Bubba

Bubba is one of the most important characters in the story “How Did I Get Away with Killing One of the Biggest Lawyers in the State? It Was Easy” by Alice Walker. His outer characterization reveals that he is a wealthy, white lawyer, married to a woman named Julie with whom he has two children. His name is not given, but the nickname the narrator gives him—Bubba—is an affectionate way of addressing a loved one. The narrator gives readers a brief physical portrait focusing on his cleanness: “Really, I think, because he was so clean. He bathed a lot and never smelled even alive, to tell the truth.” (ll.…

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Inner characterization

Bubba’s inner characterization is constructed through his actions presented from the narrator’s perspective and her mother’s.

He appears in the story after the narrator went to his house without seeing him, when he picks her up from school under false pretenses: “Anyway, the next day, he picked me up when I was coming from school and he said my Mama had asked him to do it.” (ll. 49-50). His words suggest that he carefully planned how to trick the narrator into coming with him.

After he takes her from school, he takes her to his office where he asks her questions and eventually rapes her: “…and 'what grade are you in?' and stuff like that.…