Feeling confused and befuddled about your identity? Taking the choice about who you want to be for the rest of your life? Billy knows all about this. In the short story “Going Home” written by Archie Weller, this is the focus. In this assignment about prejudice and identity, I will tell you about Billy, the main character, his choices, discrimination in the text and about where Billy's home really is.
Billy is like every other young man, confused about his identity. He has in his earlier years, lived with his aboriginal family, but in the age of sixteen he starts living among white people. Billy does not look like a normal aboriginal. His skin is not as black as some aboriginals, so he can actually fit into the general picture of the white society. But he never feels like a white boy. The whole time he is faking. “That was his life: painting pictures and playing football and pretending”. He tries so hard being something he isn't.
When Billy is mentioned in the story, he goes by the names “Billy Woodward” and “William Jacob Woodward”. That shows how he is very divided between the two sides of him. Billy Woodward is this black boy who is very ashamed of being black. Being black in Billy's eyes is a life filled with criminality, drugs and alcohol. William Jacob Woodward is a white boy playing football and painting, and is actually good at it. Even in school William is talented. “All the teachers were proud of him”. If you saw his white life from the outside, it would probably look perfect. But William is just pretending.
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