Characters
Captain Richard- A washed up ex-soldier and the narrator of the novel. While in the military, he was first a cavalryman and then a tank inspector and teacher. In the present, Richard is poor, currently unemployed, and searching for a job and a stable salary to support his wife, Teresa.
Giacomo Zapparoni- An incredibly wealthy and powerful owner of a company that makes miniature robots. Zapparoni Works is a name that is seen everywhere throughout the society in the novel, from movies to household appliances. Unlike his company, Zapparoni remains a largely unseen and cryptic figure.
Twinnings- A former cavalryman who served with Richard. Unlike Richard, Twinnings is well adjusted to present times and makes a living by connecting friends, often cavalry veterans, to employers who need specific talents.
Monteron- Monteron was a major in the army and the instructor of Captain Richard's unit at the military academy. In the past, Monteron was a youthful, neat, and well behaved individual who tried to carve his men to be the same way. His genuine character has left a permanent mark on all of his men.
Lorenz- Lorenz is another one of Richard’s ex-cavalry friends. In one of Richard's flashbacks, Lorenz realizes that the morals and lifestyle he "strive for impossible" and leaps out of a window and kills himself.
Wittegrewe- Wittegrewe was a former model cavalryman and horse-riding instructor of Richard. Unlike Richard, Wittegrewe looks back on his riding days as inferior and unimportant, and chooses to assimilate into society by becoming a streetcar conductor.
Fillmor- Fillmor is one of the high commanders in the army, known for his superior intellect. He looks down upon his fellow comrades and is characterized by his lack of imagination. Fillmor and Richard start off in a similar position — Fillmor goes on to represent success while Richard represents failure.
Atje Hanebut- Richard’s childhood mentor who taught him the ways of the outdoors. He is the leader of a group of teenage boys who look up to him as their teacher and guide to the outside world. Richard looked up to him as a source of inspiration and followed his every order just to impress him, as did every other child in their group of 'Pathfinders.'
Teresa- Teresa is Captain Richard's depressed wife who feels at fault for Richard's desperate situation in the present. Richard makes every decision mindful of the effect it will have on Teresa.
Read more about this topic: The Glass Bees
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“No one of the characters in my novels has originated, so far as I know, in real life. If anything, the contrary was the case: persons playing a part in my life—the first twenty years of it—had about them something semi-fictitious.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“The business of a novelist is, in my opinion, to create characters first and foremost, and then to set them in the snarl of the human currents of his time, so that there results an accurate permanent record of a phase of human history.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“For our vanity is such that we hold our own characters immutable, and we are slow to acknowledge that they have changed, even for the better.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)