Characters
The main character is Seth, the narrator, who offers a dual perspective on the story's events. He is both the young boy experiencing the spring day and the mature forty-four-year-old man reflecting on these memories. These two viewpoints are somewhat distinct—the youthful observer for most of the narrative and the mature commentator who appears at the end. However, a discerning reader should understand that Seth's day is being "recollected in tranquillity" long after it occurred.
Although the other characters are secondary to Seth, they play crucial roles. This is especially true for Seth's parents and the tramp, the only other character who receives more than a brief appearance. Seth's father and mother are depicted as pillars of authority and stability. The father, in particular, is a figure of power who seems to shield Seth from the less structured life of the impoverished white family mentioned in the context of the dead cow. Seth's mother also represents authority and affection, but Seth appears more inclined to challenge her rules and harbors some resentment towards her. An example of this defiance is his choice to go barefoot on an unexpectedly chilly day.
The African-American characters are portrayed as extensions of Seth's orderly world, yet Dellie introduces an element of mystery with her sudden and unexplained illness. In contrast, Old Jebb is depicted as timeless and a keeper of ancient folklore.
More significant than the other secondary characters is the irritable tramp. This tramp receives nearly as much focus in the story as Seth, appearing more frequently than other secondary characters and engaging in separate interactions with both Seth's father and mother. Additionally, the tramp is central to two dramatic moments at the story's end—his refusal of the father's job offer and his furious final warning to Seth. Generally, the tramp serves as a stark contrast to Seth's structured and predictable world; his intrusion introduces a realm of human experience rarely acknowledged by Seth's family or community leaders. Ultimately, it is Seth's memory of the tramp that symbolizes the morning's revelation or epiphany for the mature narrator.
Characters
Dellie
Dellie is married to the sharecropper Old Jebb and is the mother of Seth's occasional playmate, Jebb. She works as a cook for Seth's family. This African-American family resides in a cabin on the narrator's family farm. On the day the story unfolds, Dellie is bedridden with an unspecified "female" illness. Young Seth is taken aback by her deteriorated appearance and is shocked when she angrily slaps her son so hard that he bursts into tears.
Father
The father's first or last name is never mentioned in the story, but he plays a significant role in both the day's events and in the elder Seth's memories. The information provided suggests he is a community leader, a loving father, and a fearless protector of his family. He exemplifies the virtues of his rural southern upbringing: chivalry, loyalty, resourcefulness, and restraint. To the boy, he represents everything the tramp is not, and despite the boy's fascination with the sinister stranger, it is evident that he loves and respects his father. The elder narrator recalls his father as "a tall, limber man who carried himself well. I was always proud to see him sit a horse, he was so quiet and straight, and when I stepped through the gap of the hedge that morning, the first thing that happened was, I remember, the warm feeling I always had when I saw him up there on a horse, just sitting." He passes away just a few years after the events of the story.
Jebb
Often referred to...
(This entire section contains 767 words.)
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as Little Jebb, he is the son of Dellie and Old Jebb, and is about two years older than Seth. He lives with his sharecropper parents in a cabin provided by Seth's father. On the day the story occurs, his mother harshly slaps him for making too much noise while playing with Seth. In the story's epilogue, Seth reveals that Jebb "grew up to be a mean and fiery Negro. [He] killed another Negro in a fight and got sent to the penitentiary."
Mother
Seth's mother, named Sallie, is strong and courageous. She sets boundaries for her young son and tries to prevent him from going outside barefoot in the cold air. The older Seth remembers his mother for her other, non-maternal traits. When she confronts the strange man with a knife in his pocket, the narrator notes that many women would have been scared, "But my mother wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t a big woman, but she was clear and brisk about everything she did and looked everybody and everything right in the eye from her own blue eyes in her tanned face." It is later revealed that she passed away within three years of Seth's father's death, "right in the middle of life."
Old Jebb
Old Jebb is Jebb's father and Dellie's live-in partner. The narrator recalls him as an elderly man, "in his seventies," but notes that he was "strong as a bull." Young Seth is captivated by him because he had "the kindest and wisest face in the world, the blunt, sad, wise face of an old animal peering tolerantly at the merely human activities before him."
Seth
Seth, the narrator and central figure of the story, is only mentioned by name when his father calls out to him from a crowd observing a flooding creek. At nine years old, Seth is deeply rooted in his world, living a child's innocent life, free from the bounds of time and untroubled by death or evil. However, as the story progresses, he witnesses and experiences events that begin to alter his perception of himself and his surroundings. The older Seth has a much clearer understanding of what happened that day, but his need to revisit and recount the story suggests lingering unresolved feelings and unanswered questions. The biggest enigma surrounding Seth is what transpired over the thirty-five years between the events and the story's narration.
The Tramp
The tramp, also referred to as the man, or the man with a knife, is a sinister stranger dressed in inappropriate city clothes who approaches the back door of Seth's family farmhouse from the woods. Seth immediately notices that "Everything was wrong about what he wore," and his threatening appearance accurately foretells his behavior. Initially, he is a sullen and ineffective worker. He then curses and spits at Seth's father, and ultimately, he snarls at and threatens Seth himself. Despite this, his exotic and defiant nature exerts a powerful allure on young Seth, and it seems to have remained so throughout Seth's life, as implied by the narrator's cryptic remarks in the epilogue.
