The analysis of two of the characters in the film, Billy Eliot,
In the film, Billy Eliot, there are many characters, all with unique personalities. My favourite characters are Billy and his father, Jackie. Billy is an 11-year-old boy from Everington Village in County Durham, England. The story happens in 1984. He loves to dance and he dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer. Billy lives with his father, Jackie, and older brother, Tony. Also his maternal grandmother, who probably has Alzheimer's disease and encourages him to be a professional dancer. Both Tony and Jackie are coal miners. Furthermore they are on strike on the picket line fighting for the coal mines not to be closed. Despite of his father and brother’s opposition, he
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Billy’s character is enduring, determined, persistent, courageous and single-mind. As we can see in the movie, Billy was vigorously against his father when he tries to prevent him dancing over and over. For example, when his father understand for the first time that Billy is training dance, he became fiercely angry and shouted at him to barricade him dancing. He even beat him, but Billy does not give up and stealthy continued his dance-training. Even, when his father saw him while he was dancing with his friend who was gay, he did not afraid of him and started to dance in front of his father and try to do his best to convinced him that he is really fond of ballet, and Finally he …show more content…
In the beginning of film, he seems a quick-tempered man and terribly embittered person. Not only he has lost her wife but also he is on strike without any incomes. He feels deeply disappointed. Also he is proud and independent. He expected his sons behave like a strong man. He encourages Billy to play boxing despite of knowing he hates it. Or when he thought his son loves dancing and playing piano, like a girl, he destroys the piano wildly. He is very conservative person and traditionalist. He believes, as a man, Billy must be very strong, serious and rough. But it is better I mention that Billy’s father character is a typical personality of a man in that period of
To the casual eye, Billy looks like the typical bad boy. A boy that ran away from home, showing his rebellious tendencies. A boy that would most certainly be a bad influence over anyone. However, as we take a closer look into Billy's true personality,
Growing up in a tight knit community means Billy is constrained to follow the traditions upheld by the men in his family, these include stereotypical male activities like boxing and mining. Due to Jackie, Billy’s fathers, status in the community people look up to him as a masculine figurehead, this role is soon jeopardised by Billy’s new-found passion for Ballet. One scene shows Billy coming home after ballet and running straight to his room in an attempt to hide his ballet shoes under his bed, his father walks past and asks what he is doing, Billy then hides his shoes and says he has lost his boxing gloves to which Billy’s father replies “They were my dad's gloves. You better take better care of them, okay?” This suggests Jackie wishes for Billy to continue the boxing tradition. The traditional violence of boxing is carried across into Jackie and his eldest son’s, Tony, activities. The two are seen as trailblazers for the frenzied
Billy does not have any ambition he just reacts to circumstances that happen to him. He wife face gives him an optometry office to run. He married valenca just because she is there not because he is in love with her. “I is so sort and jumbled and jangled”(pg.19) he takes the path of less resistance rather than navigating the complex path of life. Krebs also lacks motivation, direction, and ambition he lives with his parents and does not have a job. He “sleeps late in bed” every day for him is like a vacation rather than real life. Krebs father thinks he has “lost his ambition, that you haven't got a different aim in life”(pg.75). His parents think it is time for him to move on from the war and make something of his life. The war affect both billy and krebs in a major way the weight of the war crushed their
It is often said that the people one surrounds themselves with can reflect things about themselves, such as their beliefs and ideals. One’s friends and acquaintances can reveal subconscious attractions to people that fulfill their ideals or agree with the things they say, but these relationships can also help one discover their personal philosophies by reinforcing opposing views. Indeed, in J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the way Holden reacts to and interacts with secondary characters reveal his established philosophies and the values he holds most dear to him.
Billy is shown to be worry free at the beginning after he finds out that he accidently stole the can of tuna. Billy was not worried about law enforcement because it was such a minor item. This shows that he is very confident in himself and isn’t really worried about what could happen. When they are arrested, the first person he calls is his mom which makes the viewer think that Italians are mommas boys. Though this could be true in Billy’s case, this is not a hundred percent fact. With this in mind, he could have picked a public defender but he chose to pick a family member to represent him and his friend. This ties into the stereotype that Italians are family based and that family is of major importance as well as wanting to have ties with their own community. He loses faith in his cousins ability to represent them but in the end, he still sticks with family even if that means he could be put in prison. Stan is Billy’s friend that is getting tried for helping out with the supposed murder. He is seen dressed in a leather jacket and having slicked hair which could represent a gangster like
Her first challenge comes when Billy himself does not want to do ballet because of his preconceived ideas that only girls and gay boys do it. The teacher pursues her objective by being stern and demanding. This gets Billy to take dancing seriously and she furthers her goal. However, trouble comes when Billy’s father finds out that he is not doing his boxing lessons. The teacher tackles this with her stern tactics from before but intermixes an appeal of sympathy for Billy’s talent. Unfortunately, she is unsuccessful and has to result to being secretive in order for Billy’s father not to find out. The conflict between the two characters was very intense due to conflicting objectives and strong tactics; it raised the stakes and grabbed the attention of the audience. This makes the viewer root for Billy to succeed despite his
BILLY BIBBIT: He was a man who was really attached to his mother and could be easily swayed by any mention of his mother just like a child. Later on he managed to get a girlfriend named Candy Starr. He went on many adventures with McMurphy and Bromden and was able to experience life a little more when he let his mother slip out of his mind. She wasn’t completely gone though; this was shown when Big Nurse threatened to tell his mom about what he has done and Billy goes into straight panic mode and kills himself by slitting his throat. It seemed as though he had some sort of deep psychological fear about what would happen if he disobeyed his mother.
While we think Billy's breakdown probably has a little something to do with the war, we do agree that this scene represents pretty much everything that's wrong with Billy's life in miniature. Billy had no choice about being tossed into the pool and he has no choice about being saved from it much like he has no choice but to go fight in the Battle of the
From the start Billy thought some things were a little odd. The first thing that was odd about her was when she immediately opened the door and little comments she made to him. Then he thought she was a little dotty, but he was getting a deal. Finally, he decided she was off her rocker, but he compensated for all the odd little things she did by reminding himself that she was a sweet old lady. Billy should’ve trusted his instincts when something seemed off, but because he doesn’t, he ends up in a situation where something awful will
Billy Elliot explores the concept of identity and how it can shaped and changed through life experiences. It tells the story of an 11-year-old boy named Billy, and his father, Jackie, amidst a mining strike in a town in Northern England during the mid-1980s. Billy creates his personal identity through dance as it is a means of expressing himself. In Billy’s world, strict stereotypes dealing with gender and sexual identity are enforced, which created not only an internal personal battle for Billy, but also an external conflict between him and his family. As a result, he was ashamed of and forced to hide his talent and passion for dance, shown in the quote, “I feel like a right sissy”. The song “Town called Malice” was played in Billy’s main
Once Billy becomes capable of time travel and comes into contact with the Tralfamadorians, he simply goes through the motions of life but avoids falling into a defeatist attitude. Under the tutelage of the Tralfamadorians, Billy fashions a brand new perspective towards society and enhances his natural persona, “When Billy accepts the Tralfamadorian philosophy, the passivity that he has displayed his entire life—from wanting to drift quietly at the bottom of the YMCA pool after his father throws him in, to begging Roland Weary to leave him behind—is justified. If the future cannot be changed anyway, why even try?” (Farrell 9). Though the interaction with the Tralfamadorians seems to allow Billy an outlet to construct his own ideals upon the universe, he nonetheless continues along the same path as before. Billy becomes an extremist towards passivity in life rather than utilizing the experience to impart a strong impression
Prompt five, Argue who is/ are the most admirable and/ or despicable character(s) in the novel and why.
Another cognition maturity that adolescents reach is the development of adolescent egocentrism—the distorted feeling that one’s own action is the centre of everything. In the movie, Billy showed this distorted feeling. He wants to proof to everyone that he can do anything that an adult is able to do. For example, he wants to steer the bout and explore the world by himself.
“Billy initiates the music in his life. He has the potential to triumph over his environment. The lyrics of the soundtrack are also noteworthy, as they imply that Billy is a born dancer.” (Lancioni, 2006, 718)
Moments in Billy's life change instantaneously, not giving Billy a clue to where he will end up next. In one moment, he is sitting in his home typing a letter to the local newspaper about his experience with the Tralfamadorians, and in the next he is a lost soldier of World War II running around behind German lines aimlessly without a coat or proper shoes. He then became a child being thrown into a pool by his father and afterwards a forty-one year old man visiting his mother in an old people's home. In the novel, changes in time are made through transitional statements such as, "Billy traveled in time, opened his eyes, found himself staring into the glass eyes of a jade green mechanical owl." p.56 In the movie there is no such thing and different moments in Billy's life happen instantaneously. Because scenes are continuous as times change, the movie better displays the author's attempt to capture in the notion of being "unstuck in time." On the other hand, the novel does help the audience follow these time changes better by setting it up for the next scene, offering a background of Billy's experiences before they begin through these transitional statements.