Numerous characters appear in We Were Not Like Other People yet the majority of these make short appearances and are important only for maintaining the themes of the story. For example, the boy's sister and the boy's aunt are important only for creating the image of a viable family group. Little else is revealed of them. Some characters appear only for the development of a particular episode. One such character is an unnamed woman with whom the boy negotiates an exchange of wheat for her skirt. In many instances only one side of a character is revealed although the character is essential in the development of the boy's ethical and moral behavior. One of these is an eighty-five-year- old man who admonishes the boy to be careful around the women he is then supervising or "you'll lose your authority."

The boy who narrates the...