Billy Elliot is an eleven year old boy who stumbles out of the boxing ring and into ballet lessons. He learns to deal with many trials and triumphs as he hopes to change his family’s set ways and the inner conflict between them. Billy lives in a small cramped house with his bad-tempered brother, out of control father and his forget-ful grand-mother. All Billy wants to do is dance but Billy is told by his father that “ boys wrestle; boys don’t dance”. But Billy loves to dance. This disappoints Billy and creates an obstacle for Billy’s dream of dancing.
But as Billy gets older his dream of dancing becomes more of a reality, with the help of his ballet teacher, family and only friend Michael. Billy’s father is a “ hard man”, who sees no other option outside of the mining industry for himself or his family; therefore ballet would definatley be no exception. This takes an emotional strain on Billy’s mental health as this is what he wants to do and know’s that there is no chance of his father or the Durham community accepting that.
Tony (his brother), despises Billy’s dream of becoming a professional ballet artist, as male ballet is looked down upon in the town of Durham and considered a sport for girls. Conflict of gender role expectations becomes an issue between Billy and his family as Billy becomes more and more involved in ballet. This would strongly effect Billy’s social health by lowering what self-esteem and confindence he had left. Mr Elliot’s family and the Durham community continue being unsupportive of what Billy want’s to do and think the choices he is making are inappropriate and strange.
Billy’s father also smokes cigarettes in the house causing Billy to inhale any poisonous chemicals that may drift out of the end of a lit smoke. This would be affecting Billy’s physical helath as the second-hand smoke contains even more harmful substances than the actual smoke being inhaled by the smoker. If Billy had continued to live in Durham his social health would more than likley of suffered as he had been subject to social exclusion and issues with his own self esteem.
I think Billy would of had trouble in finding his purpose around the town as the people of Durham would always have trouble understanding the concept of his personality and motives. Personality is an important aspect for any individual, as it separates one from another. This concept can refer to physical elements, such as gender and age, or psychological aspects such as your attitude towards life, values and mental state. Once Billy had moved to London and out of Durham his health had improved in a number of ways.
Billy’s mental health was improved as he is now living in London and getting the support he needs from the community, his ballet school and his family; where as in Durham ballet was considered inappropriate and only for girls. His physical health had improved as he went from being a skinny underfed little boy to being a well toned, extremely healthy man. Billy’s emotional health improved also as he is now happy and confident with who he is and where he’s heading in life.
Billy took personal responsibilty for his health by preparing his own breakfast and making sure he was fed and clean before and after meal times. As soon as Billy realizes that he wants to become a ballet dancer, he takes the time and responsibility to fulfill his dream. However, the strong beliefs between Billy’s desire to dance and the negative attitudes of the miners in his town creates obstacles for him that he has to try over-come. Billy ignores his father’s wishes knowing he had made it clear he wants Billy to stop ballet all together.
Little Billy begins to take private lessons with Mrs Wilkinsons; this shows Billy’s persistence and willingness in wanting to achieve his dream. Another example of Billy taking responsibily for the difficulties he’d faced; was when he needed to learn more about ballet to perfect his skills. He made the choice of going to the library and finding a book on ballet. Not being able to sign it out, Billy steals the book. This courageous act is an example of Billy’s determination, because he risks getting in trouble for stealing, but worst of all, being seen with the book by his father and brother.
