Kathy H.
The narrator is immediately introduced as a thirty one year old while in a reflection to her younger self as a student in Hailsham, the first character introduced, Kathy, portrayed as a more caring and sympathetic individual which counters the majority of her surrounding peers. Kathy alongside her two closest friends, Ruth and Tommy were enrolled in a rather odd and suspicious boarding school in England which was to determine a mysterious future for the children.
The boarding school seemed to be like any other pre-high school school. Full of cliques, jocks, and friend groups, all of which was monitored by the authoritative roles of guardians. Tommy one of Kathy’s friends was pretty intensely bullied, at first Kathy was just a bystander, however unlike the rest of her peers she took a risk and reached out to Tommy. In a particular scene where Tommy was on a one of his typical tantrums Kathy approached him attempting to reach through his blind rage. Although it did not go as planned (it ended with Kathy being hit), it clearly separated Kathy from the rest of her peers who merrily provoked and laughed at Tommy.
A quote which truly exemplifies that Kathy is different from the rest and solidifies her as the protagonist in the group is shown half way through the second chapter, so pretty early in the novel; “And it came home to me, with a kind of chill, that Tommy had been going through what he’d been going through no just for weeks or months, but for years.”( pg 19) This quote shows that Kathy is looking past Tommy’s flaws and is searching not just to listen but to purely understand why Tommy acts the way that he does. She seems to be sympathizing with the underdog which I believe will set up Kathy and her characteristics for the rest of the novel.
Tommy
The second major character introduced in the first fifty pages of the novel is a rather different Tommy. Like hinted at about earlier, Tommy has been heavily bullied which not unexpectedly leads to explosive and impulsive actions in the forms of tantrums. Although Tommy is clearly the most athletic and talented eleven year old in regards to sports and such, the other kids do not seem to care. They know that if they provoke even a little they will get a rise out of him, and a big one at that. So like any other pubesent pre-teen, they do.
The immediate feeling when reading about Tommy was pity, and like stated above, Kathy feels the same as I do. Although Tommy appears remorseless to the other students, he obvious does care about what other people think of him, especially important people in his life such as Kathy. This can be seen when Tommy comes up to Kathy after an incident on the sports field and publicly apologizes for his actions. That right there was the start of both Kathy and Tommy’s attempts to hinder and cope with Tommy’s explosive actions.
Regardless if the two characters are so different I can foreshadow a romance between the two. Tommy is someone who needs another person to guide him and care for him, and even at such a young age later in the book I can see Kathy being that person.
Ruth
Almost the complete opposite of Kathy is her best friend Ruth. The popular and tough one of the group who is not shy of telling you exactly what she is feeling and her harsh truth opinions when it is or isn’t necessary. The other students look up to Ruth, sort of as a protector of the students, a voice for their silent mouths is how I view her as a character. Ruth has formed an interesting relationship with Kathy versus the rest of the group. Towards the others Ruth is more reserved, does not sympathize with almost anyone, and does not share her inner feelings. However such as on page fifteen early in the novel, in a conversation between the two girls regarding Tommy, Ruth shows that she is actually quite reasonable and sensitive to Kathy’s feelings and opinions. First in a self comment Kathy states, “You could talk about things there you wouldn’t dream of talking about any other place, not even the pavilion. So one day I brought up Tommy…”. Then later Ruth’s much anticipated response was surprising, “You’ve got a point, Kathy. It’s not nice. But if he wants to stop, he’s got to change his own attitude.” Here you can still see Ruth’s blunt personality however, this is an insight into her more “soft side”.
We later find out that Ruth is not as tough as she appear to be when people poke at her about her new pencil case. This is very confusing to me because it was just previously revealed that Ruth is the bold leader of a secret group which protects one of the guardians Miss Geraldine from suspected danger. It is obvious that this character will be developed further and possibly in a different direction than initially expected.
