Other characters

Lyndsey

Lyndsey is one of the main characters in the short story “The World Ending in Fire” by Jan Carson. She is a young girl from Belfast who is between eight and ten years old at the time of the story. Her father is killed in service in an explosion. As a result, her mother becomes grief-stricken and mentally ill, which makes her neglect her children. Lyndsey also has two brothers. 

Throughout the story, Lyndsey appears to be deeply affected by her mother’s neglect: “Lyndsey was beginning to come apart” (ll. 8-9). She also appears to be embarrassed by her mother’s strange behavior and attempts to explain it to her friends (ll. 70-75). However, when her friends stop every day to stare at Mrs Agnew through the living room window, Lyndsey does not tell them to stop. 

At the same time, the narrator notices Lyndsey is looking at happy memories from her past ...