Characters Discussed
(Great Characters in Literature)
King MacLain
King MacLain, the wandering patriarch of Morgana, Mississippi. He periodically reappears in Morgana for sexual encounters with the town’s women. “Shower of Gold” is the story of his courtship of and marriage to Snowdie Hudson and the birth of their twin sons. “Sir Rabbit” tells of his sexual encounter with another Morgana woman. In “The Wanderers,” an aged King returns to Morgana to be cared for by his wife, but he still displays hints of his earlier rebelliousness.
Mrs. Snowdie Hudson MacLain
Mrs. Snowdie Hudson MacLain, the albino wife of King MacLain. Deserted by her husband and left alone to rear her twin sons, Randall and Eugene, Snowdie takes in boarders. The opening story, “Shower of Gold,” tells of the birth of Snowdie’s twin sons. In the last story, “The Wanderers,” Snowdie readies Katie Rainey’s body for burial. Her association with birth and death frames the rest of the stories of Morgana.
Randall MacLain
Randall MacLain, one of King and Snowdie MacLain’s twin sons. As children, the twins demonstrate the rebellious streak inherited from their father. “The Whole World Knows” tells the story of Ran’s troubled relationship with his wife, Jinny Love. Separated from Jinny Love, Ran has an affair with Maideen Sumrall that ends tragically in Maideen’s suicide. At the end of the book, Ran has been elected mayor because of the aura of glamour and revelation his past gives him.
Eugene MacLain
Eugene MacLain, Randall’s twin brother and one of the few characters who leave Morgana. Living in San Francisco, Eugene works for Bertsingers’ Jewelers and marries his former landlady, Emma Gaines, but their love is replaced by sorrow after the death of their daughter. In “Music from Spain,” the habitual Eugene does the unexpected: He slaps his wife, skips work, and spends the day roaming the streets of San Francisco with a...
(The entire section is 810 words.)
