Characters

The story has three characters: Richard Lockhart - the protagonist, Paul - his nephew, and Narelle – Richard’s sister. The number of characters is normal for a short story which is supposed to depict a single event and, thus, cannot have too many or too elaborate characters.

Richard Lockhart

Richard is the main character of the story. Even if the text is a third-person narration, the narrator adopts Lockhart’s point of view. The story is told as if a camera is following Lockhart. Furthermore, the narrator is also omniscient as far as Richard is concerned. Apart from his actions, we also know his thoughts.

At first, Richard is depicted as a lost man, confused by the streets of the Australian city which used to be his hometown.

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Paul Livingstone

Paul is a young boy and Richard’s nephew. He has lost his father to cancer and now the same thing is likely to happen to his mother. 

He is a clever boy at school and he admires his uncle: “Paul had won a prize from his school for memorising the capital cities of a hundred and fifty countries. Lockhart was proud of him.” (ll. 22-23); “Lockhart wanted a shower, partly for the pleasure of it, and partly to avoid his nephew whom he knew would hover around him, as insistent as any beggar.” (ll. 48- 50)

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Narelle Livingstone

Narelle is Richard’s sister and a widow fighting with cancer. She is worried about her child and this is why she asks her brother to take care of Paul in case something happens to her: “Richard,” she said. “If anything should happen to me, could you look after – ” (l. 128)

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