BELONGING

BY ERIC BRIGGS

THE SIMPLE GIFT

In The Simple Gift, it starts off with Billy running away from home because he feels that he doesn’t belong in ‘Longlands Road’. Due to a broken home and a bad relationship with his abusive father, Billy is left feeling alone and needing to find belonging in the world. In the poem ‘Respect’, Billy sais that “it feels strange sleeping in a bed again”. After all the time Billy has spent being homeless, he is able to find a familiar feel to how his life was before he left ‘longlands road’. There is a very strong sense of belonging between Billy and Old Bill, Billy being the only friend Old Bill has had in a very long time, and Old bill playing a sort of father figure to Billy. Billy found belonging through Old Bill due to the severe circumstances they were both in. Billy overcame his issues and experienced true belonging. The concept I have chosen is in order to achieve true belonging, you must overcome the problems you have standing in your way. This is shown in my representation by the man climbing up the ‘mountain’ and as he gets higher and overcomes his problems, he gets closer to experiencing belonging. In the same way, Billy left home and as he sorted his life out and started to overcome his problems, he experiences true belonging.

THE MATRIX

In The Matrix, Neo spends his time living alone as a hacker looking for the matrix. He doesn’t belong to society so he searches in hope of finding something more than just his life as it is. In the club scene we see Neo standing alone, then Trinity approaches and tells him what he has been waiting to hear for years. Neo gets accepted to join the matrix and there he finds friends and because he’s the chosen one he picks up on everything fast and gets a girl. The concept I have chosen is finding belonging with people who have the same circumstances as you. This is shown in my representation by all the homeless people sitting together around a fire. They have the same circumstances as each other and though they may not be alike they can belong due to their circumstances.

REFLECTION

Through looking at the concepts of belonging shown in The Simple Gift and The Matrix I have come to learn that belonging isn’t always something that is just handed to you. To truly experience belonging you must search and really pursue the belonging you wish to experience.