The Salesman, “Lost Salt Gift of Blood”
The Salesman is a minor character who appears but briefly at the end of the title story. His life and situated is juxtaposed with that of the narrator with the happy cries of his children calling for “Daddy” becoming the exclamation mark on highlighting all the bad choices, mistakes and wrong turns taken by the narrator of the tale.
The Salesman, “The Vastness of the Dark”
Another salesman in a different story also plays a significant role. One may well begin to wonder if salesmen loom larger than mere characters, but perhaps verge on symbol or even metaphor. The salesman here is important also due to juxtaposition. He represents everything that those who cling to their small towns and villages do not, viewing them merely as unpleasant little dots on a map that must be gotten through in order to reach a real destination.
Angus, “The Return”
Angus is precisely the type of person whom the salesman mentioned just previously is juxtaposed against. A visit to Cape Breton from Montreal is a return home for Angus who views his hometown through the rose-colored glasses of nostalgic memory. Having escaped the cycle of generation hopelessness among those in a mining town by becoming a lawyer, this attempt by Angus to reconcile with his generational roots is viewed as distastefully by his wife, Mary, perhaps as it would be by the salesman in “The Vastness of the Dark.”
Jenny Lynn, “The Boat”
Arguably the most important character—if not the most interesting—in “The Boat” is, in fact, the boat itself. The boat is named the Jenny Lynn and though this is not a fantasy in which the boat is personified with human attributes, it is nevertheless an important “character” in the sense of it being the central symbolic incarnation of its themes. Without the Jenny Lynn, the story would not be as powerful since it is a metaphor for the failure of the story’s father to achieve his dreams while at the same time it is a symbol to his son of the courageous qualities in his father to choose to sacrifice those dreams for the greater challenge of raising a family.
