Up in Michigan - Analysis of Major Characters

Analysis of Major Characters

Liz Coates
As a waitress and general worker at D. J. Smith’s restaurant, Liz has taken a liking to Jim, one of the regulars at the restaurant. Hemingway’s narrator describes the teenager-style infatuation Liz has for Jim. Sexually inexperienced even to the point of not having been touched, Liz Coates communicates her desire for Jim in an inartful fashion.
Jim Gilmore
Jim, originally from Canada, has bought a blacksmith shop in Hortons Bay and is a regular at D. J. Smith’s. He notices Liz’s interest in him, but does not dwell on Liz. The narrator does not offer insight into Jim’s thought processes, making it appear as if Jim is inarticulate and dull—in stark contrast with how Liz perceives Jim (i.e. positively and longingly). After a few shots of whiskey after the successful deer hunt and finding himself alone with Liz, Jim makes sexual advances on Liz despite her demands that he stop. The narrator does not describe Jim as being concerned with what Liz wants; in fact, Jim only stops after he falls asleep on top of her.

Read more about this topic:  Up In Michigan

Famous quotes containing the words analysis, major and/or characters:

    Cubism had been an analysis of the object and an attempt to put it before us in its totality; both as analysis and as synthesis, it was a criticism of appearance. Surrealism transmuted the object, and suddenly a canvas became an apparition: a new figuration, a real transfiguration.
    Octavio Paz (b. 1914)

    Our basic ideas about how to parent are encrusted with deeply felt emotions and many myths. One of the myths of parenting is that it is always fun and games, joy and delight. Everyone who has been a parent will testify that it is also anxiety, strife, frustration, and even hostility. Thus most major parenting- education formats deal with parental emotions and attitudes and, to a greater or lesser extent, advocate that the emotional component is more important than the knowledge.
    Bettye M. Caldwell (20th century)

    When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.
    Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936)