Jack Gantos
Jack Gantos is the central character. However, having gone through the story, it becomes obvious that he is not much of a hero, at least when the novel begins.
He happens to be a twelve years old boy. He is very limited character. He often gets nosebleeds. He is not physically strong.
Jack does not seem to be much intelligent, because before firing his father’s rifle at the movie theatre screen, he does not check whether the gun is loaded or not. Although he has his shortcomings, he appears as a fairly smart boy during the remaining part of the story.
He loves reading history books. He is obviously very much curious to know more about the world. He has brown curls; however, the description that he presents of his hair is quite amusing. He says that his hair stand up like a field planted with question marks.
He is often not able to concentrate on things. He is easily distracted. Even while he is working, he often leaves the work and goes back to his history books. He is once told to remove the weeds from the property, but the love of reading books takes him back to the book and he never goes back to the assigned task.
It can be concluded that Jack is definitely not a responsible kid.
Miss Volker
Miss Volker happens to be one of the important characters in the story. She is the medical examiner in Norvelt. She is also an obituary writer.
She is a very well-respected woman in the town. Since she is involved in a kind of morbid profession, the people are generally afraid of her. However, it is said that she is worth her weight in gold, which is obviously a great complement, or at least Jack thinks so.
She often teaches Jack several important things about responsibility and duty. As the story progresses, she becomes Jack’s friend.
Eleanor Roosevelt, the chief nurse and medical examiner, hires Miss Volker. Her duty includes taking care of the expectant mothers and delivering babies, dressing and stitching up wounds, and setting broken bones.
When the medical help does not prove sufficient to save the lives of her patients, it is her duty to write their obituaries. Miss Volker is a kind of caretaker and a nurturer.
Once, she fixes Jack’s nose. She does it for free because Jack’s family cannot afford to have it done at the town’s doctor’s.
Mrs. Gantos
Mrs. Gantos is Jack’s mother. She is a kind of embodiment of the values and spirit of the town. She is at the centre of the community, always ready to extend her helping hand to the people who need her help.
She happens to have grown up in Norvelt. She is loved by everyone in the town. She is definitely a very nice lady; very much respected and admired for all that she does for the people of the town.
She selflessly donates her time and labour while helping the elderly and poor people in the town of Norvelt.
Once, she grows corn to sell the product in the market to raise some money to help the sick and elderly, but her son mows down her cornfield. That is the time when she is really very angry with Jack and she grounds him for the summer. It shows that taking care of the poor and people in need is her first priority.
The world around her happens to have changed so much, but she seems to be still living in the past. She often barters when she wants to buy things, owing to lack of money. She even wants to give home canned fruit to the doctor if he is ready to perform surgery on Jack’s nose.
Mr. Gantos
Mr. Gantos is Jack’s father. He is quite different from Jack’s mother but they have been pleasantly married. He does not like living in Norvelt. He wants to leave the town and look for better opportunities for business somewhere else, particularly in Florida.
During the course of the novel, it is disclosed that he is not mature enough to do certain things correctly. He damages the property that belongs to other people. He hates communists and believes that the community in that town is communist.
He happens to have served in the Second World War. It is probably that some of his bad experiences during the war still haunt him and he acts badly. During the war, he happens to have witnesses many horrible things. It can be sad that he is probably a bad person because the experiences in the war have made him so.
He is definitely not a role model for his son. He is often busy doing man childish things. He builds and airplane and creates and illegal runway for the airplane. While telling others about how he feels, he is often childish. He thinks that by making his own airplane and his own runway in the field, they will be able to fly anywhere at any time.
He is not sure what he really wants to achieve or do in his life. The only thing that is constantly in his mind that he has to leave Norvelt. During the course of the story, he once admits that he does not have a clue what he is doing.
He has a wife and a son, but his pursuits establish that he is a selfish man. He even inspires his son to do certain acts which are not right. Jack mows down his mother’s cornfield because his father wants to make a runway there. He never discusses with others before taking any decision in his life.
His wife was growing the corn for the poor people in the town, but the field is mowed down by Jack.
At the end of the story, the reader begins to really dislike that man.
Stella Huffer
She is generally called “Bunny” in the story. She happens to be Jack’s best friend. She is a kind of foil to Jack. Her name sounds ironic because she does not have anything that looks like a bunny. Her size might be considered the thing that suits her name.
She is a very small girl. She is so small that she can run at full speed under the dining room table, and for that she does not even have to duck.
Though very small in size, Bunny has a big personality. She is very brave, smart, and tough girl. According to Jack, Bunny is better than any guy. She is a very active girl. She is restless, constantly poking and throwing things.
Her father owns the town’s funeral parlour. She has seen dead people from the very beginning of her life. She is not afraid of anything. She often tries to inspire Jack to overcome some of his own fears. Once, she even makes Jack touch a dead body.
She is a lively girl with a good sense of humour. However, her humour is morbid. Most of her jokes include dead people. She even cracks some practical jokes. She once puts a set of dentures in the hand Jack. The dentures happen to have been taken out of a dead body.
She does play with Jack, but she also gets angry at him because she thinks that he is dumb. She does not like it when someone disagrees with her.
Mr. Spizz
Mr. Spizz is a prominent citizen of the town. He is considered a jack of all trades. He is a man about town, very popular, a kind of pillar of the community.
He is also the member of the Norvelt Association for the Public Good. He is a volunteer firefighter and a volunteer policeman. He is very much cautious and has his eye on the entire town.
He keeps observing what others are doing in town. He thinks that the people of the town should act according to his plans. He is even ready to kill some of the old ladies to make the town a better place.
He has a kind of obnoxious voice. He breathes very heavily. He often picks earwax out of his ear, much to the discomfort of the others around him. He goes around the town riding his huge adult-sized tricycle. He really looks ridiculous on his vehicle.
It can be said that Mr. Spizz is also an old man child. He can go to any extent to get what he really wants, even kill people.
Mr. Huffer
Mr. Huffer is the owner of the town’s funeral parlour. Jack’s baseball team is supported by that funeral parlour.
Mr. Huffer is Bunny’s father. The author describes that he is the perfect person to do his job. He does not smell good.
Since he is involved in a morbid profession, everything around him seems to be hinting to death. He is actually not the person he tries to look. He looks very humble and sad man, but it is later revealed that it is just pretence. Mr. Spizz is a money-minded person. Since he earns a lot of money through funerals, he hates cremations.
To add to his income, he also starts selling the unoccupied houses, basically the houses of the recently deceased people. He has his plan to relocate to the town of Eleanor. He wants to go there because that town has more people and it is obvious to him that more people will die there, thus adding to his income.
He has a capitalistic mindset. He does not possess the community spirit. However, one thing is clear that he is never involved in anything illegal to earn money.