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  • Essay / Overcoming Adversity in “Billy Elliot” and “Love Simon”

    The most significant aspect of human experience in my studied texts, Billy Elliot by Stephen Daldry and Love Simon by Greg Berlanti and Becky Albertalli is to overcome adversity. Overcoming adversity is defined as “prevailing despite difficulties, successfully solving a problem or defeating an adversary, or being consumed by something.” “Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayLove Simon is a film about the protagonist Simon Spier, who keeps his sexual orientation a secret from his family. However, when a blackmailer threatens to expose him, he embarks on a turbulent journey to overcome adversity and accept his identity. This concept of identity acceptance is similar to the text prescribed by Billy Elliot. Billy Elliot tells the story of a young boy who discovers his passion for dance, in a masculine society that has strong gender values. The depiction of Billy overcoming adversity is manifested in many ways through the use of techniques such as symbolism. Billy Elliot's doors are used to symbolically represent transitions to new life stages and new life experiences. These doors also depict the resistance that some characters experience in entering the new worlds that these transitions signify. An example of this is the scene where Billy's father finds Billy at a ballet class, he aggressively pushes Billy through the door of the ballet school into the old familiar world. In the medium shot, Billy turns to look at the new world he is discovering, that of ballet, while Jackie looks forward. This represents the changing nature of Billy's wishes which are completely different from his father's. Billy is expected to be a normal boy, but he knows he is not and must come to terms with his identity. On the other hand, this idea is in contradiction with "Love Simon". When Simon describes himself at the beginning of the film, the word he repeats is "normal." He describes that his family is normal, his friends are normal, and everything in his life is normal. However, one thing about Simon is not normal. Simon is gay. Due to the unfair intolerance at his school (with the only gay student who came out being constantly made fun of), Simon feels like he has to keep this secret to himself and fears that someone will find out about his sexuality. However, after a classmate left an anonymous post on the school blog about the difficulties of being gay and linked his email, Simon decided to contact him anonymously and he is happy to finally have someone who understands him. Through his correspondence with the other student, who goes by the name "Blue", Simon begins to accept who he is and realizes, with the help of his friends and family, that being gay makes him slightly different. , but it is. always normal. The majority of films do not contain any LGBTQ-identifying characters, and in the rare cases where this happens, the gay man is cast to be sassy and confidant, and is usually there for the sole purpose of adding diversity to the movie. . However, in “Love, Simon,” the gay character is not only the protagonist but has an identity that goes well beyond his sexual orientation. Simon has more physically assertive moments in the film as he defends himself to both Martin and his classmates. who make fun of him in the cafeteria. These seemingly “masculine” actions are not typical because they represent stereotypical characters and help Simon develop his originality. Simon's character shatters almost every expectation that..