A sense of belonging can be achieved when a person has an understanding, assured concept and acceptance of themselves. People today find a sense of belonging through foundation of the current relationships that they hold on to. People also can achieve a sense of belonging through sharing the same understanding for a certain ideas or sharing the same experiences as a community. The prescribe poetry text The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick conveys the notion and quote of “Understanding nourishes belonging... a lack of understanding prevents it” through visual and other textual features to create meaning and enhance understanding of the concept of understanding nourishes belonging.
Throughout the poetic text the main character of the novel “Billy” is set on a journey of belonging. While living at home with his alcoholic father, Billy was heavily neglected and abused by him. From this Billy has been emotional and mentally scarred setting up emotional barriers keeping from people letting them in or getting to close. However from sneaking on the train carriage he meets the train driver ernie who is a kind and compassionate man who offered proper shelter, warm drinks and food. From this experience this had made Billy realise that there are people who are the complete opposite from his father, this was a slight turning point of Billy’s perspective on people.
However upon arriving in Benderat, he is still unable to trust anyone due to the fathers abuse and example. He misjudges certain characters such as the librarian, Caitlin and Old Bill. In Billy’s first encounter with Caitlin at McDonalds his first thoughts were “When i first saw her watching me take the food my first thought was to hate her because of that shiny watch and her perfect skin”. At this moment we can see that Billy is quick to jump the gun and have a negative perspective of her, from this is he already ruled out the possibility of any form of relationship with her and in the long run prevent...