The Simple Gift Analysis

Question 2 Writing Task - Area of Study: Belonging
An individual’s sense of connectedness is conditional upon one’s acceptance of others and by others. How accurately does this statement reflect the ideas represented in your prescribed text and at least one other related text of your own choosing?
‘The Simple Gift’ by Steven Herrick accurately reflects the notion that an individual’s sense of connectedness is conditional upon one’s acceptance of others and by others. This is demonstrated through the protagonist, Billy who leaves home and his dysfunctional family behind to find acceptance from others. Billy finds his acceptance and forms strong connections with Old Bill and Caitlin in Bendarat, the three characters
Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees” Jobs’ success was heightened because he had a sense of what he wanted to become, and who he need to connect with to achieve this. Billy also experiences acceptance from the local librarian and begins to form a connection to Bendarat “Bendarat is the perfect town. A friendly librarian, a warm McDonalds, luxury train accommodation.” p(39) The cumulative listing in this quote highlights the physical things that heighten Billy’s sense of belonging to a place. In addition the irony in this quote shows how he is developing a warm physical sense of belonging to Bendarat. This physical sense of belonging is further enforced when he describes his train carriage with a simile and repetition “It was like a little cave, a warm, safe little cave... Billy’s cave.”
While the purpose of ‘The simple gift’ is to entertain and demonstrate the importance of acceptance in belonging. The perseverance showed by Steve Jobs allowed him to develop two new companies NeXT and Pixar and made his way back into Apple. By being a non conformist he stresses the importance of doing what one loves to do. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking” His urgent tone in this statement stresses the importance of his point and motivates the graduates to form their own connections in life. However Billy received help from the connection he had formed with Old Bill. “I held the key in my hands. I knew better than to ask him inside.” The imagery of Billy holding the key in both his hands expands on its value and importance. Old Bill gave Billy his house and took guardianship over him to protect his sense of belonging because of the acceptance Billy showed to him “I sat beside the old hobo and handed them across” others would have ignored old bill but billy may have seen him on his level a person with a reason behind his homelessness” the imagery of a teenager helping a homeless person and the sentimental valve the simple gift of a carton of cigarettes could not be measured as it was the first