Belonging – the Simple Gift’ by Steven Herrick and Ort – the Ugly Duckling’ by Hans Christian Anderson

To be bulky is to fit in, or to be rightly place in a specified position or environment. The idea of belong is a dynamic and an essential aspect of human look which can capture through, due to the connections make with the concepts of identity, place, relationships, acceptance and understanding to oneself and other people. These aspects of belonging ar demonstrated through the free verse novel, The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick, and the pantywaist tale of The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Anderson.In the very early stages of The simple stage, Herrick displays sixteen year old, calling cardy Lucketts, genius of alienation by use his first person character to highlight social issues such as hostility within his family, leading it to break mickle, and his determineing of loneliness and worthlessness of identity. This is conveyed in the poem Long lands Road, where billys internal conflict is shown through his un-satisfaction of his original community in which he lived in and was a give of, leaving him disappointed and similarly a sense impression of embarrassment towards his identity.He states this clearly with the words, My Street. My Suburb. , showing terms of ownership of the place in which his identity soon belongs too, but does not like, giving us a sense of in closure and displacement. This continues as he describes his street, as he throws rocks on the roof of each deadbeat no-hoper shithole lonely downtrodden house in Long lands Road, Nowheresville. The use of colloquialism of Billys vulgar language, further demonstrates Billys displacement, dislike and humiliation towards long lands road, symbolising a decaying and depressing environment.Billy then ends up taking control of himself and moving show up of home. 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 t he train indicates billys insecurity about belonging and this indicates that Billy desires to feel warm and needed quite of cold and isolated. He then encounters the train driver, Ernie. Ernie sees billy and has a conversation with him.He tells him to make a cuppa if you want, and heres some sandwiches, too much salad for my liking Keep warm Ive got a train to drive. This making Billy feeling accepted and belonging, and being made feel at home by Ernie and a sense of warmth. Herrick has used juxtaposition to demonstrate how Billy has gone from being cold, to feeling a sense of warmth that he is right away being comforted with Ernie to the town of Bendarat. Herrick also creates a contrast between billys dad and Ernie, There are men like Ernie and there are other men, men like my dad. emphasizing Billys like for Ernies character, as Ernie makes Billy feel like he belongs. In the chapter of Locks and Keys Old Bill gives the keys to the old home to Billy and Caitlin. This scene symbo lises Old Bill giving over the simple gift to Billy. It also gives Billy the feeling of being accepted by Old Bill and belonging. He also learns not only to understand himself but to also understand Old Bill and Caitlin. Billy also understands how to identify his identity and sense of placement by realising I can decide what I in reality want to do here in Bendarat.In the last chapter, Denouements have been made, and loose ends have been tied up, where the relationships between Caitlin and Old bill are now stronger and reconnected. The relationship is symbolised through the motif of Old Bill and Bill sharing the Weet-Bix for breakfast. The words and I looked up into the sky, the deep blue sky that Old Bill and I shared, demonstrate that belonging can go far, and the relationship between Old bill and Billy can grow together stronger, as well as the identities of both characters are enabled to grow further, to enrich the self-worth, self-esteem and self-growth of the individuals.Simi larly, In The Ugly Duckling, when the last duckling was hatched, the other ducks took a look at him and assort and judged the duckling, It is very large and not at all like the others. I wonder if it really is a turkey. The duckling was left out of society, with the same sense of loneliness and displacement, because it was not the same as the rest of society. The mother duckling then took her ducklings down to the moat, to prove that the loathsome duckling was a normal duckling. Despite all the popular opinion of the others, the mother took pride of her son, see how nicely he uses his legs, and how straight he holds himself. The mother then tried to include her son into the community, Ill lead you out into the world and introduce you to the duck yard. But there too, the duckling got mocked and taunted, what and ugly looking fellow, Hes too big and strange, lowering the ducklings self-esteem and self-worthiness. And once more the mother stuck up for her son, let him alone, He isnt doing any harm. The ugly duckling that, looked so ugly was pecked and pushed about and made fun of. Anderson has created a sense of generosity from the audience from using emotive anguage and alliteration. It got so bad, that the ugly duckling got chased and buffeted by everyone including his brothers, sisters and even his own mother. He was nipped, pecked, and kicked by the girl who fed him. So he ran away and flew over the fence. The use of action verbs create the scene of the duckling being a defenceless creature being forced to flee, as a result of the social rejection on all fronts. Similarly to Billy, as he left home as he was abused by his drunken aim as well.After running through a great hunt, the ugly duckling had encountered a flock of birds that appeared out of the reeds. The duckling had never seen birds so beautiful. They were dazzling white with long graceful necks. They were swans. They uttered a very strange cry as they unfurled their magnificent wings to fly fr om this cold land, away to warmer countries and to open amniotic fluid The use of bucolic language used by the composer to describe the swans triggers us to gain an insight of how much love the ugly duckling has for the creatures.Like the change in temperature Billy experiences on the train, the magnificent birds fly from the cold land that the ugly duckling is stuck on as it experiences unacceptance by others and not being able to belong in society, as the swans move into a more accepted, belonging environment together. He then had to go through the hardships and wretchedness of the cruel winter, to make it into the beautiful bound. He swept through the air much strongly than before. He flew over the water and re encountered the splendid swans.Bowing his head, thinking he would be attacked and killed, seeing his mirrored self. And was no longer the reflection of a clumsy, dirty, grey bird, ugly and offensive. He himself was a swan The composer has shown us that after all the har dships the ugly duckling had endured that, he finally found where he belonged. It was a place of acceptance amongst the other swans. After a life time of torcher and alienation he could be happy, because he belonged where he was loved.Belonging is not a set list that must include a connection to people, places, objects and to the wider world, but everyones idea of belonging is different but it involves a deeper emotional sense of fulfilment and connection made with yourself, the relationships you have, and with the wider world, but this is different for each person depending on their needs and life experiences, thus forming the foundation of an individuals self-image, self-worthiness, self-esteem and self-growth.