The Simple Gift is a free verse novel and gripping story of a 16-year-old boy, Billy, who leaves his abusive father's house and boring school life, expecting something better of what he left behind. He finds a home in an abandoned freight train outside a small town. He falls in love with a rich girl, Caitlin, and befriends another resident of the train, Old Bill. Billy is voluntarily homeless but now has a future he didn't have before. This book is a life-affirming look at the characteristics of humanity, generosity and love. Link to Belonging: 1) Authentic relationships ensure an individual's value, identity, and connection: People seek belonging to find identity, relationships, and to learn acceptance and understanding "This morning I woke up and I knew where I was going for the next few months - to the Library, to McDonald's, to the river, and home here at the Hilton - a circuit of floors with Caitlin at the center, and me a poorly dressed satellite girl spinning wildly in her orbit. '”2) Physical security fuels the concept of belonging: Billy's relationship with his abusive father and his dissatisfaction and the description of 'Nowheresville' as 'a dark, cold, damp place' were a barrier to allowing Billy to belong His discontent at home led him to choose not to belong there and thus caused his inevitable search for a sense of belonging that he could not have found if he had remained in his father's house , Billy learns that "there are men like Ernie, and there are other men, men like [his] father." This leads Billy to understand the contrasting and oppositional difference between a violent and disaffected father figure and a sympathetic and kindred father figure who is characterized through...... middle of paper ......ances of hope, that's when the The boring environment is ignored and the red-haired girl is shown smiling while a bright red-leafed tree grows in her room. • The young girl depicted in the red tree struggles to find a sense of belonging to her world in her daily life. Billy struggles to belong to his father and his neighborhood • Among the struggles and disconnections faced in life, both the characters of Red Tree and Billy in Simple Gift1) Being disconnected from the world causes isolation and further depression as we allow ourselves to believe not they are understood by no one and their progress towards belonging does not exist.2) Depression shifts attention from the need to belong to life to the thought that one will never be able to.3) The hope of belonging is always present and revealed through small things even when major difficulties are present.