Characters
Tom Burden: An older gay man and platonic friend who urges Mark to develop his drawing talents. Tom leads Mark to realize his homosexuality before he himself travels abroad.
Philip Crane (Phil): A handsome, muscular and heterosexual man who studies tropical entomology. Phil is Jane's cousin and companion on whom Mark has a secret crush.
Palmer Fleming: June's ex-husband whom she witnesses dancing with a scantily clad young man at a Drag Ball.
Harold Grant (Nelly) : A 21 year old, outwardly effeminate African American man and drag queen whose arrest concerns June and Mark.
Irwin Hesse: A professor who is a Jewish man from continental Europe. Dr. Hesse experiments with sex differences in animals, focusing on the endocrine system, polymorphism, and gynandromorphism. Dr. Hesse asserts that sex differences are chemical and "abnormals" make up 2-3% of the general population.
Lilly-Marie: A friend of Mark's who is a gay ex-convict.
Peggy: A young woman who has a romantic interest in Mark, but marries Phil.
Quinn: An older Irish man who is the janitor at Mark's settlement house.
Rico: A Sicilian boy and fruit vendor whose stand is outside Mark's settlement house.
Evan Rysdale: An artist whom June befriends while summering at Ogunquit, Maine.
Mark Thornton: The protagonist of the story, Mark is a 22 year old Midwestern man who has traveled to New York City. He is not outwardly effeminate and teaches drawing at a local settlement house.
Seth Vaughn: A young man and distinguished author and lecturer who does not return June Westbrook's affections.
June Westbrook: June is a young heterosexual divorcée who works as a newspaper columnist. She is a central character in the story, being Mark's closest friend.
Read more about this topic: Strange Brother
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“The naturalistic literature of this country has reached such a state that no family of characters is considered true to life which does not include at least two hypochondriacs, one sadist, and one old man who spills food down the front of his vest.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“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)
“Hemingway was a prisoner of his style. No one can talk like the characters in Hemingway except the characters in Hemingway. His style in the wildest sense finally killed him.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)