Character Clues

Character Analysis

Direct Characterization

In Where Things Come Back, we get pretty direct descriptions of people. Cullen tells us straight-up that Russell is a bully, that Lucas is the nicest guy you'll ever meet, and that his Aunt Julia is a depressed, lonely woman eaten away with grief now that her only son is dead.

And our other narrator doesn't break Cullen's stride. He or she comes right out and tells us that Benton is an earnest, God-fearing boy who just wants to make his father proud, and Cabot is a cocky, self-assured young man. Check it out:

Benton Sage had, since he was a young boy, one ultimate goal in mind at all times: to make his father proud of him. (6.15)

No mincing words there, right? All of these descriptions give us an accurate sense of who these characters are and how they will act—and importantly, a sense of whether the path they follow leads them up, down, or right back to where they started.

Family Life

You can always tell how good a person really is by how they treat their families. This is especially true of the characters in Where Things Come Back. Cullen Witter may seem kind of apathetic and cynical, but he's always there to help his family out—whether it's by identifying Oslo's body, bringing food to his Aunt Julia, or letting Gabriel sleep in his room. Just look at how Mr. Tough Guy responds to the psychic referring to Gabriel in the past tense while he's missing:

"She said he had a strong spirit," I cried. "She said had."

I lowered my body down to the ground and Lucas, not letting go, lowered his with mine. We sat on the grass. Mena stood looking down at us. (11.74-75)

Yup, nothing hard about Cullen's heart. He isn't the only person whose relationship with family informs our sense of their character, though. For instance, we also better understand Benton through his family life; he is ostracized and treated like he's not even a member of the family, which is why he feels so isolated and ends up killing himself.