Character Clues

Character Analysis

Direct Characterization

Take a look at this description of Mrs. Hyde's husband (the poor, unfortunate soul): "a dull little man with the flat, sour cheeks of a snake" (Fame.14).

We're not sure that snakes have cheeks, but that's totally beside the point. Walker pulls no punches when it comes to the description of her characters. She tells it like it is, even when it's not pretty. Perhaps our favorite is her description of the "irresistible" Laurel: "He seemed a parody of the country hick; he was tall, slightly stooped, with blackish hair cut exactly as if someone had put a bowl over his head. Even his ears stuck out, and were large and pink" (Laurel.4).

Can't you just feel the sparks fly?

Social Status

You can find characters defined by their social status in each one of these stories. It's a huge issue for Walker, especially when social class is tied up with race. We see that dynamic in play in "Source," for example, when Irene talks about one of her most difficult-to-teach students:

Fania had stammered, choked, pulled at her earrings and her braids—but in the end had simply refused to learn to read that the only work she'd ever known would soon not exist. (Source. 44)

Fania is working class, and her job is about to be automated out of existence. Walker's characters also respond to each other based on their social status. The narrator of "Advancing Luna—and Ida B. Wells," for example, loses her affection for her friend partly because that friend is rich:

I was envious of the open-endedness of her life. The financial backing to it. When she left her job at the kindergarten because she was tired of working, her errant father immediately materialized. (Luna.44)

And Sarah Davis takes the measure of her suitemate, Pam, based on the fact that she doesn't look like the heiress that she is:

Sarah could not comprehend such wealth, and was always annoyed because Pam didn't look more like a billionaire's daughter. A billionaire's daughter, Sarah thought, should really be less horsey and brush her teeth more often. (Trip.22)

It's just another way for the characters to be judgy of each other.

Thoughts and Opinions

Alice Walker is a woman who deals in ideas, so it's not surprising that she gives her characters rich—and sometimes hilarious—inner lives. In "Source," for example, Irene is doing her best not to give in to her initial assessment of Anastasia's guru, but it's pretty darn hard: "Irene was determined not to think any of the prejudicial things she was thinking, and adjusted her face to show interest, concern, anticipatory delight" (Source.78).

The main character in "The Lover" also has to cultivate a poker face to get through social interactions. She finds it useful to tune out when pompous windbag poets get started: "she had perfected the trick [...] of keeping her face quite animated and turned full onto the speaker, while inside her head she could be trying out shades of paint with which to improve the lighting of her house" (Lover.5).

First-person stories like "Nineteen Fifty-Five" and "Advancing Luna—and Ida B. Wells" are almost entirely driven by the thoughts and opinions of the narrator.