Character Analysis
Not to worry—we're going to discuss each of the Alden siblings individually. But, it's also useful to take a minute to think about them as a collective because there are certain qualities they all share. One, of course, is circumstance. As brothers and sisters, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny all have the same (mysterious) background. They've been orphaned, and now they travel together as a pack. The only time they ever spend time apart is when Henry goes to work at Dr. Moore's, and even then, sometimes the other three tag along. Go team.
While each Alden is differentiated in some way, all four children share the same basic outlook on life. They're polite and (mostly) honest, but at the same time, they're not afraid to break the rules when it's necessary to get away from trouble. They're resourceful and independent, finding the things they need in nature or in other people's discarded trash, and they're kind to each other and to others. Most of all, they're happy and hard-working … which is fortunate, because living in a boxcar in the woods ain't exactly easy.
Gertrude Chandler Warner doesn't spend a lot of time developing the children's personalities. Part of the reason for this is that she wrote the book with early readers in mind, and this keeps things short and simple. Another reason the kids' personalities are flat is because they're vessels for Warner's ideas about what it means to be an upstanding, well-behaved child. (See more on this in our "Symbols" section.) In other words, they were designed to be role models more than complex characters.