Characters

Jeanette Walls- Jeanette is the author and narrator of the novel and is the middle child of four children. The novel is about her life and explains the hard times her family endured.

Mary Walls- She is the mother of Jeanette and her three other siblings. She puts on an act that she likes the way they live, until her and her husband get into a huge fight, the reader finds out her true feelings. Lori is very realistic about the way the family is living and knows they way they are living is not right.

Rex Walls- Rex is the father in the novel. He is always the high spirit and thinks nothing of the way they family is living. He is very smart and see's himself as an inventor. He is a struggling alcohalic and the items he wants to invent are very unrealistic. The children adore him and believe practically everything he says. He moves the family around because of the "gestapo" and in search for gold.

Brian Walls- He is younger than Jeanette and is her partner in crime. They always go on adventures together and have similar intrests. They also get along very well with one another and see eye to eye on a lot of things.

Lori Walls- Lori is the oldest of the four children. She does not hang around with Jeanette and Brian a lot, and does not like to go on adventure like they do. Lori is a lot like Mary; they are both artistic and spend a lot of time together.

Maureen Walls- She is the youngest of the Wall's children. Maureen is not a big role in the novel and is not mentioned a lot. It seems like she goes off and does her own thing.

Erma- Rex Walls mother. It is to be suspected she molested Rex when he was little. When the family lived with her for a little while she made an attempt to  molest Brian as well, but Jeannette walked in.

Uncle Stanley- This is Rex's brother. He molests Jeannette and when Jeanette tells her mother she tells her dwelling on it will make her weaker and her Uncle stronger. At this point of the novel there seems to be no hope for the family. 

Dinita Hewitt- This is Jeannette's first friend when she moves to Welch. She is an African American girl who is the leader of the group of bullies that abuse Jeannette, but one day Dinita sees Jeannette walk a African American boy home. Dinita then asks Jeannette to tutor her and they become very good friends.