There is not a single person in this world that does not want to belong to something. Every individual wants to feel like they have a purpose somewhere in life. in the poem “June 23rd 1973″ by Bruce Hunter two boys chase every teenage boys dream to fit in with the popular crowd and be accepted by all of them. The poem uses to two boys to portray the idea that people will go to extremes to be accepted and in that process can make some bad decisions. The short story” The New Kid” by Murray Heyart is all about a young boy and his journey to be accepted.
This story shows a side of a lot of boys particularly where the decisions you make to be accepted go greatly against your values and morals. Both of these pieces of reading demonstrate the idea that wanting to belong will sometimes push us to do things we never imagined ourselves doing. The short story“ The New Kid” tells the story of a young boy who makes some immoral decisions in order to be accepted within the group of popular boys. From a young age everyone wants to be accepted.
The main character Marty wanted nothing more than to be accepted by the other schoolboys. He begs repeatedly to the sort of leader of the other boys “gimme a game Gelbert” and begs and pleads to play ball with the other boys. But Still Marty is left on the sideline included from the game. Marty begging to play illustrates that he is not often included in the games with the boys and does not get to really be friends with them at all or do anything at all even though he often tries to get himself included.
A short time later in the story Marty notices a new kid in the neighbourhood and convinces him to come play so the game can have even teams and the other boys will let them play and then both teams fight over who has to take Marty neither team wants him. Marty gets put in the far right field where the ball is rarely hit and he would not really be included in the game. This greatly upsets Marty to where he hardly wants to play anymore and then he finally gets a chance to make a play as the ball sails up and comes flying straight to him.
The ball lands directly in his hands and bounces right back out of them and then he throws the ball to the wrong base and too far for anyone to catch. The boys all start to yell and pick on Marty once again and he struggles to hold back his tears. Then the new kid changes things for Marty. The new kid is in the outfield and the ball comes flying up in the air right to him, and he cowers and runs away. This is where Marty makes his first big immoral decisions. Marty starts to pick on the new kid. The other boys start egging Marty on to be meaner to the new kid and eventually they end up face to face neither wanting to fight,.
Marty knows this is going to end in a fight but secretly hopes that someone will come break up the fight but no one does. The boys are all cheering for Marty to hit the new kid so he takes a swing and knocks him back. Then he takes another and another and just starts wailing on the new kid who is begging Mary to stop but the other boys keep cheering. Marty lets the new kid up and chases him away back to his house and all the other boys start rally around Marty this time he was being the bully like the rest of the boys not the kid being bullied.
Then the story ends off with Marty feeling bad sub consciously about what he did but being happy the rest of the boys are including him on their plans. When they are going to get the new kid next and what they are going to do to him Marty is now a new kid in itself, he is a new kid amongst the group of popular kids. The poem “June 23 1973” portrays the same idea of wanting to belong but in a different group and the making of some unsafe decisions in the process. The poem is a narrative about two teen boys. Lower class greasy boys they are referred to as but they want to be accepted into the higher class groups of kids.
The main character the one who buys the car he wants to be noticed not as much by the group but by a member of the group. The prom only three weeks away and he wants to take a girl as a date. he gets this old beat up sports car and rebuilds it to impress all the high class kids. The first choice he makes which is inevitably the worst for him in the series is replacing a pin to hold the tire on with wire. The boy catches the girls attention but never gets up the guts to ask her to the prom so he spends prom night with all the other loners at the parking spot under the radio tower smoking and drinking.
This leads to his final bad decision. “Someone asks how fast she goes. You hadn’t thought of that. Like a challenge. “. He takes the challenge and with “bottled light in your eyes” takes off down the road and all is well till the wire shears. The tire flies off the car and they lose control and flip three times. “Kids came in processions, even the rich kids. Mortality somehow linked you. “. In the end of his bad decisions he achieved his goal he was accepted but through some bad choices ever got the chance to live to see it and enjoy it. Wanting to be accepted makes us do some crazy things.
In my own life I have experienced the want and need to be accepted. At some point in our life we all have, everyone has been the outcast at least once. In my life I have seen the good decisions people make to be accepted and I have seen the dark side of it as well. New schools and new kids can mean making a lot of changes to try and fit in as I discovered with my best friend. Schools in different areas have very different groups of people and some people change a lot to fit in at that new school. That can mean some bad decisions at times and the loss of old friends as you become a new person.
In order to fit in at this new school my friend made some very downhill choices with his life. It started with the occasional night of drinking or smoking. Next thing before any of us could do anything he had quit football and quit his job quit going to class for the most part. Spent most of his time either getting drunk or getting high with his new friends at his new school. Sometimes in the journey to be accepted something you forget about the places where you already a part of something and without realizing it you can throw a lot away.
You can lose a lot in the process of trying to get somewhere else. He made new friends but in doing that he lost the family he had a work. He Went from an aspiring student with honours and a league mvp to being basically nothing. He no longer had any involvement with anything and he lost everything he had going for him. By the time he was seventeen he had woken up in jail four or five times and been to rehab twice with no success. Everyone who originally accepted him had given up including his family. He went from having everything he could want to having nothing in his life.
That was his decisions though everyone in life will make decisions to get where they think they want to be as a person sometimes that is not a great place but there’s nothing you can do if you aren’t the one making the decision. In the end being accepted all comes down to the decisions you make as a person and the drive to be accepted can make you do crazy things you never imagined yourself doing ever in your life. The want to be accepted is something we have always and always will pursue no matter your age you will want to be accepted somewhere.
