Identify the two protagonists of the story. Idendtify each characters most prominent personality trait; support the trait that you identified for each character with evidence and explanation from the text. Explain how each changes over the course of the course of the story, referring to specifics from the text ?
One of the story's two protagonists, Ellen is Paul's wife and the mother to their child. Economic depression and environmental devastation on the farm has left her feeling caged and hopeless. She longs to move to town, where her father is a store owner. Her eyes are described are being fixed wide-open, as though she cannot shut her eyes to the truth of the couple's desperate situation.
"Her eyes all the while were fixed and wide with a curious immobility. It was the window. Standing at it, she had let her forehead press against the pane until her eyes were strained apart and rigid."
Narrator
Extracted from early in the story, this passage shows Ellen realizing that she cannot close her eyes. Staring out the window into the ominous dust storm has seemingly caused her eyes to remain locked open. Ellen's eyes signify a physical manifestation of both her insight and her delusion: while her eyes have been opened to the truth of her situation, the desire to leave will ultimately drive her mad.
“Are you blind? Thistles and tumbleweeds—it's a desert. You won't have a straw this fall. You won't be able to feed a cow or a chicken. Please, Paul, say we'll go away.”
Ellen
In this passage, the difference between Paul and Ellen's perspectives is made clear. Accusing him of blindness, Ellen details how degraded the land is—something his delusion prevents him from acknowledging. However, Ellen's words will later resonate with Paul when he strokes his emaciated gelding and realizes she is right, he isn't able to even feed his animals.
The second of the story's two protagonists, Paul is a farmer and Ellen's husband. Though only thirty, he has been stripped of his youth by the hardship of farming infertile land. Stern and stubborn, Paul refuses to see the bleak future that Ellen fears. He is too proud to give up on his dream of a prosperous farm.
"You'll see it come back. There's good wheat in it yet."
Paul
Paul’s obstinacy and delusion are on display in this response to Ellen. Unable to refute the evidence of the degraded land, he can only insist on having faith in the possibility of future fertility. In retrospect, his words are ironic, as Ellen later criticizes him for focusing only on wheat when the soil needs time to regenerate with more fibrous crops.
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