Linda May

Outer characterization

Linda May is one of Fern’s best friends in the movie Nomadland directed by Chloé Zhao. She is sixty-five and also works at the Amazon Warehouse. 

Linda May is also a nomad and lives in a van she calls Squeeze Inn. She used to have two dogs, a cocker spaniel and a toy poodle. She could not afford to pay the rent, which was when she discovered Bob Wells and his advice on how to survive while living in a van.

In addition, Linda May also works at the Cedar Pass Camp in the Badlands as a camp host. This is her last year there, as she has bought some land in Arizona and intends to build a house, “made out of tires, and bottles, and cans” (00:25:06-00:52:09). She will call the house “the Earthship” (00:51:44).

We are also told that Linda May has been working since she was 12, and that she has two daughters. She also worked in construction at some point.

Linda May is a real person and plays a fictionalized version of herself in the movie.

Inner characterization

Linda May seems to have been at a very low point in life in 2008. She could no longer pay her rent and she could not support herself with her social security benefit. This was when she contemplated suicide: “I decide...