Eva Hoffman
As the narrator of her own memoir, Hoffman is the primary character throughout the text. She focuses heavily upon her internal experience of moving, shifting cultures several times in her young life. Growing up in Poland, Hoffman identifies with that culture as home. To her, everything about Poland was beautiful and accepting, right after WWII, during a rebuilding phase when community became the paramount value of the people around her.
In Canada, Hoffman feels like an exile, an outsider being punished. She has no desire to blend in nor to accept the foreignness of her surroundings. Finally, in Houston, she regains a sense of identity. She adapts the environment and once more feels like a whole person who belongs. At this point in her life's narrative, Hoffman is able to set her mind to getting what she wants through accomplishments in her relationship and at Harvard.
Barry Hoffman
Eva meets Barry at Harvard in 1971. They throw themselves into a fast friendship which blossoms into romance. They are married and enjoy a few short years before dissolving the relationship. Eva still carries his name, but they have long since separated.
Boris and Maria Wydra
They are Hoffman's parents. Having survived the Holocaust in Poland, they determine to bring their daughters to the West, to a place with more opportunity and greater equality. Life is challenging for immigrants, but they always manage to fill their home with love and to support their daughters as best they know how.
Alinka or Alina
Eva's younger sister, who is named after an aunt killed in a concentration camp, is named Alinka or Alina, depending on the section of the book. The names are interchangeable and both are used throughout.
