Goodbye, Columbus Characters

Twenty-three-year-old Neil is our leading man. He has a degree in philosophy and also spent some two years in the army. He currently has a job at the public library in Newark, New Jersey. He loves...

Brenda is our ultracompetitive, very beautiful leading lady. She's attending Radcliffe University in Boston but is back in Short Hills, New Jersey for the summer. Her field of study is never mentio...

Ron is Brenda's slightly older brother. She seems to have a great relationship with him and they are never seen fighting in the story. He was a star basketball player in college and still plays now...

The boy enters Neil's life around the same time as Brenda. He's a young black child who comes into the library looking for art books. As we discuss in "What's Up With the Title?," he's fascinated w...

Gladys is Neil's aunt. He's lived with her since his parents moved to Phoenix for their asthma. We don't get to know her well, or see things from her perspective. However, her loving relationship w...

Ben Patimkin is a hard-working, self-made man. His lousy grammar suggests that he built Patimkin Kitchen and Bathroom Sinks (the heart of the Patimkin wealth) without the benefit of much education....

Neil says Mrs. Patimkin is more beautiful than the other characters. We learn from Brenda that she was a star tennis player in her youth. She is a strictly Observant Jew and is devoted to doing goo...

Julie is Brenda's nine-year-old sister. The sisters seem to like each other for the most part, but the little girl seems to be even more spoiled than Brenda. For example, the family always lets Ju...

Carlota works for the Patimkins as a maid. Neil describes her as a "Navaho-faced Negro" (2.74), which kind of makes us cringe. We are meant to puzzle over his word choice, and at the same time ques...

Doris is Neil's cousin. Her family got rich and moved to the suburbs several years ago. We don't know a lot about her, except that she looks down on Neil because his family has less money than hers...

Harriet is Ron's fiancée. We only meet her briefly, and Neil describes her as physically attractive but vapid and way too nice.

Leo is Mr. Patimkin's half-brother. He only appears in the story during the Harriet and Ron's wedding reception. He's forty-eight and has a three-year-old daughter. He sells light bulbs for a livin...

Laura is the only female friend we see with Brenda. Perhaps "friend" is too strong a word, as they seem rather at odds when they hang out. Neil doesn't like her at all. Her role in the story is to...

Luther is Ron's friend and Brenda's ex. He dated her for a year and still sees her regularly because of Ron. It goes without saying that Neil is jealous of him. We don't know much more about him ot...

Mr. Scapello is Neil's boss in the library. Just before Neil goes on vacation, he gives him a promotion. Solid.

John is Neil's co-worker, but we mostly remember him as that one racist jerk. He makes derogatory comments about the boy and wants to kick him out of the library. This action drives Neil to protect...

Martha was Neil's coworker, until she fell off a stool when she was shelving a book and broke her hip. This probably means she is old. When Neil gets back from vacation, he takes over her position.