is different to other people who assume walt to be a grumpy old man. This causes walt to talk highly of yumyum “very nice girl” the adjective very ,highlighting how her remark had made him feel as if he was not just another stranger but infact someone who was starting to belong.Billy and walt find themselves liking and even feeling protective of there new found community towards the ends of the texts. “And I would like to leave my gran torino to my friend Tao” .
the word friend is a description of the realtionship built up by Tao. From a kid who tried to steal from him to a friend is a big step and Walt is comfortable as he felt like he found a community he belonged to due to tao and his sister.Billy learns that belonging reaches above boundarys “I looked up into the sky, the deep blue sky that Old Bill and I shared.” the symbolism of the sky wich can be seen from any place shows a common thing that both billy and old bill share no matter how far away they get from each other.Both texts gran torino and the simple gift start of with a negative aspect to belonging to a community but in the end highlights the positive aspects of belonging, with gran torino it is walts sacrifice for tao and his family and for billy it is the love he found with Caitlin and his developed sense of belonging to bendarat and his increased self worth
