Billy Merrit Character Analysis in The Chosen

The blonde, angelic and blind boy in the bed next to Reuven’s in the hospital. Billy is eternally hopeful and sweet and talks about how he is going to receive a new surgery to regain his sight. He became blind when in a car accident that also killed his mother. After Reuven leaves the hospital he finds out that Billy’s operation was unsuccessful.

Billy Merrit Quotes in The Chosen

The The Chosen quotes below are all either spoken by Billy Merrit or refer to Billy Merrit. 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:

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Fawcett edition of The Chosen published in 1987.

It was as senseless, as – I held my breath, feeling myself shiver with fear – as Billy’s blindness was senseless. That was it. It was as senseless, as empty of meaning, as Billy’s blindness. I lay there and thought of Roosevelt being dead and Billy being blind, and finally I turned over and lay with my face on the pillow and felt myself crying. I cried a long time.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 188

Explanation and Analysis:

Billy Merrit Character Timeline in The Chosen

The timeline below shows where the character Billy Merrit appears in The Chosen. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...Tony and introduces himself as Robert (instead of Reuven). Reuven also describes his appearance to Billy, who tells Reuven that he will be having a new operation to hopefully restore his... (full context)

Billy’s father, Roger Merrit, comes to visit and asks Reuven to come visit them after Billy’s... (full context)

...tells Reuven to go back to bed. In the morning the curtain is still drawn. Billy and Reuven are nervous about Mr. Savo, and Reuven takes out his tefillin and prays... (full context)

...and it becomes clear that his recent injury arose from throwing the ball to Mickey. Billy has left for his operation and Reuven spends the morning praying for him. (full context)

...with yeshiva teachers like Mr. Malter. During the blessing Reuven thinks about Mr. Savo and Billy and whether he would be able to say a blessing if he had been blinded.... (full context)

Reuven calls Mr. Merrit, Billy’s father, to see how the operation went. Mr. Merrit tells Reuven that it was not... (full context)

...FDR did during the Depression. Reuven feels like this is a senseless tragedy akin to Billy’s blindness. (full context)