Doreen
Doreen is the main protagonist and first-person narrator of the story. Born to a single parent family in a poor rural area, she and her siblings are raised entirely under the direction and supervision of their mother. She is actually devastated as a young girl to learn that everybody else thinks of her family as poor and is determined to reach beyond that state and fulfill her dreams of becoming a teacher. But dreams never quite manage to align perfectly with reality even when they come true.
Martin
In another type of story, Martin would be the prototypical city slicker who breaks Doreen’s heart and ruins her reputation since he hails from the city and works as an accountant. And while it is true that eventually Martin will break her heart, it is not in quite that way. Before the heartbreak comes marriage and a daughter. It is only after the realization that there won’t be a son that Martin ease into his suspected city slicker attributes.
Zima
The marriage to Martin faces trouble immediately because she goes against her family’s wishes in not marrying a man named Zima. Zima is a traditionalist who also works in the educational field, specifically as the disciplinarian. He is a very fervent believe that if one spares the rod, one hardly has any fun. The sophisticated slicker from the city seems like a dream come true in comparison to the harsh disciplinarian of children.
Foibe Seko
Foibe is Doreen’s mother whose life as a parent essentially began by being disowned by her family as a result of fooling around with an older married man. Doreen is born after the child which began the ruckus, her older brother named Godbless.
Sebastian
Just as Martin turns out not to be quite the conventionally villainous character one might at first suspect, it is also revealed the absent father of Doreen and her siblings does not exactly fit the stereotype one might suspect of him, either. The marriage to Foibe was doomed from the start as a result of his being married to another woman at the time; he was deemed morally corrupt and never able to overcome the taint of that determination. His situation and circumstance as an absent father is just as attributable to village customs and codified moral laws as it is any character failure on his part.
Great Aunt Mai
Aunt Mai breaks with family and tradition to extend a helping hand to Doreen after she becomes pregnant as a result of her relationship with Sebastian. She is situated as a sort of earth mother/wise woman figure who being in a childless marriage herself reaches outward to bestow love upon the children not her own. Although rebellious in her own ways, she is the keeper of the secrets of successfully navigating the complex social order and hierarchy of society.
