How Willy Russell Presents the Natureand Nurture Debate in Blood Brothers

How Willy Russell Presents the Natureand Nurture Debate in Blood Brothers

Where you live determines your future. This was very true during the

time in which Willy Russell's Blood Brothers was set. It was all about

the amount of money you had, what job you had and who your relatives

were. It was all about how you spoke, the clothes that you wore and

the school that you went too. It was all about class, but did any of

this determine the kind of person you were. Are you born an

intelligent, nicer individual just because you are born into upper

class, or are you born a thief just because you are born into middle

class? It was the nature vs. nurture debate, which Willy Russell used

to ask the question, does class determine your future? In Mickey and

Eddies case it did, although they started off as two very similar boys

who enjoyed playing games and running about, it was inevitable for the

two boys to lead two very different adult hoods.

For Mickey, he thought that he would never be anything more than a

factory worker and that because of where he came from, meant that he

couldn't possibly do any better. It's the same for Eddie, except he

knew that he could be whatever he wanted to be because of the money he

had and the school that he went to. Willy Russell based a lot of his

story around the effects that Margaret Thatcher caused. She made the

gap between middle class and upper class people wider than ever,

making where you lived and how much money you earned more important

than the person you were. Middle class people were put into council

houses that were tiny, cramped and cold, but although this was the

case, there was a strong sense of...

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...s how she

persuades her to give away her baby, and then again to keep her away

from Edward. It comes down to the money issue, and how much you can

afford to lose, in Mrs.Johnstone's case, she is bought off and can't

realistically afford to say no to the offer from Mrs.Lyons's to stay

away.

Though it may be a sad reality, during that time, even peoples

standards for their own lives were based on where they lived. Their

own hopes and aspirations, curved to where they thought the boundary

for their success lay. It was as if they could only do as well as

others saw fit for them. Nowadays, everyone decides his or her own

future. No matter what their background is, with the right amount of

determination, goals can be reached, it doesn't matter anymore about

how much many you have or what area you can afford to live in.