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
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“The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents; and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“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)