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Chapter 10: Old Bill
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Simple Gift, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Riches and Poverty
Redemption
Love and Family
Rules and Freedom
Summary
Analysis
Midnight. Unused to the quiet of house rather than the noisy Freight Yard, Billy can’t sleep. In the middle of the night, he gets up and quietly lets himself out to walk around the hushed town. He walks down to the train station and looks towards the Freight Yard, where he knows Old Bill sleeps in his own train car. Billy promises himself to visit Carriage 1864 at least once a week so that he will never forget the sights and sounds of his “hobo life” or his home near the tracks.
The house provides Billy shelter and safety, but it also marks the beginning of a new phase of his life. Just as he had trouble adjusting to the sounds of the freight yard at night several months ago, now he has trouble adjusting to silence. He takes this as an opportunity to reflect on where he has ended up and to remind himself how much he has to be grateful for. While he looks toward the future, he resolves to keep the lessons of this time close to his heart, especially the value of charting his own path in life and the importance of having strong, supportive relationships with others.
Themes
Drinking by the river. Billy and Old Bill meet up at the river to share lunch. While they watch birds in the water and on the opposite bank, Old Bill tells Billy about his old life and his office job and all the days he worked overtime and came home late to find his wife and Jessie waiting eagerly for him. He has a trust fund leftover from those days, and it gives him just enough to live off on. Old Bill makes a face over the ginger beer Billy brought him and confesses that it’s taking a while to get used to the taste of being sober all day.
With the house occupied, Old Bill’s healing continues; he talks more and more about his old life with Billy. And he reiterates one of the book’s central claims: the most important and valuable things in life have nothing to do with wealth or money. While Old Bill appreciated and loved his family, he still looks back on his life years earlier as unbalanced because of the importance he placed on money. Now he realizes not only how little money he needs to live on, but also how relationships make life worth living.
Themes
Respect. It feels funny to be living in a house again, but Billy likes the comfortable bed and the opportunity to cook the “proper food” that Caitlin brings over. He especially loves the curtains and the way he can choose to close himself up privately or let in the sunshine. He’s not afraid to look out the windows or ashamed for people to see him in this house. Out of respect for Old Bill and his generosity, Billy “treads lightly,” keeps the house very clean, and makes sure that nothing breaks.
Early in the book, Billy told readers that he wasn’t proud to be a runaway. Yet, as Caitlin recognized, he did take pride in his self-determination and the autonomy he claimed in leaving his abusive dad and living on his own terms. He learned that there wasn’t shame in being unhoused (even though he’s incredibly grateful to have a house now) and learned to honor and appreciate the shelter that Old Bill shared and the non-McDonald’s food that Caitlin shared even more.
Themes
Maybe. Billy tells Irene Thompson about the house. She’s happy he has a safe place to stay but worries about how long he will be able to afford it. Billy says he might go back to the cannery for work. Irene also tells him about a government subsidy program for education, and Billy says that he will think about it. If someone paid him, he would maybe consider going back and finishing school.
Billy has solved some of his problems, but he still needs to invest in choices that will allow him to live an independent and meaningful life going forward. While he appreciates Irene’s help and suggestions, he also makes it clear that he will make the decisions that appeal to him. He finds value in the people in his life more than accomplishments like making money or having a fancy education—neither of which protected Old Bill from tragedy.
Themes
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Holiday. One morning, Billy wakes up early and packs up a thermos of coffee, some cereal, and a carton of milk. He carries these down to the Freight Yard and wakes Old Bill up for breakfast, just like he used to. And just like old times, Old Bill wakes up cussing at Billy. As Old Bill eats his fill, he tells Billy about his plan to go north—with the ghosts from his house—for a while. Billy doesn’t know what to say as he looks out over the freight yard where he and Old Bill met so many months ago. Finally, he simply says, “I love the house,” and leaves it at that.
Billy seems to intuitively sense the shift in Old Bill when he randomly decides to take his old friend to breakfast. But even though some things change, others stay the same—Old Bill still wakes up cussing. The fact that Old Bill plans to take his ghosts with him shows that the tragic events of his past still mark him. But he’s leaving town for the first time in years, showing that he has begun to rediscover his sense of purpose. And, perhaps most importantly, he’s only been able to do this since becoming friends with Billy, who encouraged him to stop drinking, showed him love and respect, and will take care of Old Bill’s house—and its memories—while Old Bill travels.
Themes
The hobo sky. After breakfast, Billy cleans out the bowls and repacks his bag. He shakes Old Bill’s hand and tells him that the “Bendarat Hilton” is the finest motel he has ever visited. Old Bill laughs and agrees. Billy crosses the tracks and heads toward the library, but he turns back to find Old Bill looking up at the sky. Old Bill stands motionless for a long time, looking like he’s praying. Then he collects his bag and begins to walk slowly and deliberately north. Billy stands and watches him until he’s out of sight. And then Billy turns his own eyes up to the “hobo sky” he and Old Bill share.
Although both Billy and Old Bill referred to the freight yard as a hotel ironically at first—mocking the roughness of the accommodations and trying to put a good spin on their impoverished situations—it seems more like a hotel at the end of the book. Neither Old Bill nor Billy has to stay there; both are free to leave and continue on their journeys towards adulthood (in Billy’s case) and redemption (in Old Bill’s). And although they’re about to be separated by physical space, the bond of friendship they’ve cultivated won’t be easily broken. They still share the sky and the hobo’s freedom to forge their own destinies, no matter what griefs and traumas life throws at them.
Themes
