The Characters

There are 4 characters: the father, the mother,  younger brother Laird  and the girl.

The main character is the girl, narrator of the story. She is 11 years old.She is good, hard-working girl who has adventurous temper and boyish spirit. She dreamed of adventures and feat(“I rescued people from a bombed building (it discouraged me that the real war had gone on so far away from Jubilee). I shot two rabid wolves who were menacing the schoolyard (the teachers cowered terrified at my back).  Rode a fine horse spiritedly down the main street of Jubilee, acknowledging the townspeople’s gratitude for some yet-to-be-worked-out piece of heroism (nobody ever rode a horse there, except King Billy in the Orangemen’s Day  parade). There was always riding and shooting in these stories...” ).

She likes men’s work. She helps her father on the farm with enthusiasm when at the same time she tries to avoid helping her mother.(“ It seemed to me that work in the house was endless, dreary, and peculiarly depressing; work done out of doors, and in my father's service, was ritualistically important.”)

The author describes the father by means of indirect personage’s characterization with the help of speech characterization.  He is slogger, he works hard to feed his family.

(“he raised silver foxes, in pens; and in the fall and early winter, when their fur was prime, he killed them and skinned them and sold their pelts to the Hudson’s Bay Company or the Montreal Fur Traders.”).

The mother is described by means of direct characterization. She is housewife; she also works hard because the work in the house was endless and and she must cope with all tasks (“She did not often come out of the house unless it was to do something – hang out the wash or dig potatoes in the garden. She looked out of place, with her bare lumpy legs, not touched by the sun, her apron still on and damp across the stomach from the supper dishes. Her hair was tied up in a kerchief, wisps of it falling out. She would tie her hair up like this in the morning, saying she did not have time to do it properly, and it would stay tied up all day. It was true, too; she really did not have time.” “My mother was too tired and preoccupied to talk to me, she had no heart to tell about the Normal School Graduation Dance.” )/

Laird is the brother of the main character. He is characterized by means of indirect personage’s characterization. He is little boy, week and clumsy person, but still helps his father at the farm ( “Laird came too, with his little cream and green gardening can, filled too full and knocking against his legs and slopping water on his canvas shoes.”, “Who could imagine Laird doing my work – Laird remembering the padlock and cleaning out the watering dishes with a leaf on the end of a stick, or even wheeling the tank without it tumbling over? “).