Billy Elliot Essay Example
Billy Elliot is an eleven year old boy who stumbles out of the boxing ring and into ballet lessons. He learns to deal with many trials and triumphs as he hopes to change his family's set ways and the inner conflict between them.
Billy lives in a small cramped house with his bad-tempered brother, out of control father and his forget-ful grand-mother.
All Billy wants to do is dance but Billy is told by his father that “boys wrestle; boys don't dance”. But Billy loves to dance. This disappoints Billy and creates an obstacle for Billy’s dream of dancing. But as Billy gets older his dream of dancing becomes more of a reality, with the help of his ballet teacher, family and only friend Michael.
Billy's father is a "hard man", who sees no other option outside of the mining industry for himself or his family; therefore ballet would definatley be no exception. This takes an emotional strain on Billy's mental health as this is what he wants to do and know's that there is no chance of his father or the Durham community accepting that.
Tony (his brother), despises Billy's dream of becoming a professional ballet artist, as male ballet is looked down upon in the town of Durham and considered a sport for girls.
Conflict of gender role expectations becomes an issue between Billy and his family as Billy becomes more and more involved in ballet.
This would strongly effect Billy's social health by lowering what self-esteem and confindence he had left. Mr Elliot's family and the Durham community continue being unsupportive of what Billy want's to do and think the choices he is making are inappropriate and strange.
Billy's father also smokes cigarettes in the house causing Billy to inhale any poisonous chemicals that may drift out of the end of a lit smoke.
This would be affecting Billy's physical helath as the second-hand smoke contains even more harmful substances than the actual smoke being inhaled by the smoker.
If Billy had continued to live in Durham his
Billy lives in a small cramped house with his bad-tempered brother, out of control father and his forget-ful grand-mother.
All Billy wants to do is dance but Billy is told by his father that “boys wrestle; boys don't dance”. But Billy loves to dance. This disappoints Billy and creates an obstacle for Billy’s dream of dancing. But as Billy gets older his dream of dancing becomes more of a reality, with the help of his ballet teacher, family and only friend Michael.
Billy's father is a "hard man", who sees no other option outside of the mining industry for himself or his family; therefore ballet would definatley be no exception. This takes an emotional strain on Billy's mental health as this is what he wants to do and know's that there is no chance of his father or the Durham community accepting that.
Tony (his brother), despises Billy's dream of becoming a professional ballet artist, as male ballet is looked down upon in the town of Durham and considered a sport for girls.
Conflict of gender role expectations becomes an issue between Billy and his family as Billy becomes more and more involved in ballet.
This would strongly effect Billy's social health by lowering what self-esteem and confindence he had left. Mr Elliot's family and the Durham community continue being unsupportive of what Billy want's to do and think the choices he is making are inappropriate and strange.
Billy's father also smokes cigarettes in the house causing Billy to inhale any poisonous chemicals that may drift out of the end of a lit smoke.
This would be affecting Billy's physical helath as the second-hand smoke contains even more harmful substances than the actual smoke being inhaled by the smoker.
If Billy had continued to live in Durham his