Robert Billings

Robert Billings as the unambitious and unsuccessful outsider

Robert Billings is another important character in the novel The Wave by Morton Rhue. He is described as the perpetual loser of the class. He is not only the outsider in his class, but also within the entire school. He is a stocky boy with an untidy appearance, who does not comb his hair in the morning, and lets his shirts hang out of his pants (Chapter 1, 88%). Since Robert has poor table manners, he usually sits by himself in the cafeteria; the other students literally avoid being close to him and move to another table when he sits down next to them (Chapter 3, 10%).

Robert is hardly interested in lessons, and he completely sleeps through the disturbing film about the Second World War. His grades are also extremely poor for the most part. Ben Ross is concerned about Robert's performance and finally confronts him. Robert confesses that he has given up on himself because no matter what he does, he will always be in the shadow of his older successful brother Jeff Billings. Unlike Robert, Jeff was a true model student and incredibly popular with his classmates. Since Robert believes he can't match Jeff`s achi...