Billy is the narrator’s brother, who is in rough financial shape. At the beginning of the story, he asks the narrator for money because he recently got laid off from his job at a fiberglass insulation plant, his unemployment benefits are running out and he’s selling his belongings to keep the bank from repossessing his house. While he claims that he’ll repay the narrator and that he has plans to get back on his feet financially, those plans never pan out—his situation goes from bad to worse. Billy’s character highlights the difficulty that blue-collar Americans face when trying to recover from financial hardship. Merely getting laid off from his job destroyed his stable middle-class existence, leaving him with no recourse besides asking his brother for money.
Billy Quotes in Elephant
The Elephant quotes below are all either spoken by Billy or refer to Billy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Elephant
Quotes
He told me he’d hurt his back carrying the TV up and down the street where the pawnshops did business. He went from place to place, he said, trying to get the best offer.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Billy Quotes in Elephant
The Elephant quotes below are all either spoken by Billy or refer to Billy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Elephant
Quotes
He told me he’d hurt his back carrying the TV up and down the street where the pawnshops did business. He went from place to place, he said, trying to get the best offer.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
