Matilda
Matilda is the narrator of the story and its main character. When the story takes place she was 13 years old. She lived in Bougainville with her mother, Dolores. As for her father, he went to Australia to earn money, and Matilda hadn’t seen him for a long time. She hadn’t actually had any interesting activities in her life until Mr Watts started reading the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations: then she “opened” her heart, showed how deep is her soul and perception of the world. She had wide imagination and she showed it while writing her thoughts about the book. She hated some traits of her mother, but she loved her and was devoted to her: she didn’t say anybody when got to know that Dolores had stolen Mr Watts’ book; she obeyed her in any case, etc. Matilda showed herself as a good friend too: she felt the soul of Mr Watts, his sadness, agitation, his need in support and rapport. And in the end of the story she went on the other side of the world to find out everything about his life before coming to her island.
Mr Tom Christian Watts (Pop Eye)
Mr Tom Christian Watts (Pop Eye) is also one of the main characters of the story. First he stood just as the only white man in the island, where the narrator lives. He had a wife, Grace, who was considered to have some problems with her mind. Every day Mr Watts walked with his wife around the village pulling the trolley, where she stood. People didn’t like him because of his skin color, so he didn’t have friends. But when he started working as a teacher and communicating with others more, they saw that he was not so bad. He felt lonely in the island and only his books, and then children, helped him to stay cheerful and not give up.
Dolores
Dolores was Matilda’s mother. She loved her daughter but she didn’t express it in words, she was just always trying to save her from anything dangerous, from people especially. Dolores was a very diligent Christian and she was always trying to “guide the ways” of all the villagers to her faith. She didn’t like Mr Watts, actually because he was smarter than her, and because people liked his “Great Expectations” much than Bible, which she preferred. At the end of the story she sacrificed her life for the justice: she didn’t want to tolerate cruelty of the Redskins.
The officer of the Redskins
The officer of the Redskins doesn’t seem to be an important character in the story but the author pays much attention to him. The reader sees from the first sight that he doesn’t “fit” to his role of the enemy, antagonist. Matilda says that she sees in his eyes that he got tired of his service, this island, of us and his officer duty. When his subordinates desecrated people and their houses he didn’t stop them, but not because he liked this, but because he was too tired to protest this. He looked very bad, Matilda considered. Only in the end of the story Matilda says that he has malaria. The girl doesn’t hate him, though he didn’t stop his subordinates when they killed her mother. She is just thankful to him as he let her turn her back to this violence and look at the beauty of nature. Though the officer stands as antagonist in the story, he seems to be positive character deeply in his heart.
