Earth Abides - Characters

Characters

Isherwood Williams (Ish) is a graduate student at Berkeley, studying the ecology of an area in the mountains, somewhere in California. As an ecologist, one who studies the relationships of living things to one another and to their environment, he is an ideal person to understand just what happens to the world when humans are abruptly removed from the picture. Isherwood thinks of himself as a loner—not the kind of person to become a leader of people—but that is precisely what happens to him. After he survives the Great Disaster, he spends some time observing the world without humans. Beyond initial shock, he doesn't seem to miss them too much. He comes to be a leader, mainly because he is the only surviving intellectual in his area. He realizes his weaknesses with people, however, and comes to rely on the talents of those around him, especially his wife Em.

Emma (Em) is a woman who Isherwood meets in his hometown. The author may have been taking a chance with this character, who is African-American, while Isherwood is white; when the book was written, interracial marriages were heavily discouraged in American society. Isherwood does marry her, and race isn't important to the couple's relationship. Rather, the couple become partners in their marriage and in their leadership of the community. Em becomes the community's mother, letting it grow as it will, but stepping in to help when no one else is filling the leadership role. She is the one who rallies the community when an outsider, Charlie, threatens it. It is she who brings up the idea that the community cannot wait until their children are harmed, that the value of protecting the children trumps the value of justice. She is the one who showed no fear when the community was stricken by typhoid fever. She was the adult while others panicked, and Ish thought of her as the "Mother of Nations".

Princess is a beagle that "adopts" Ish. She plays a role in introducing Ish to Em, and helping him to overcome his fears. Her descendants also play an important part in the development of the tribe.

Ezra met Emma and Ish while traveling. They liked him, but feared the complications of a love triangle, so they encouraged him to leave. He returned with Molly and Jean, his wives. Ish values Ezra as a good judge of people, saying "Ezra knew people, Ezra liked people."

Molly is the older of Ezra's two wives, about 35 when Ish and Em meet her.

Jean is "a younger woman," and one of Ezra's two wives.

Evie is a "half grown girl" who Ezra found living "in squalor and solitude." She appears to have little mind left, if she ever had one, and everyone cares for her. The tribe has a rule, that as the children grow no one will marry her—she wouldn't understand, and her mental condition could possibly be hereditary.

George and Maurine are an older couple found by Ezra while traveling. George is a carpenter. George could be said to be "dull" and Maurine as "stupid". George becomes the fix-it man for the Tribe.

Joey is the son of Ish and Em. Of all the children in the Tribe, he is the only one that truly understands the academic skills that Ish tries to teach — geometry, reading, geography. He dies during the typhoid fever outbreak.

Jack is Ish's great-grandson. Jack is confident and possibly a leader. Ish sees something of Joey in him. As Ish dies, he gives Jack his hammer.