Boy, Snow, Bird

Bird is the daughter of Boy and Arturo Whitman, and the narrative voice of the second part of the novel. She is dark-skinned; because Arturo was passing as white, many people assume that Boy cheated on him. Bird is a precocious child, an aspiring journalist like her “aunt” Mia, and an apathetic student, like her mother. Mirrors sometimes do not show her reflection, although she isn’t sure why, and she talks to the spiders in her room. She is able to mimic peoples’ voices with perfect accuracy, with the exception of her mother, whose voice she is unable to imitate. 

Snow is the only titular character not to receive a narrative section, although she is given a voice through her letters to Bird. Snow is Arturo’s daughter with his now-deceased wife, Julia; like Julia and Arturo, Snow is light-skinned. She is the darling of her grandparents: a kind, pretty child whom everyone adores, except for Boy. After Bird’s birth, Boy begins to grow suspicious of Snow; at the end of Part 1, she sends Snow to live with Clara, Arturo’s sister, and her husband, John, in Boston. Snow likewise claims to have trouble with mirrors, although it isn’t clear if this is something she tells Bird just to humor her. Even as an adult, she admits that she is a deceiver, and while she and Boy reconcile to some extent, Boy maintains her belief that Snow is deceptive as a person. She is used to people fawning over her, but it isn’t clear if this is because she’s apathetic or because it bothers her. Although her grandparents adore her, she secretly dislikes them for their treatment of Clara and their colorism; however, she admits that she does not use her privilege to be an ally to other, darker-skinned African Americans. 

Frank is Boy’s abusive father. Born Frances Amelia Novak, Frank was the daughter of an Irish-American seamstress mother and a Hungarian immigrant delivery driver. Frances was a promising, up-and-coming, queer student of psychology with a special interest in sexuality; however, after she was raped, she left school and disappeared. A short while later, she became Frank. Frank was a rat catcher, as this was a job he could do on his own without official paperwork; he physically and emotionally abused Boy, even though Boy always got the impression that Frank was trying to protect Boy from something. After Mia gets in touch with Frank, he visits Flax Hill to meet his granddaughter, though he recoils when he discovers she is black. He leaves Flax Hill with no intention of seeing his daughter or ever returning.

Charlie was Boy’s childhood sweetheart. At the time Boy ran away, Charlie was a medical student in Albany; they continued to remain in touch sporadically but stop talking once Boy gets engaged to Arturo. Charlie is a devoted suitor; Boy loves him but believes that she cannot be with him because of his devotion, although it’s unclear if this is because of the effect it would have on her own personality or simply the boredom of it. Charlie eventually marries and has children of his own; years later, when Boy tells Charlie that she loves him, he devastates her by asking why. 

Veronica (typically called “Webster”) is Boy’s first friend in Flax Hill. She and Boy go on double dates together; though they are friends, Boy describes her as uninteresting unless a man is in the room. Veronica’s main focus seems to be finding a husband, and it is through her dates with her eventual husband, Ted Murray, that Boy meets Arturo. 

Arturo is the eventual husband of Boy; he is a light-skinned African American man whose family moved North in order to pass as white. A former history professor, he is a jewelry maker when Boy meets him. Boy and Arturo are not fond of one another at first, but they eventually begin seeing one another and marry, although Boy at the time cannot bring herself to say that she loves him. Arturo is a widower with a young daughter, Snow; his first wife, Julia Miller, was his childhood sweetheart, and was also a light-skinned African American passing as white. 

Boy meets Mia while working on a party cruise boat; Mia is an aspiring journalist there to investigate the secret life of blonde women. Mia is a former student of Arturo’s and the daughter of a wealthy hotelier; she lives a more carefree life, on the opposite end of the spectrum from Veronica (with Boy falling somewhere in the middle). Mia, in attempting to track down Boy’s mother, makes the discovery that Frank used to be Frances.

Mrs. Fletcher runs the bookshop at which Boy works; it was the first job Boy kept, and she remains in Mrs. Fletcher’s employment at the end of the novel. Alecto is wise, acerbic, and blunt; she is an Englishwoman who married an American and moved to his hometown, Flax Hill, after his death, in order to remain close to him. 

Sidonie, Phoebe, and Kazim are three African-American teenagers who skip school each afternoon to hang out at the bookstore and read. Boy mistakes another boy for Kazim one day; when Mrs. Fletcher decides they need to start going to school and forbids them from hanging out at the bookstore, they blame Boy as a result. All three remain part of Boy’s life at the end of the novel: Sidonie is Bird’s schoolteacher; Kazim inks comics for Marvel and gives lectures on mystic poetry on the side; and Phoebe is Olivia and Agnes’s maid. 

Olivia is Arturo’s mother. She is a rigid, unwavering, ambitious woman, firm in her belief that what she’s doing is what’s best for those around her. She believes that passing as white is the only way for her family to survive in America, and works toward that end relentlessly, including sending her dark-skinned daughter to live down South and disowning her when she does not pick a suitable husband. She loves Snow but treats Bird poorly because of her skin color.

Gerald is Arturo’s father. Like his wife, he is firm in his belief that they are doing what’s best for their family, though his voice is generally absent from the events of the novel. 

Agnes is Arturo’s former mother-in-law and Julia Miller’s mother. Though Agnes and Olivia remain close friends throughout the novel, Agnes is more easygoing than Olivia; she believes that she and her husband were right to pass, and she chooses to remain in the North after their daughter’s death, but she is less ambitious and more understanding of alternative perspectives. She, too, loves her granddaughter, Snow, above all else, but she also treats Bird well, and has even included Bird in her will (although that inclusion would send Bird back to the South, so it isn’t totally clear what the intent is). 

Vivian is Arturo’s light-skinned sister. At the start of the novel, Vivian is engaged to be married; however, her fiancé leaves her once Bird is born and he realizes that Vivian is African American. Though a successful lawyer, at the end of the novel, Vivian remains unmarried, and it is strongly implied that this has much to do with her mother’s rule. 

Clara is Vivian and Arturo’s dark-skinned older sister. Olivia sends Clara away to live with her aunt Effie down South after her birth in order to maintain the illusion that they are white. Clara is now a nurse living in Boston with her husband, John; she is estranged from Olivia and Gerald because she married John instead of his (presumably lighter-skinned) cousin. After Bird’s birth, Boy is pressured to send Bird to live with Clara and John; however, she instead sends Snow to live with them. 

John is Clara’s husband. He runs a home school. He was a rambunctious, carefree youth who spent time in prison; while there, he spent his time reading books and became intellectual.