Roselily
Protagonist from the first story, Roselily is a single mother who is reminiscing about her life at her second wedding. She already has four kids, more than one out-of-wedlock, and is marrying simply for the social security of marriage. She has no love for her bridegroom, and is apprehensive of his strict demeanor.
Unnamed Narrator from ‘Really, Doesn’t Crime Pay?’
Married to a rich Southern farmer, she has writing ambitions that her husband doesn’t get or support. She falls in love with Mordecai Rich who appreciates her writing. After a betrayal from Mordecai, she turns psychotic and homicidal.
Mordecai Rich
A black and skinny vagabond, Mordecai charms the unnamed narrator into sleeping with him after appreciating her writing. He later abandons her and publishes her work as his own, in a double betrayal.
Ruel
Husband of unnamed narrator in ‘Really, Doesn’t Crime Pay?’. He has served in army and works as a peanut farmer. He dislikes any writing ambitions in his wife and wants her to have babies as a distraction. He is one-tone in his thinking that a woman can be satisfied with beauty products and so may not need to work.
Unnamed Protagonist from Her Sweet Jerome
Self-employed and confident, she falls in love with the new school teacher who is ten years younger than her. But her marriage soon fails, as her husband finds her repulsive because of her size and lack of education. She soon becomes a victim of domestic violence and jealousy as she begins to suspect him of having an affair.
Jerome Franklin Washington III
A schoolteacher, who marries the unnamed protagonist of Her Sweet Jerome for her money. He finds her repulsive and abuses her physically and emotionally.
Unnamed father in The Child Who Favored Daughter
Violent and radical, he had incestuous feelings about his sister who died while he was young as a result of domestic violence. After finding his daughter entertaining the same ideas that killed his sister, he tortures her in a fit of mad rage.
Unnamed daughter in The Child Who Favored Daughter
Facing domestic violence almost every day at home, she begins to accept it and even defy her father in that acceptance.
Unnamed narrator in Everyday Use
She is mother of Dee and Maggie. Big-boned and a hard-working woman, she has gone through tough times to raise her daughters.
Maggie
Sister to Dee, she is described as a lame animal. She is soft-spoken and low on confidence.
Dee
Maggie’s elder sister, she is condescending and patronizing. She has felt inferior living in her surroundings, and went away for her education, and has come with a new appreciation of her African heritage.
Hannah Lou Kemhuff
A pitiful old woman, she had suffered from poverty during The Great Depression, leading to abandonment by her husband and death od her children. She seeks revenge from Sarah Marie Saddler for humiliating her while collecting rations.
Tante Rosie
A witch who is commissioned by Hannah Lou Kemhuff to have revenge from Sarah Marie Sadler.
Sarah Marie Saddler
A rich woman, who was commissioned with providing rations to poor and denied them to Hannah Lou as her family was dressed in good clothes.
Unnamed Protagonist from The Welcome Table
Once a strong woman, who worked in many houses to support herself, she is now destitute and delirious. She is thrown out of a church and later hallucinates Jesus visiting her.
Rannie Toomer
A poor black woman caring for her sick baby. She doesn’t trust any home remedies and is insistent on getting a white doctor, not realizing that her race and status won’t invite any.
