Meet the Cast
"Nineteen Fifty-Five" Characters
Gracie Mae StillMuseGracie Mae Still, Walker's first-person narrator, is modeled after Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, the first woman to record "Hound Dog" (the song that led to Elvis Presley's fa...
"How Did I Get Away with Killing One of the Biggest Lawyers in the State? It was Easy." Characters
The NarratorA Brutal BeginningOur narrator tells her brutal story in first person, and she spares us nothing—we get all the uncomfortable details point-blank. There's nothing in the narrator's up...
"Elethia" Characters
ElethiaEagle EyesThe eponymous heroine of the story, Elethia is a young woman who takes a job in the kitchen of Old Uncle Albert's restaurant and notices something hinky about the lifelike "dummy"...
"The Lover" Characters
"She"Poet Extraordinaire and Modern WomanThe subject of this story is a Black female poet who sets her poetry to jazz music. She's married with one child—and one child only—and she's looking fo...
"Petunias" Characters
The NarratorThis story is literally five paragraphs long, so there's not really a lot of time for character development. Our narrator is the mom of a son who returns from Vietnam with a load of exp...
"Coming Apart: By Way of Introduction to Lorde, Teish, and Gardner" Characters
The WifePushing BackWalker portrays the wife in her "fable" as a typical Black woman confronted with her husband's constant use of pornography. At first, she's unsure of her own response to it: is...
"Fame" Characters
Andrea Clement WhiteIt's Hard to Be the QueenWhile Andrea Clement White is probably the most entertaining of Walker's characters in this collection, she's still painted with a little sadness around...
"Advancing Luna—and Ida B. Wells" Characters
The NarratorNarrator SchmarratorOnce again, we're gonna warn you of the dangers of assuming that a first-person narrator is actually the straightforward voice of the author. Having said that, thoug...
"Laurel" Characters
AnnieChemistry Gone WrongDon't despair if you look long and hard and can't find this character's name: Walker only mentions it once, when Laurel sends a telegraph to tell her that he's coming for a...
"A Letter of the Times, or Should This Sado-Masochism Be Saved?" Characters
Susan MarieNot in the Job DescriptionSusan Marie is a professor who's having a bit of a run-in with her colleague, Lucy. At issue is the fact that Lucy was meant to choose her favorite feminist to...
"A Sudden Trip Home in the Spring" Characters
Sarah DavisFish out of WaterSarah Davis finds herself in a tough position. She's a student at Cresselton, a posh Northern (read: all white) school with the very best art teachers. She loves her dor...
"Source" Characters
IreneDown and OutWhen we meet Irene, she's not in a good place. She's just been dealt a professional blow: "An educational project into which she'd poured much of her time, energy and considerable...