Wesley
Wesley is the oldest child of Wesley and Ella. He seems angry and much of the resentment seems to be directed towards his father, although it is not vocalized. The play opens and closes with Wesley sitting in te kitchen of the home he shares with the rest of his family. Wesley is often called upon to take care of his sister but seems reluctant to do so; his opinion seems to be that she Although Wesley is presented as the protagonist of the play but he seems to have the least effect on the plot. He is a bystander as his parents each try to sell their land before the other. Wesley feels as though he is losing himself and in an effort to recreate his identity puts on his father's clothing so that he can try to find some of his father in himself.
Ella
Ella has dreams but does not think she will ever be able to fulfill them. She wants to go to Europe and escape her life of struggle and poverty. She has been fairly proactive in this regard of late and has reached out to a real estate developer with a view to selling her land to him for redevelopment. She plans to use the money she makes from the sale for her future. Ella does not take kindly to having her dreams stomped on by her son.
Ella is protective of her daughter even though she recognizes that she has a fiery temper and is very willful. She imagines that Emma can escape any trouble or danger that comes by riding away on her horse, which is what she assumes has happened when Emma is actually blown up in her car by the men to whom her husband owes a lot of money. Ella is tired and downtrodden but still relentlessly believes that somewhere out there is something better.
Weston
Weston is the family's patriarch although he is considered incompetent by the state because of his severe alcoholism. He is an angry man who is unable to express his emotions and so he drinks them away. He is also given to violent outbursts; his first appearance in the play is centered around the fact that he has broken down the front door in a drunken rage.
Weston knows that the land he and Ella were sold is worthless and has arranged to sell it to the owner of a local saloon but the sale is considered null and void because of his legal incompetency. Nonetheless, at the end of the play he is actually the character in the best emotional shape, having had a sort of epiphany whilst sleeping on the kitchen table (which he recommends to his wife for her stress and exhaustion.)
Emma
Youngest child Emma is in high school and preoccupied with her project, which is creating a poster that demonstrates the best way to cut up a chicken for frying. She has raised the chicken in question herself, and even killed it, so when it disappears from the refrigerator and she realizes it has already been cooked, served and eaten, she is furious. Emma is a typical teen mix of angst, anger and finding her place in the world. She is trying to decide whether or not she and her family are the starving class, because even though she is told that they are not, there is never anything to eat in the house, which to Emma means that they are, in fact, starving.
Emma is willful and when she decides to go off the rails she does so with wild abandon. She turns to crime and shoots up the saloon, finding she rather enjoys it, and wants to do more of it. She wants to run away to Mexico and leaves the house to escape in her mother's car, but we assume she is killed at the end of the play when local hoodlums cause an explosion in the car.
Taylor
Taylor is a real estate developer and at first he is presented as a good man, and an upstanding businessman; we come to realize that it was he who sold the family the worthless land in the first place, and so it is entirely possible that he is an underhand charlatan of a real estate developer who has decided to bide his time waiting to buy back the land at a rock bottom price.
Ellis
Ellis is the owner of the Alibi Club, the establishment which has been shot full of holes by the newly-criminal Emma. He has done a deal with Weston for the land and the house, and is not willing to accept that the deal is null and void. He has a sidekick come henchman who shakes down anyone who owes him money and it is Ellis who orders the explosion in Ella's Packard outside.
