Ruby Jacinski

Ruby Jacinski is a fifteen-year-old teenager when the novel begins. Ruby is a typical 1940s teen when the novel begins, a young girl who wants to dance and be allowed to wear makeup, a girl just beginning to understand what men want and anxious to find a man who wants her. However, Ruby is not a typical teenager in the fact that she has been forced to quit school so that she can get a job and earn an income for her family. Ruby's mother is unable to find a job because of her severe form of arthritis, leaving the family without an adult bread winner. Ruby works at the same packinghouse her mother once worked out and feels mature for having such a job while at the same time embarrassed by the cuts and smell the job of placing pig feet in brine leaves her hands...