Character Clues

Character Analysis

Direct Characterization

You don't have to be a regular detective to figure out the characters in this book since Griffin comes right out and tells us all we need to know about them right away. For example, when we first meet Fatima, we learn:

Her mother had given the young woman her first name, but for her new life Fatima chose the last, a French word meaning to hope. (2.5)

Okay, okay, we get it: She is hopeful, just like the name she chose. The same thing happens with Jimmi (minus the hopeful part). We're told:

Jimmi Sixes the street poet eyed the bathroom mirror. (4.2)

So the guy's a poet and he knows it. The direct characterization throughout the novel keeps us focused on the story. The characters are clearly and deliberately established, freeing us up as readers to dig deep into the complexities of their experiences. There's no doubt that Jimmi's a poet, for instance, but the reasons he gets hanged are a whole lot more complicated.

Actions

Just like direct characterization keeps our characters crystal clear for us in The Orange Houses, so, too, do their actions. For instance, we understand that Mik has a hard time checking into the world around her, preferring to control when she participates and when she takes refuge in the silence of her mind, when we're told:

She got by just fine when she kept her hearing aids turned on. She didn't much. The machines were what City Services could give her, old technology that jug-handled her ears and rattled her with phone and radio static, a high-pitched whir. They sharpened and dulled everything at the same time the way water will just below the surface. But turned off and plugging up her drums, the aids screened out the world. She lived for this silky silence. (1.6)

In other words, Mik turns her hearing aids on and off (okay, mostly off) in accordance with whether or not she wants to let the world in. And that she mostly doesn't makes it clear that she doesn't think of the world around her as a particularly friendly place—until the end, that is, when she decides to turn her hearing aids on and give the world a shot.

Fatima's actions show bravery over and over again. From her decision to come to America to her willingness to throw herself between Jimmi and the mob to the calm with which she accepts being deported, she is unflappable. And on the flip side, Jimmi constantly demonstrates uncertainty—tossing his drugs and then jonesing for them, musing over whether being alive is worth it—but when push comes to shove, he also does the right thing. He rescues Mik, after all, which sends him to his own terrible fate.

And speaking of Jimmi's terrible fate, let's be clear about one thing: That mob? Yeah—it's terrible. The actions of that group of people make this super clear.