Homer Macauley
The main protagonist of the novel is 14-year-old telegraph messenger boy for the town of Ithaca, Homer Macauley. Homer is also a talented hurdler, gifted at giving speeches off the top of his head and increasingly sensitive to the profound effects of being the person charged with delivering the telegrams that inform townspeople of the deaths of their loved ones overseas during World War II. Homer’s coming of age is a significant theme of the novel.
Ulysses Macauley
Homer’s four-year-old brother is fearless and filled with the excitement and wonder of the innocent. He is an intrepid explorer of life, excitedly welcoming any new adventure as an opportunity for something wonderful. In the absence of a dead father and an oldest brother off to war, Ulysses views the teenager Homer as the closest thing to a dad.
Coach Byfield
Homer’s track coach at the high school. He is situated as distinct oppositional figure with the potential for wielding influence over Homer in his capacity as a bigoted xenophobe with an intense dislike for immigrants.
Mr. Spangler
Overruling the Coach in the heart and mind of Homer is Tom Spangler, manager of the telegraph office. Homer will eventually be stimulated to run 220 low hurdles on his track team in imitation of Spangler. Spangler’s position as role model also stems from his generosity and compassion to those in need. He is countered as the antidote to the Coach with deliriously outburst of patriotism near the end in which he celebrates the contribution to America of immigrants from all around the globe.
Mrs. Macauley
Mother of Homer, Ulysses and absent Marcus who is away fighting in the war. Her husband is still an active presence in his life despite being dead through imaginary conversations she conducts with him as a means of working out the problems of being a widow trying to raise two young boys and their older sister Bess.
Mr. Grogan
Elderly long-time telegraph operator who doles out sage advice and wisdom to Homer during nights working together at the telegraph office. When he receives the message information Mrs. Macauley about the death of her son Marcus, he has a heart attack and dies.
Mr. Mechano
Mr. Mechano is the name of a character played by a man in a window display who is made up to appear like a mechanical, inhuman figure. When everyone outside the window has left but Ulysses and he turns to stare at him for a moment, Mr. Mechano becomes the central to the first moment of fear that the little boy has ever experienced in his wonder-filled life.
