Analysis Of Stephen Daldry 's ' Billy Elliot '

Belonging and alienation is the process of being either excluded or accepted by the society in which you live. Belong is a human conception,mostly considered a fundamental human need and a source of survival, safety, protection and happiness. To belong is usually considered positive and essential for a successful existence:however a negative sense of belonging:found among the displaced, marginalised and uncared for can lead to many social, filial and personal problems that can be almost insurmountable for the individual. The short trop fest film “Be My Brother” by Genevieve Clay 2009, represents these ideas through the films central characters. The film deals with society and people with disabilities feeling displaced within society due to

An individual’s feeling of acceptance is directly affected by their sense of belonging in the world, through coming to terms upon where they truly do and do not belong. This sense of acceptance is heavily reliant on an individual’s attitude and experiences, as it revolves around where they seem to belong in a society, culture, or environment, and their realization of place in the world. This relationship between belonging and a sense of acceptance is explored through Peter Skrzynecki’s ‘Immigrant Chronicle’- a series of poems published in 1975 depicting the struggle of an immigrant family establishing themselves in post WWII Australia. The struggle for finding his place is explored vividly through his works ‘St Patricks College’ and ‘Postcard’,

In An Argument for Being a Poser, Liz Armstrong describes the crucial dilemma every young person faces about their identity, and to which subgenre do they belong to. Armstrong argues that such question can be both totally ridiculous, and actually very important; which leads to beginning of the process of discovering “who you are.” Furthermore, she describes the fictional subculture that you chose for your escape; within your chosen subgenre you don’t have to pretend to be different, and people understand you. In other words, your chosen subgenre is your place of escape, it is the place where acceptance and freedom is present. Besides, the fact of looking for a hidey-hole, she informs us with a life changing situation at the age of 16 years old. She describes the experience as being life changing, the kids she came across were simultaneously were role-playing and professing as being someone which they weren’t part of. Consequently, Armstrong used that moment to adapt to new change, which she describes as “not dressing up or being normal again.” She describes herself looking like a punk one day with a spiked collar, a crushed-velvet mini skirt the another day. Thus, for that reason she couldn’t fit in with honor students, nor the art kids. She couldn’t fit in with the honor student because for them she was too weird, but for the art kids she couldn’t draw. For this reason, she went from being a straight-A student to a what she describes a poser. Furthermore, Armstrong argues

The movie “Breaking Away” presents the story of a young man from working class origins who seeks to better himself by creating a persona through which he almost, but not quite, wins the girl. The rivalry between the townies and the college students sets the scene for the story of four friends who learn to accept themselves as they "break away" from childhood and from their underdog self-images.

Life requires us to move to new stages, each with its own set of obstacles and challenges which, if successfully overcome, can enrich one’s experience. A significant role in this process is played by familial and social values and external interventions. Stephen Daldry’s film ‘Billy Elliot’ (2000) depicts the protagonist’s growth as he discovers a passion for ballet which drives him to break free from traditional masculine stereotypes in his mining hometown. This similar drive traces the quest of the Brennan Family in the Australian Documentary “Proof of life”, when their son Nigel, a war photojournalist, is captured and held hostage in Somalia for ransom. Both texts illustrate the importance of determination, persistence and tenacity in

Her first challenge comes when Billy himself does not want to do ballet because of his preconceived ideas that only girls and gay boys do it. The teacher pursues her objective by being stern and demanding. This gets Billy to take dancing seriously and she furthers her goal. However, trouble comes when Billy’s father finds out that he is not doing his boxing lessons. The teacher tackles this with her stern tactics from before but intermixes an appeal of sympathy for Billy’s talent. Unfortunately, she is unsuccessful and has to result to being secretive in order for Billy’s father not to find out. The conflict between the two characters was very intense due to conflicting objectives and strong tactics; it raised the stakes and grabbed the attention of the audience. This makes the viewer root for Billy to succeed despite his

An individuals sense of belonging relies on a sense of character and stability in their environment. Stability is built upon the way people connect with themselves and others while still holding onto their social identity. The play ‘Cosi’ by Louis Nowra and and Bruce Dawe’s poem ‘drifters’ both present a similar ‘no belonging’ type relationship with society. They show a lacking ability to develop relationships, connect within their community and build upon a healthy social

The majorities of humans are shaped for the better through early life and are therefore refined through society to find a place within the community. However there are cases where the early life influences are absent and aren’t able to give the crucial acceptance from an early age. This leads to abandonment issues that make it exceedingly difficult to find a place within society. In Louis Nowra’s “Member of the wedding” we are shown a prominent example of the detrimental effects of not being accepted. The protagonist Frankie had a mother that passed away and has a workaholic father who spends little to no time with at home leaving her with no sense of acceptance and struggling in finding who she is. She doesn’t connect with the world outside and due to her inner conflict she creates a new “me” in attempt to “connect”. F. Jasmine, her new persona, is her attempt of proving she no longer needs to acceptance at home as she can be accepted in the adult

Billy Elliot explores the concept of identity and how it can shaped and changed through life experiences. It tells the story of an 11-year-old boy named Billy, and his father, Jackie, amidst a mining strike in a town in Northern England during the mid-1980s. Billy creates his personal identity through dance as it is a means of expressing himself. In Billy’s world, strict stereotypes dealing with gender and sexual identity are enforced, which created not only an internal personal battle for Billy, but also an external conflict between him and his family. As a result, he was ashamed of and forced to hide his talent and passion for dance, shown in the quote, “I feel like a right sissy”. The song “Town called Malice” was played in Billy’s main

In the story “Like Jack and Me” by Mavis Jukes, Alex thinks that Jake, his stepfather, would not want to see him doing ballet, and only shows his mother about his new movements learned in ballet class. Because, Alex is not friendly and feeling uncomfortable to his step-father, compared to his mother.

As he steps outside he smells the morning dew and thinks about what a great day it’s going to be. The bus comes, he steps on only to hear horrible things about him. Kids tease him and hit him but he never notices. Billy has an undiagnosed condition that makes him almost brain-dead. He laughs with them. He is so oblivious and he does not notice what they are really doing. Due to his lack of knowledge he has to work alone in his kindergarten level class. Even though he could take out any one of the kids in one single blow, he does not know his power. He is very good boxing but does not make the connection between boxing and fighting. Billy can hear a whisper across the room, horrible things about him, and this makes him very confused, he thought people liked him.

Growing up in a tight knit community means Billy is constrained to follow the traditions upheld by the men in his family, these include stereotypical male activities like boxing and mining. Due to Jackie, Billy’s fathers, status in the community people look up to him as a masculine figurehead, this role is soon jeopardised by Billy’s new-found passion for Ballet. One scene shows Billy coming home after ballet and running straight to his room in an attempt to hide his ballet shoes under his bed, his father walks past and asks what he is doing, Billy then hides his shoes and says he has lost his boxing gloves to which Billy’s father replies “They were my dad's gloves. You better take better care of them, okay?” This suggests Jackie wishes for Billy to continue the boxing tradition. The traditional violence of boxing is carried across into Jackie and his eldest son’s, Tony, activities. The two are seen as trailblazers for the frenzied

Being perceived as different may make it difficult to belong. Not being able to belong is a confusing and unfortunate case, where one can find themselves lost and frustrated, as they do not have a safe zone. Through the use of text and film, it can be explored that this concept if difference hinders one from feeling a sense of belonging. Whether it be a persons inability to adapt or their lack of confidence.

Picture a casual day in the life of an ordinary girl: going to school in the mornings and performing her chores during the evenings. Now, reorient this to a day where she lacks of time to balance homework and sleep as pulling all-nighters is a quotidian activity where the exclusive task is to execute all her responsibilities. This vigorous alteration portrays how my life has changed in the preceding years. Antecedently, I was able to attend Orland Ballet's Summer Intensive. Challenging my daily living, I was chosen to dance with Ballet Concierto's professional dance company. Subsequent years later, I am able to face the challenges to come.