Character Clues

Character Analysis

Names

The names of people in the future tell you what sort of society they have and what they value. So there are nature names like Otter and Bee, and there are names of people who fought for justice like Sojourner (after the great abolitionist Sojourner Truth) and names of great artists (like Sappho).

Individual names also tell you about individual characters—especially since people in the future pick their own names. So Hawk is someone who is (or wants to be) adventurous and daring and fierce. And Jackrabbit explains that he named himself:

"For my long legs and my big hunger and my big penis and my jumps through the grass of our common life." (3.144)

Hmm. We're not sure about people naming themselves after their favorite, er, organs… but the rest of it seems pretty dang awesome. We'd love to name ourselves Marge Piercy.

Direct Characterization

Since we're in Connie's viewpoint for so much of the novel, a lot of characterization is done simply by her explaining who someone is, or what they're like.

For instance, the clearest vision we get of what is going on with Dolly is when Connie tells her,

"Dolly, it's you who needs Nita. Sure, your mamá takes good care. But you need her with you. Without her, you don't love yourself. You use yourself like a rag to wipe up the streets. You turn your body to money, and the money to the buzzing of death in your head." (16.6)

And just a few moments later Connie thinks to herself, "Dr. Morgan admired and envied Dr. Redding, as Dr. Redding envied but did not admire Dr. Argent" (16.19). Dr. Morgan and Dr. Redding and Dr. Argent are barely in the book; these flashes of insight about them from Connie is about all you get to separate your Morgans from your Reddings and your Argents.

Actions

Connie's actions tell you about her—and what they tell you in some way contradicts, or complicates, what you know about her in other ways. You're in Connie's head, and she's very sympathetic: courageous despite great suffering, inventive and imaginative, loving, resourceful.

But many of her most dramatic actions cast her in a less positive light. She strikes her daughter and breaks her wrist. She attacks Geraldo—and he may deserve it, but still, the way she relishes the violence seems disturbing ("She hated Geraldo and it was right for her to hate him "(1.91)).

She thinks seriously about poisoning her brother, and then, at the end of the novel, she does poison the doctors, probably killing several of them. Her actions suggest she is violent and dangerous… and you need to try to reconcile that with the rest of what you know—or think you know—about her.