Homer Macauley

Fourteen-year-old Homer is the novel's protagonist, the individual whose actions and experiences are the primary focus of the book's narrative. A shorthand way of describing his essential character and situation is that he has become "the man" of his family. Because his father is dead under circumstances that are never fully explained and oldest son Marcus has gone to serve in the US Military during World War II, as the oldest male left in the Macauley home, Homer has been made and feels, both financially, emotionally and to some extent morally responsible for his family's well being. He takes his responsibilities extremely seriously, continuing with his job as a messenger in spite of his extreme discomfort with frequently having to deliver bad news to the good people of his home town. These aspects of his life, the acceptance of responsibility and the intimate knowledge of both death...