Lucas

Lucas is the point-of-view character in the story In the Machine. He is a kind and sensitive 12-year-old boy with a partially deformed body, and he lives in New York City in the 1800s. He loves the book Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, and he occasionally experiences fits in which he involuntarily quotes from the book. He lives with his parents in a tenement, and after his older brother Simon dies in a factory accident, Lucas takes over Simon’s position in the factory. Lucas seems to harbor underlying romantic feelings for Catherine Fitzhugh, to whom Simon had been engaged to be married.

Catherine Fitzhugh

Catherine Fitzhugh is a character in the story In the Machine. She is a young woman who lives in New York City in the 1800s. She was engaged to be married to Simon, but then Simon died in a factory accident. Catherine...