Characters Discussed
Eugene Morris Jerome
Eugene Morris Jerome, a fifteen-year-old Jewish boy living in Brooklyn, New York. Eugene is an enthusiastic, energetic, and persistent boy with a passion for baseball, especially his hometown Dodgers. Newly aware of girls, he is impatient for sexual knowledge and lusts after his cousin Nora. He is young enough to take life, his family, and all their problems lightly and clever enough to be very humorous in the process. He is blamed for everything and must continually cover his tracks. Behind his innocent cleverness is the sharp and insightful mind of an aspiring writer; storytelling and entertaining are already basic elements of Eugene’s highly expressive manner.
Kate Jerome
Kate Jerome, Eugene’s mother. Kate is an optimistic yet realistic forty-year-old woman. Her belief in God and providence and her determination to find the good in all the bad things that happen are balanced with a xenophobic distrust of anything or anyone not immediately familiar. Her generous and nurturing nature can become overprotective; her capacity to worry and dominate sometimes overwhelms the members of her family. Kate works hard to keep them all going but harbors deep anger and resentment for the sacrifices she must make and the trials she must endure.
Blanche Morton
Blanche Morton, Kate’s widowed younger sister. Blanche is a mournful woman who suffers from asthma and headaches and is gradually losing her eyesight...
(The entire section is 614 words.)