Dictator

The dictator is not named and does not appear directly in the story, but his presence is felt everywhere. His photograph appears all the time in the newspapers during the 1950s; at that time, he is “the only superstar in the media,” and the townspeople refer to him as “Our Father, Our Savior, the North Star of Our Lives, the Never Falling Sun of Our Era.” Since they regard him as a surrogate father, they weep like orphans at his death. Underneath their adulation of this pseudo-divine figure, however, lies a “hidden hatred” that they dare not acknowledge.

Impersonator

The impersonator is a young man whose face resembles the face of the dictator. The resemblance is so uncanny that even as a boy he leads quite a privileged life. At school, the teachers never rebuke him, and in the team games the children play, the side without him...