Preview

Making Difficult Decisions

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1108 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Making Difficult Decisions
Engelsk tentamen

Task 3

Making difficult decisions is a part of life

We face decisions everyday, we decide what to wear in the morning, what to eat for breakfast, how to get to school, the list goes on and on. But sometimes we have to make decisions that mean a lot more, that have consequences no matter what you choose and that can effect the people around you. In this text I am going to present two films where the characters have hard decisions to make.

Billy Elliot is a film about Billy, an 11-year-old boy who lives with his father, brother and Nan (grandmother). The film takes place in “Everington” in the UK, from 1984 to 1985 which was in the middle of the UK miners strike. The main conflict of the film is that Billy wants to be a ballet dancer. His father on the other hand, would rather have his son doing what every other boy at the age of 11, which is boxing. However, Billy´s father comes around after he sees how good Billy actually is. Billy´s ballet teacher thinks he´s good enough to attend The Royal Ballet School in London. The problem is that the school is very expensive and seeing as Billy´s father and brother are both in the middle of the mining strike, it is impossible for them to get the money on their own, unless they become “scabs” (go back to work during the strike).

This is obviously a very hard decision for Billy´s father. He truly wants Billy to become a processional ballet dancer, but becoming a scab was at that time like betraying everyone you cared for. Scabs were outcasts in the society, they had betrayed themselves, their friends, fellow workers, their family and their country. Billy´s dad had until recently been protesting against the scabs, but was now on the verge of becoming one himself. The mining industry was crumbling and he really wanted to save Billy from the miserable life a miner led.

Billy´s father decides to go back into the mine, so that he can pay for The Royal Ballet School. On his way to the “Pit” (the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Analysis of Belonging

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The character Billy from “The Simple gift” is first shown to have a disconnection from his father which can be shown from the quote “Drink this instead to celebrate your son leaving home.” He is also shown to dislike school, from the quote “It’s the only time my schoolbag has come in handy.”…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As early as ten years old, Billy has had emotional problems. His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother had many financial problems. The divorce impacted Joel in and out of school. Because of his mother having him take piano lessons, the kids bullied him because the teacher also taught ballet. The kids assumed that Joel was taking dancing lessons, so they gave him a hard time every day. He took up boxing to protect himself, but he continued to be defiant towards everyone. Because of the financial situation at home, Joel took a few jobs playing the piano at night clubs when he was in his teens. That put a strain on him because of school. He wasn’t sleeping, and that only added to his depression. When he reached adulthood, he had a few failed marriages, and he was always being criticized because of his music. His career as a song writer and singer took a down turn, so he turned to drinking.…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Billy has the urge to then disobey his father by walking out and taking the fathers alcohol as he has had enough. Billy at this stage acts this way as he feels that he is alienated and the only way getting past this is to try to be accepted within society outside of his house. Billy is lost.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Later in the book Billy catches a train. He is uncertain where the train will take him. Herrick engages the reader with Billy’s significantly violent memory of his father "with the forces of a father's punch". The metaphoric terms further reveal Billy's harsh living environment he is seeking to escape.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Billy then finds himself on a freight train, in search of a new place to go to, to try and gather a feeling of belonging. After travelling “two kilometres down the track”, he finds himself freezing cold. The harshness of the cold on the train indicates billy's…

    • 1341 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The film Billy Elliot addresses the theme of ‘into the world’ through various camera techniques, dialogue and themes. The theme of ‘into the world’ is mirrors by the theme of individual growth. Billy unmistakably grows as an individual as he is able to make the transition between being a minor’s son during 84-85, expected to follow a traditional path into mining and participating in sports such as boxing to pursuing a career as a professional ballet dancer. This transition is reflected through the scenes when Billy is seen running the streets of Everington with his boxing gloves around his shoulders and the later scene where Billy replaces them with ballet shoes. Additionally, there is a pan of the students’ lower body of Mrs. Wilkinson’s class. Here we see Billy in his boxing boots practicing ballet amongst the students wearing ballet shoes. These scenes clearly display Billy’s movement into a new world.…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wilkinson’s sense of belonging to ballet is shaped through her life experience. During one of the setbacks, Ms. Wilkinson and Billy are waiting on the bridge. When Ms. Wilkinson tells Billy the story Swan Lake, she is implying a metaphor for her own life. She was once a ballet dancer like the girl who was the princess; she was entrapped in the town like the princess who was turned into a swan; she used to have a strong sense of belonging to ballet but now it is dead, just like the wrong ending she tells Billy “she’s dead… it’s just a ghost story.” Her sense of belonging is dead because of her life experience. Through a long shot at bottom angle, the composer shows the magnificent steel bridge, which is like a huge cage exerting a massive depression to both characters. Audience can also experience the pressure, from Billy’s point of view. The bridge is the symbol of the town which entraps both of them. The next shot shows Billy is looking up the bridge like a bird who wants to break the cage, whereas Ms. Wilkinson just smokes and doesn’t even bother looking at anything. This indicates that Billy wants to break the cage and see the outside world, whereas Ms. Wilkinson has lost all motivation to chase her dream and accepts what she has now. Her sense of belonging to ballet is re-shaped by her life experience in Everington where ballet dance is not…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Billy Elliot” many barriers prevent Billy from entering the world of dance. One such barrier is the lack of support by his family. However, Billy’s persistence to dance eventually pays off as when he moves into a “new world” he brings those around him into it with him. Jackie, Billy’s father has grown up in a male dominated, violent and stereotypical world thus is strongly against Billy’s pursuit of Ballet. This is evident when Jackie explains to Billy that ballets “not for lads, Billy”. The dialogue between Jackie and Billy conveys Jackie’s outlooks on the situation and coupled with the aggressive tone makes it clear to Billy he does not want him to do ballet. This can however be contrasted to the final scene where Billy’s persistence or pursuing pays off because as he moves into a “new world” he gains the significant reward of watching his father move into a “new world”. In the final scene a mid-shot of Jackie conveys that Jackie is very proud of Billy’s achievements. The body language and facial expressions convey that Jackie has moved into a “new world” from a stereotypical, male dominated world into a world of acceptance. Thus it is true that moving into the world can allow to gain rewards such as witnessing a loved one move into a “new world”.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Billy Elliot

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Societies construct of masculinities is a problem Billy faces whilst moving into his new world. This is shown throughout the film in numerous scenes. In the “disgrace to gloves” scene, Jackie Elliot, Billy's father says to Billy, “your a disgrace to those gloves”, the use of dialogue shows the tradition of passing down the gloves and the expectation that he will do boxing. In the scene when Jackie first sees Billy dancing he confronts him and his use of dialogue, “boys do boxing not ballet”, shows the acceptable and expected behaviour of a male in this community. The rigid gender expectations are also shown through the dialogue when mr Braithwaite states “you look like a real wanker to me son” and when boxing coach states, “this is…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Simple Gift

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As time goes Billy’s transition into adulthood is evident as he acts on pure kindness. Independence is what is what everyone is striving for, as the redemption of qualities that…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Simple Gift

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages

    By being independent Billy is able to survive and is able to make a living. He runs away from his father’s home not knowing where to go and ends up in a small town called Bendarat. In Bendarat he is able to find a small carriage called ‘The Hilton’ in a freight yard in which then calls home. In order for Billy to eat he would go to McDonalds and take leftover scraps from customers. Billy was also able to find a job in a place called the canary and also understood the meaning of money and how much a dollar was worth. As he settled into Bendarat he is able to make a daily routine and every “morning he woke and he knew where he was going for the next few months — to the Library to McDonalds to the river and home here to the Hilton.” Billy`s assistance didn’t make the person he became.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Billy Budd

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The modern concept of tragedy is that of Arthur Miller’s, that the audience feels and fears for the characters so much that it is as if they are the characters themselves. The characters finally meet their tragic end, and the audience witnesses and understands their end. This applies to Billy mostly because of his likeability. The readers come to love Billy as his fellows sailors do. He is completely innocent and naive at the same time. The readersees his weakness and comes to feel sorry for Billy the way one might for a child. The reader sympathizes with Billy especially when he is confronted by Claggart and can do nothing, but stutter. The reader is with Billy throughout and witnesses his transformation at the end.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    To enable the setting to remove Billy’s barriers to learning we firstly arranged a meeting at his home…

    • 1415 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Self-belief is a factor that makes a person stronger. Without it they may not reach their goals. In the scene of Billy Elliot where Billy dances in front of his father, the audience sees that this is the first time that Billy genuinely believes in himself. The non-diegetic music is loud and energetic. This represents the fact that Billy has built enough self-confidence to stand up for himself. A close-up is used on Billy’s face when he starts to dance. This technique is used to emphasise the expression of confidence and self-belief on his face. It shows his emotion and how he isn’t afraid to do what he wants. There is also a close up on the father’s face that seems to be stunned while watching Billy. After Billy finishes dancing, his father runs to Mrs Wilkinson’s house because that is when he realised that his son really has talent. In the quote “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,” from the poem ‘If’ the father is telling his son to have faith in himself when others don’t. In the movie, if Billy had not stood up for himself, his father wouldn’t have thought to let him go to the ballet school. The self-belief Billy had led him to success in the future.…

    • 893 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of Billy's most admirable personality traits is his courage – a willingness to go against powerful social conventions – to follow his dreams. He is unsettled, almost erratic, and persistent in his search to find the one thing that would fill the hole in his heart left by the death of his mother. The last connection he has with his mother is through a letter she had written for him to open when he is eighteen which drives him towards something, and allows him to draw on a reserve of inner strength. Towards the end of the story the strength the letter represents is replaced with the ballet. The character Billy is dynamic in that he blossoms into a headstrong teenager…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays