Elizabeth

Outer characterization

Elizabeth is the narrator and one of the main characters in the short story “Celia Behind Me” by Isabel Huggan. She lives with her parents on Brubacher Street and walks to school together with four other children who live nearby. She also lives on the same street as Celia, who tries to follow Elizabeth and the other children.. When the main events in the story take place, she is nine years old. Her birthday is in December.

Elizabeth resembles Celia physically. She is “kind of chunky” (l. 57) and also wears glasses (ll. 57-58). She is nicknamed Sucky because she sucked her thumb in kindergarten (ll. 58-59). 

Inner characterization

Elizabeth wants to fit in. She bullies Celia because the other children do the same. She always includes herself in the group of children who harass Celia, for instance: “we laughed at her because she was a chubby, diabetic child, made peevish...