The Simple Gift

The following novel study is to be completed in your English Exercise book.

• How does Billy feel towards his home and neighbourhood? How do you know
this?
• What makes Wentworth Creek special to Billy?
• Describe Billy’s experience of running away from home on the freight train.
• Consider the poems ‘Keep warm’, ‘Men’ and ‘Sport’, comparing the way
Ernie and Billy’s father are represented.
• Typically, a list of adjectives should be punctuated using commas. However, in
the poem ‘Longlands Road’ there is an absence of commas in the line, ‘I throw
one rock on the roof of each…’ What is the effect of this choice?
• The first poem to include a perspective other than Billy’s is ‘Keep Warm’ by
Ernie. What does the use of the speech marks indicate about the poem compared
to all the other poems in the chapter?
• Explain how Herrick uses contrasting imagery in ‘Wentworth High School’
and ‘Westfield Creek’ to paint a picture of Billy’s education.
• The majority of the poems in this chapter are written in present tense, which
gives the reader the feeling that they are journeying with Billy as he leaves
Bendarat. However, one poem in the chapter serves as a flashback to Billy’s
childhood. Account for the placement of the flashback within the sequence of
poems.
• Notice that the first and last poem in this chapter include notes within the
poems. What effect do these notes have on the way each poem is read?

Chapter 2
2. Bendarat

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• Does it surprise you that Billy heads to the library of Bendarat? Justify your
response.
• How does Billy cope with being homeless?
• Draw a map of Bendarat based on Billy’s recounting of his experience in this
chapter.
• How do Billy’s initial encounters in this new place compare with his final
encounters in Wentworthville?
• How does the first line in the poem ‘Bendarat’ function as a symbol for Billy’s
entrance to the new town?
• There is a striking absence of stanzas in the majority of the poems in this text.
However, ‘The Librarian’ stands in contrast to this. What is the effect of having
multiple stanzas in this poem and what does it reveal about this initial
experience in Bendarat?
• After the interaction in ‘The Librarian’, all subsequent poems in this chapter
begin with the personal pronoun ‘I’ or the possessive ‘I’m’. Consider the
opening lines in ‘Lunch’, ‘The Motel Bendarat’, ‘Night’ and ‘Eating Out’ and
explain what image of Billy emerges.

Chapter 3
3. Caitlin
• Choose three words to describe the persona of Caitlin. Provide an explanation
of why you chose those words by using evidence from the poems in this
chapter.
• Explain how our expectations are subverted in relation to ‘hunger’ in the poem
of the same name. ‘Now I’m a normal seventeen-year-old girl.’ Do you think
Caitlin’s claim is accurate? Consider the reflections on being a teenager from
the initial activities completed in this unit.
• The first time we hear from Caitlin is in the poem ‘Caitlin and mopping’.
Write down all the repeated words in this poem and note down the frequency of
their use. What image of Caitlin is created by the frequency of the repetition in
this poem?
• Isolate all the language used by Billy to describe Caitlin in the poem ‘Billy’.
What do you notice about the words used and what does this tell you about his
initial impressions of Caitlin?

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• Explain the effect of the formatting of the text and the placement of the
business card in ‘Business’.

Chapter 4
4. The Hobo Hour
• How does the way that Billy recounts the initial encounters with Old Bill
shape our perspective of Old Bill’s character?
• What are the parallels between Old Bill and the town of Bendarat?
• Describe the developing relationships between Billy and Old Bill, and Caitlin
and Billy.
• What is the average word length of the lines in the poem ‘The hobo hour’?
What is the cumulative effect of the succession of short lines? In your answer,
consider how the time that passes between the start of the poem and the end.
• Typically, the poems in this text explore the thoughts and experiences of a
particular persona. In ‘Rich town’ Billy recounts the words of Old Bill. What is
achieved by this choice?
• Account for the use of present continuous verbs by Billy in describing his
dream in ‘Before my time’.
• Explain the metaphoric use of the word ‘fragile’ in ‘Too early’.

• There are a number of poetic devices used in the poem ‘Bendarat River’. Why
is this unusual to see and why do you think it is evident in this particular poem?
• What is achieved by the repeated use of ‘and’ at the beginning of many of the
lines in ‘Happen’?
Chapter 5
5. Work
• Compare the experience of working at the cannery from the point of view of
Old Billy and Billy. • Explain what is meant by the paradox ‘with nothing,
you’re rich’.

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 • What does Caitlin’s recount of her lunchtime conversation with her friends
reveal about the teenage experience?
• How is Old Bill’s vulnerability shown in ‘Truth and Beauty’, ‘Old Bill’s Fall’
and ‘The House’?
• Examine the language used by Old Bill in ‘That bloody kid’. How does it
communicate Old Bill’s vulnerability?
• There is strong imagery used in the poem ‘My hands’. Write down words or
phrases from the poem that appeal to each sense. What does the language
demonstrate about the experience?
• Explain how Caitlin’s frustration is communicated through the poem ‘Caitlin’.
• Look at the organisation of the lines and stanzas in both ‘Lunchtime’ and
‘Grateful’. In what ways does the formatting reflect the moment experienced by
the girls?
• Contrast the words that describe the way in which food and drink are
consumed in the ‘The picnic’ and ‘Truth and beauty’. Explain what is revealed
about the Caitlin and Old Bill respectively.
• Explain the difference in effect in using the noun ‘fall’ in the title of the poem
and the continuous verb ‘falling’ in the line ‘and I’ve been falling ever since.’
Chapter 6
6. Friends
• What aspects of the teenager experience are communicated through the poems
from Caitlin’s point of view?
• How can the reader tell that the friendship between Billy and Old Bill is
becoming stronger?
• How does contrast function in the poem ‘Comfort’?
• Comment on Caitlin’s use of sarcasm in the poems ‘Dinner’ and ‘The weekend
off’.
Chapter 7
7. The Simple Gift
• Why is Caitlin so ashamed?
• What is the simple gift?

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• Why does Billy purchase ginger beer?
• There are several accounts of people eating meals in this chapter. From your
perspective, which meal has the greatest impact on the trajectory of the journey
of the three characters?
• In ‘The shadows’ Cailtin observes a moment of interaction between Billy and
Old Bill. What is achieved by itemising each moment of the interaction in
successive lines i.e. ‘and Billy’s pouring coffee / and giving it to the man…’?
• How does Caitlin’s language in ‘The afternoon off’ demonstrate her sense of
disappointment? • What does the simile ‘as though he was visiting the moon’
reveal about Old Bill?
• What is achieved by the repetition of, ‘It was like stepping into heaven’ in the
poem ‘Heaven’?
• What do you notice about the language in the poem ‘Making love’?
• This chapter is dominated by the voice of Caitlin as evidenced through the
number of poems from her point of view. What effect does this have on our
understanding of the chapter?

Chapter 8
8. Closing in
• Consider what Old Bill shares in the poem ‘Old Bill and this town’. In what
ways has his outlook shifted?
• What situation disrupts the sense of stability Billy has established in Bendarat?
• To whom and what does ‘So obvious and simple and so unbearably painful’
refer to?
• Why does Old Bill say ‘I felt pride’ in the poem ‘Near’?
• Even though Old Bill and Billy lie to authorities, the reader feels a sense of
triumph in their ability to fool the welfare worker. Why is this so?
• Explain the effect of repeating the statement at the start and end of the poem
‘Nothing’s easy’. • How does Old Bill’s language paint a picture of him as a
father in the poem ‘Old Bill’s long walk’?
• How does the use of alternating points of view build anticipation in this
chapter?

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• Old Bill describes a past memory of his deceased daughter Jessie in the poem
‘To help people’. In what ways in his language delicate?
• Why is war used as a metaphor in the poem ‘War’ by Caitlin?
• How effective are simple conjunctions such as ‘but’, ‘because’ and ‘and’ at
communicating the internal struggles experienced by Old Bill in ‘Near’ and ‘All
that knowledge’?
• What do you notice about the pronoun usage in ‘Old Bill’s plan’?

Chapter 9
9. Locks and keys
• What does Billy do after leaving the welfare office?
• Why does Old Bill keep his hands in his pockets?
• How does Herrick depict Old Bill as a father figure in this chapter?
• ‘I reach behind for Billy’s hand / and we walk inside.’ Could the text have
successfully ended at this point? Would you have been satisfied with this
ending?
• In this chapter, Old Bill, Billy and Caitlin come to terms with life changing
news. Choose one of the poems from this chapter and experiment with the line
breaks to enhance the drama of the moment.
Chapter 10
10. Old Bill
• What is the project Old Bill decides to complete?
• Why do Billy and Cailtin walk through Old Bill's house ‘treading carefully,
quiet, like in a museum’?
• What lie does Caitlin tell her mum?
• What meal do Billy and Caitlin consume in their first night at the house?
• This chapter contains many images of domesticated adult life. Do these match
your expectations of how you thought Billy’s journey would end up?
• How do the line breaks and description in the poem ‘Measure’ reflect the way
in which Caitlin and Billy explore the house?
• What is the effect of including the height marking names and dates?
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• Explain the difference in effect of the line ‘I love Billy and I’m sure of him.’ if
‘him’ was changed to ‘it’.
• Superlative adjectives are used to indicate the upper and lower limits of
quality e.g. best medicine, worst outfit. In the poem ‘The best meal’ how does
the description of the meal experience support the judgement that it was the
‘best meal’?
Chapter 11
11. The hob sky
• Why does Billy vow to visit his carriage once a week?
• How does Irene help Billy in this chapter?
• How is Billy’s reflective mood communicated through the language in the
poem ‘Midnight’?
• How does the imagery in the poem ‘Respect’ paint an idyllic suburban
lifestyle?
• Explain the significance of the recurring imagery of the Weetbix and milk
breakfast scene.
• How appropriate is the symbol of the sky in the closing poem of the chapter
and text as a whole?