David Schearl
David is a sensitive young Jewish boy from Russia who leaves for New York City with mother after his father has already established a new life in America. David fears his father who expels scorn upon him and forges a strong bond with his mother. The reasoning behind this estrangement from his father is his dad’s suspicion that David is not actually his own son, but the product of an affair by David’s mother. In an attempt to make sense of life in general and about how the wealth of Catholics surrounding him deal with the world, David initiates a strong friendship with an Irish youth named Leo.
Genya Schearl
David’s mother who arrives in America only to be greeted with suspicion by her husband. Patient to a fault with her paranoid husband, Genya’s primary fault is that the person who holds the highest place in her heart is not her husband, but her son. The estrangement between father and son is not entirely of the husband’s own making; Genya is less than faithful as a wife.
Albert Schearl
David’s father and Genya’s husband. He is rootless as he travels from Russia to find himself pursuing a less than focused existence in New York City. Landing a job as a milkman gives him something of a route to pursue, but the only driving force in his life seems to be making sure that David gets a proper Jewish education even though he is haunted by suspicions about the true parentage of his son.
Leo Dugovka
Leo promises to give David a rosary if David will arrange an introduction to one of his pretty cousins. The friendship between the two kicks off with the desire of David to fly a kite from a rooftop and throughout the relationship David is driven over and over by a desire to having things that Leo already possesses. This includes Leo’s more comprehensive knowledge of the city.
