Analysis

The author Melvin Burgess wants to say that there is no typical boy or typical girl. He has the opinion that a girl can box and a boy can dance ballet. When sombody loves a special hobby he should realize his dream. The auther wants us to model oneself on Billy. He has changed his personality, he became more self-confident and we should do the same like Billy. He also wants to show us the hard and poor life of the miners, the strikes and the existential anxiety. This people have not enough to eat, the whole day they work hard or strike and all the time they are in fear of unemployment. The working class (= miners) and the middle class (= culture, ballet teacher ...) are contrary. Ballet and boxing are cantrary and Billy and his father are contrary too. In the end the miners loose. But Billy wins: Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true! Billy´s dream is so powerful that he is convincing even his father and brother of it. So the conflicts between Billy and his father and brother end. At last they are proud of Billy and take part of his new life in a new world, far away from working class, miners, strikes and boxing.