Here is a list of the main characters in Manchild in the Promised Land:

• The main character is Sonny (a nickname for Claude), who grows up in Harlem with his religious mother and impatient father. He does not receive much paternal advice and instead must make his way on his own in the streets of Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s. He is shot when trying to rob a fish-and-chips joint at age 13 and survives, and he also spends time in two reform schools, Wiltwyck and Warwick. He tries heroin, but it makes him sick, which saves him from becoming addicted to it. After his brother, Pimp, is arrested, Sonny realizes that he has to become educated and leave Harlem to preserve his life.

• Pimp is Sonny's younger brother who looks up to him, and Sonny is closer to him than he is to his sisters. Pimp eventually falls prey to heroin and steals to buy more drugs. When he is arrested, Sonny decides to leave Harlem for good.

• Ernst Papanek is the head administrator of Wiltwyck, a boys' reform school to which Sonny is sent. He feels that Sonny should not be sent to Warwick, another reform school. At first, Sonny is afraid of Papanek because Papanek can win people over just with his words, without using violence. Sonny considers him "real slick" (73), but he grows to trust him. Papanek has faith in Sonny and encourages him to get an education, and Sonny considers him a beautiful person and a good role model.

• Danny Rogers: Sonny begins hanging out with Danny and his friends, Butch and Kid, when Sonny is 6 and they are 10. Danny lives next door to Sonny and teaches him how to play hooky from school. His mother, Mrs. Rogers, is a religious woman who believes that Danny is on earth to test her faith in God. Danny at first smokes reefers and then becomes a heroin addict. Danny looks out for Sonny, though, and warns him that if he uses heroin, Danny will beat him up.

• Billy Dobbs is a former drug dealer who Sonny tries to convince to stop dealing drugs. When Sonny sees him again in 1956, he finds out that Billy has become an adherent of the Coptic religion. Billy sends Sonny to a Coptic church in Harlem.

• Carole is Sonny's older sister by two years (his other sister is Margie). Carole begs Sonny to stop playing hooky, and she introduces him to a girl named Sugar in her class. At first, Sonny thinks Sugar, who has buck teeth, is the ugliest girl he has ever seen. Sonny and Sugar become friends, but later Sugar becomes addicted to drugs. When he sees her years later, Sonny tries to convince her to attend the Coptic church with him as a means of saving her from drugs, but she only wants $5 to do more drugs.