Character Analysis
Kotrina is Teta Elzbieta's only daughter and Ona's half-sister. When Teta Elzbieta is forced to go out into the working world, it becomes Kotrina's responsibility to look after their home. She is only thirteen, but she has to do all of the cooking and cleaning for the whole family. She also takes care of Baby Antanas and Juozapas, her youngest surviving brother. When Jurgis is in prison and the family really starts to starve, Kotrina leaves the house to join her brothers selling newspapers in downtown Chicago.
After Kotrina starts working in Chicago, we no longer hear much about her. There are some troubling hints that things may not be going all that well, though. In Chapter 21, after Jurgis has gotten out of prison and found and lost yet another job, he finds out that a man tried to grab Kotrina's arm and drag her into a dark alley at some point. She escaped, but she has grown frightened of the city. Without an education or any skills, Kotrina's chances of making it to a happy adulthood seem pretty slight.