More Than Human Characters

Ah, Gerry. He's what some people might call 'troubled.' And that's putting it nicely. For starters, he has no problem killing people, including the woman who is basically his mother. Oh yeah, and h...

Hip the hero! His name is short for Hippocrates, as in the Hippocrates, famous Greek physician. That makes sense because Hip Barrows is the one who brings the ethical cure to Gerry's gestalt. Mm-mm...

This guy's very name epitomizes loneliness. That's pretty clear, right? His character ties into the rest of the book because the gestalt, the novel's subject, grows around him as the solution to wh...

We get the feeling that sometimes Janie gets overlooked. She is one of the driving forces of the story, after all. Plus, she's a strong, independently minded female character, which is somewhat unu...

Okay, this character is just weird. But in a cool way, right?Baby is the weird, fat infant who lies in his bassinet for most of the novel. Heck, he doesn't even get a proper name. He's basically ju...

Bonnie and Beanie are two black twins who are basically interchangable. As Lone thinks, "they were like one split person" (1.26.29). He describes them as the "hands" of his unique life form, hands...

Break out the tissues, because Alicia Kew's story is sad, sad, sad. You see, the gestalt is a living group bonded by an organic sense of belonging, but her own family is driven apart by Mr. Kew's s...

Okay, this guy is totally creepy. For starters, we never learn his first name, which is definitely a sign that he's an impersonal and uncaring force. Second, as the twisted father of Alicia and Eve...

This young teenager's time in the novel is short but crucial. She provides the foundation from which the gestalt begins to grow. In other words, pay attention, yo.Evelyn's outstanding trait is inno...

This psychotherapist guy is different from all the other main characters. He doesn't change. If this were a science class—and hey, this is a science fiction novel—Stern would be the "control" v...

This is the nice farmer who finds Lone injured in the woods after the beating from Mr. Kew.Mr. Prodd takes Lone in and, along with his wife Mrs. Prodd, begins healing him. While Mrs. Prodd sings to...

Mrs. Prodd is one half of the husband-wife farming team that takes Lone in after Mr. Kew's beating and heals him.While Mr. Prodd plays a bigger role in the story and is the one to work with Lone on...