OVERALL ANALYSIS

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Bud Caldwell

He is a little boy in a very big world who must find a way to survive when he is orphaned at the age of six. He suffers through many tragic events: finding his mother’s body, living in abusive foster homes, being little more than a number in the children’s Home, and having to run away to find his father and his real place in the world. He is a wonderful young man who even in six years had been taught proper manners by his mother and had been able to create his own rules for life in his imaginary book called Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar of Yourself. He is innovative, inventive, and resourceful and what’s more, he is much ........

Mr. Herman E. Calloway

This man is actually Bud’s grandfather, but for a long time, Bud believes he is his father. He is the leader of a Depression-era jazz band and is a consummate musician. He is older and has a large belly which makes it hard for him to bend over, but not hard enough to play the bass fiddle. He lost his daughter thirteen years before the story opens and this has led to his.......

Angela Janet Caldwell

This is Bud’s mother and when the story opens, she has been dead for four years. Nonetheless, her character resonates throughout the plot. She had been a very good mother to Bud, teaching him proper behavior, reading to him every night, and........

Todd Amos and his parents

This family is the stereotypical abusive family who would take on foster children for the money alone and never show them the love or give them the compassion they sorely need. Bud moves into their home at the beginning of the story and discovers that, just as........

Deza Malone

This young girl has been living for a long time in Hooverville and really knows the ropes about living homeless. She teaches Bud and Bugs all about cleaning up after a meal with hundreds of people and how and why people live there along the.......

Lefty Lewis

This man is a kind of courier who travels back and forth between Cedar Rapids and Flint delivering such things as blood to a hospital and dangerous, illegal flyers to the Brotherhood of Pullman Porters. He sees Bud along the road and stops to.........

Miss Grace Thomas

She is the “vocal stylist” of Mr. Calloway’s band and the music that comes from her chest is the most beautiful that Bud has ever heard. But what’s more, she is a mother figure for Bud who has not allowed himself to cry for his real mother for........

Steady Eddie, The Thug, Dirty Deed, Doo-Doo Bug, and Mr. Jimmy

These band members are the ones who open their arms wide and accept Bud even when they know nothing.......

The complete study guide is currently available as a downloadable PDF, RTF, or MS Word DOC file from the PinkMonkey MonkeyNotes download store. The complete study guide contains summaries and notes for all of the chapters; detailed analysis of the themes, plot structure, and characters; important quotations and analysis; detailed analysis of symbolism, motifs, and imagery; a key facts summary; detailed analysis of the use of foreshadowing and irony; a multiple-choice quiz, and suggested book report ideas and essay topics.

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