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Chapter 4: The Hobo Hour
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
Sorry. Old Bill feels bad for swearing at Billy. He wants to help Billy out, so he knocks on the door of Billy’s train car and tells him that if he goes to the cannery on Monday mornings during the harvest season, they will hire him on a week-by-week basis. Billy says, “great, let’s go” and Old Bill finds himself walking to the cannery for work he doesn’t want or need, all because he feels bad about swearing at Billy.
Old Bill appreciates and thus reciprocates Billy’s generous gift of breakfast with advice. At this point in the book, Old Bill remains so consumed by his own inner demons that he can’t see a purpose to his life. But while he can’t feel that purpose internally, Billy provides it externally by dragging him along to the cannery for work.
Themes
Work. Early on Monday morning, Billy walks to the cannery with Old Bill, where the foreman offers them work for the week. The noise and the smell of the cannery are overpowering, but Billy knows how badly he and Old Bill will need the wages. They work on the tomato line, cutting bruises and rotten bits from fruit that’s about to be processed into tomato soup and katsup. Billy keeps himself focused on the twelve dollars an hour he’s making for the gross work.
With Billy’s freedom comes the responsibility to provide for himself. He completes this disgusting and degrading work without complaint because he knows that it will add to the small amount of money he had when he ran away and will allow him to continue to live his self-directed life.
Themes
That bloody kid. Old Bill regrets feeling sorry for Billy every day at 6:30 a.m. when the teen wakes him up for breakfast and their early morning walk to the cannery. Old Bill wants to be left alone; he doesn’t need the money or companionship Billy forces on him. But he can’t bring himself to tell Billy to go away. And he’s drinking and smoking less—maybe Billy will turn him into some sort of health freak!
Old Bill wants to be left alone, but Billy seems to understand that Old Bill needs company and companionship instead of the isolation that feeds his misery. And the small changes Old Bill starts making seem to prove Billy correct. At this point, the gifts of attention and care flow mainly from Billy to Old Bill.
Themes
My hands. After a week at the cannery, Billy’s hands are stained red from tomatoes, and he can’t stomach the sight or taste of katsup on the burgers and fries he pilfers at McDonald’s. The jars of sauce made at the cannery show a farmer holding up shiny, ripe, attractive tomatoes, but Billy knows that mushy, overripe, and rotting fruit goes into the sauce. And that the other cannery workers cough.
Work at the cannery marks Billy’s body in the same way the abuse he suffered at the hands of his dad. And seeing what goes into bottles of katsup confirms that just because a thing looks nice and shiny doesn’t mean that it is nice and shiny, suggesting that it’s more important to judge things by their insides than their appearances.
Themes
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Burning. At the end of the week, Billy and Old Bill receive their wages in cash. Billy now has more cash in his pocket than he’s ever had in his life. He asks Old Bill what he plans to do with his money, and Old Bill answers that he will drink it and piss it away. Then Old Bill stands up and walks away, all that drinking money burning a hole in his pocket.
Old Bill’s response points yet again to the book’s claim that a person can’t buy the truly valuable things in life—companionship, freedom, love, and happiness—with cash.
Themes
Rich. Billy can’t decide what to do with his money—splurge on a nice meal at a restaurant, buy new clothes or a better sleeping bag, or get something like a radio to listen to during the lonely nights. He suddenly realizes that the money seems to be making his life harder—with all the decisions it forces on him—than it was when he had nothing. He understands why Old Bill wants to spend his money quickly, to get back to being penniless rich.
Billy doesn’t want to waste his earnings as Old Bill plans to do by drinking them away. But he doesn’t want to keep them either; the cash doesn’t get him the things he truly wants and needs, like love and acceptance. His reflections on choice paralysis—the idea that the more options one has, the harder it is to choose—confirm that people should look for value in intangible things rather than material possessions.
Themes
Green. Billy goes into a jewelry store, where the kind jeweler treats him with humanity and respect, treating Billy as a serious customer even though he walked in off the street looking poor, young, and smelling like the cannery. This—and the fact that he doesn’t want to have to skip town—keeps Billy from shoplifting one of the rings. Instead, he buys one—a sterling silver ring with a green stone to match her eyes—for Caitlin with some of his cash.
To avoid wasting the money, Billy instead invests it in a gift for Caitlin—turning his material wealth into a token that will add value to his emotional life by deepening their relationship. Already Caitlin has become incredibly important to Billy. And his decision to buy rather than steal the ring reminds readers that just because he’s chosen to live outside society’s rules doesn’t mean that he’s lost his sense of right and wrong.
Themes
Sleep. Sometimes, Billy finds Old Bill collapsed in a drunken stupor on the gravel outside the train car. When this happens, he tries to rouse the older man and helps him inside, where it’s warmer. Old Bill usually cusses for being woken up and fussed over by a kid who hasn’t got the sense to leave well enough alone.
Old Bill, lost in his misery and pain, continues to rebuff Billy’s attempts at caring. But Billy remains undeterred no matter how cranky Old Bill gets. This shows Billy’s strength of character and kindness as well. It also reinforces the value of meaningful relationships.
Themes
Need. Billy helps Old Bill to repay the kindness of people, like Ernie and Irene, who have helped him. He remembers a neighbor from his childhood, too, who silently brought him a dinner when Billy was hiding from his dad in her chicken coop. She moved away before he could thank her. So now he helps Old Bill for the simple reason that Old Bill needs it, just like Billy once needed it.
In this poem, Billy reflects on the reasons he’s helping Old Bill, even when Old Bill seems to resist him. Others like Ernie and Irene helped Billy when he needed it, even when he was breaking the law by riding on the train. And his memory reveals an important connection between food, relationships, and generosity—when people don’t know how else to help, a simple meal can go a long way.
Themes
The mop and bucket. One night at McDonald’s, Caitlin mops her way over to Billy’s table and boldly asks him for a date on Saturday. She tells him to pick the place and she will bring a picnic. She tries to feel casual about the whole thing, but it feels like a big deal to both of them.
Just as Billy makes the first moves to establish a friendship with Old Bill, Caitlin makes the first moves in establishing the relationship between herself and Billy. This shows how relationships involve mutuality and exchange.
Themes
Caitlin. Caitlin thinks about her life. She has so much stuff: a big bedroom with its own bathroom, TV set, and computer; more clothes, makeup, and skincare than she will ever use; and even the promise of a car when she turns 18. Her family has plenty of money and her parents buy her the things they think she needs or wants. But she knows that what she really needs isn’t in her room and certainly can’t be bought at a store.
Caitlin contrasts the material privilege of her life with the emotional emptiness at the heart of her relationships with her parents. The things she truly wants and needs—love and acceptance—can’t be purchased. Her growing friendship with Billy, who has next to nothing in terms of wealth, proves this.
Themes
Lunchtime. On Friday, Caitlin tells her friends Petra and Kate about her date with Billy. Petra teases her about how romantic it would be to have outdoor sex. And then Kate shocks both Caitlin and Petra by casually admitting that she has already had sex once.
Caitlin’s relationship with Billy has thus far been platonic, but her friends immediately assume that it has a sexual component. Their expectations seem to suggest a social pressure for certain kinds of intimacy (sexual) ahead of the emotional intimacy that forges truly meaningful relationships.
Themes
Grateful. Petra and Caitlin stare at Kate in shock. After a moment, Kate tells them the story, while Caitlin looks around the schoolyard to avoid meeting her friend’s eyes. Kate says that she had sex about a year ago. She expected it to be easy, clean, and special, but it wasn’t. She doesn’t even remember which boy she had sex with. And it was too quick, too messy, and uncomfortable. Afterward both she and the boy felt silly. And ever since, she’s been too scared to try it again. The lunch bell rings, and Caitlin gratefully walks to her afternoon classes.
Kate’s story of unfulfilling and uncomfortable sex places another limit on meaningful relationships. Sex doesn’t make a good relationship, her experience demonstrates; instead, intimacy and mutuality make good relationships regardless of whether they’re sexual or not.
Themes
No hurry. On Saturday, Caitlin knocks on the door of Carriage 1864. She has a picnic basket filled with good food: bread, cheese, roasted chicken, fruit, and beer. Billy has washed his clothes at the laundromat for the occasion. It’s a beautiful, clear, sunshiny day, and Billy takes Caitlin to his favorite bend of the Bendarat River. He leaves the ring behind, hidden in a safe spot in his train car. He’s in no hurry—it’s a beautiful Saturday and they have all the time in the world.
Despite the expectations of Caitlin’s peers, Caitlin and Billy don’t rush into a sexual relationship. Without the pressure of others, they can explore and allow their relationship to develop at its own, unhurried pace. Importantly, they do this over a picnic of good food, since food brings people together in this book. And the growing richness of their relationship parallels the food Caitlin brings, which is far more delicious than Billy’s usual fare of leftover fries.
Themes
The picnic. Billy and Caitlin slowly and lazily savor everything in the picnic basket. The warm sun, beer, and good food lull them both into a pleasant state of languor, and they fall asleep next to each other on the picnic blanket.
Falling asleep together demonstrates the growing depth of Billy’s and Caitlin’s mutual trust and sense of safety. They don’t need to have sex to establish an intimate relationship.
Themes
Truth and beauty. Old Bill walks into a bar, gives the bartender twenty dollars and tells her to keep serving him beers until all the money is gone. She places a tall, cold glass of foaming beer on the bar for him, and for a moment he considers its beauty. The bubbles dance up the sides of the class, and the beer shines with a bright amber glow. He can smell the malt and barley used to craft it. But then he picks up the mug and gulps the beer down as quickly as possible, and all thoughts of truth and beauty flee from him.
This poem creates a sharp contrast between Old Bill’s rumination on the beauty of the beer as something that should be savored and appreciated and his unaesthetic rush to get drunk as fast as possible. While his personal hardships still dictate his life, this small window of reflection shows the extent to which his relationship with Billy is already changing his perspective.
Themes
Old Bill’s fall. As he drinks, Old Bill remembers the tragedy that upended his life. In 1993, his daughter, Jessie, fell out of a tree. She lingered in a coma for nearly two weeks. Old Bill told her family stories that whole time, trying to get her to wake up. When the doctors suggested taking Jessie off life support, it took Old Bill and his wife four days to sign the papers. He signed with one hand while holding Jessie’s hand with the other. It took her hours to die. Afterward, Old Bill went home and chopped the tree down in a rage. He wants to know why this happened to him; kids fall out of trees all the time without dying. But Jessie fell and Old Bill fell with her straight into the Freight Yard and the bar. And he feels like he’s falling still.
In this poem, Old Bill finally gives readers some insight into his past. The loss of his family (albeit under very different circumstances) creates another point of connection between his life story and Billy’s—both have run away from homes that became too painful to stay within. And Old Bill’s memories pointedly remind readers that life itself can limit a person’s choices. Sometimes fate or life intervenes in unexpected ways. To create a meaningful life means finding purpose despite pain and tragedy.
Themes
The house. Old Bill continues to remember his life’s tragedies. His wife died exactly one year after Jessie. She turned to alcohol in the wake of that tragedy. She was drunk when her car crashed into a roadside tree, and she died. After her funeral, Old Bill locked up the house and moved into the train yard. He couldn’t stay, but he can’t imagine selling his family’s home and allowing other people to live there, either. So he visits occasionally to mow the lawn and remember his old life. And then he returns to the train yard and drinks until he forgets.
In a way, both Old Bill and Billy are runaways who fled homes which had become places of pain and suffering. In order to find redemption, this poem suggests, Old Bill needs to move beyond the pain of Jessie’s death and find a way to rehabilitate his house into a site of safety and belonging.
Themes
