This is England analysis

At the start of the film we are introduced to this innocent boy ‘Shaun’ who is still grieving the death of his father, he lives the life of an average English kid, going to school everyday, playing with his friends, etc. At school things start to go wrong for him as he is effectively bullied for many reasons such as; the clothes he wears, his appearance, hairstyle and is teased about his the death of his father. Shaun is more and more sensitized; frankly he can’t take any more of it. Due to the absence of his father he seeks help preferably from a male figure in order to resolve these issues he is having at school, at this point his relationship with his mother starts to deteriorate as she simply wouldn’t understand and this foreshadows what was yet to happen. In seeking for this male father figure ‘Shaun’ more or less loses motivation and at this pivotal point he come across a lad name ‘Woody’ who is much older than ‘Shaun’ and is also apart of a gang who all represent the same identity ‘Skinheads’. As we understand ‘Shaun’ had lost nearly all motivation and was really looking for help or someone to protect so as he met ‘Woody’ which introduced him to his gang ‘Shaun’ saw this as an opportunity to belong to something and from this point onwards he knew he was not going to be bullied anymore. He is suddenly to a foreign lifestyle, which he had no knowledge on before and not suited to someone of his age. They take him to parties, they smoke, drink, meets and make him center of attention effectively restoring his confidence/motivation in life that he had recently lost and he no longer resembles the ‘Shaun’ at the start of the film. This shows the audience how huge the impact that a persons surrounding can have on them to the point that they become a completely new being. We start to see a personality emerge out of ‘Shaun’ as he becomes deeply involved in the activities his friends take part in and the audience see how happy he becomes as apart of this gang which he sees as a family. He starts to joke, speak his mind, socialize, etc. This tells us although people portray gangs always in a negative image these are the positives, this sense of family, love and unite are the reasons why people join these gangs.