I Survived the San Francisco Earthquake, 1906

Morris lives in the same building as Leo, and Leo views him as a little brother. Morris lives with his uncle, who is almost always away from home gambling. Morris works at the grocery but spends every moment he can at the library. He longs to go to New York City to be with his mother’s cousins, who are teachers there. More than anything he wants a family to call his own, and he chooses Leo to be a part of that family.

At first Leo finds Morris’s bookish habits and tagalong attitude annoying, claiming “[h]e especially [doesn’t] need a friend like Morris, a skinny twerp who didn’t know when to shut up” (15-16). However, Leo soon feels grateful his companionship and for the knowledge Morris has about earthquakes.

Finally, Morris is brave and loyal, frequently putting himself in danger to save others. Leo begins to wonder, “[is] there anything Morris didn’t know?” (46) when Morris’s random knowledge helps save others’ lives on multiple occasions. Though he is small in stature, he is large of heart and never hesitates to put others before himself, even his enemies—as when he stopped Wilkie from hurting Fletch.

Fletch Sikes is the true antagonist of the book. He is the meanest burglar in the neighborhood who is also known for beating kids up for no reason. When he was young, “he’d been attacked by a pack of stray dogs. He’d survived, but, one of the dogs had bitten his throat” (9-10), giving him his signature raspy voice. Fletch is almost always in trouble of some sort and often drags Wilkie into his schemes and crimes.

Fletch is consumed by greed, which ultimately leads to his downfall. While Wilkie is willing to sacrifice for Fletch, the feeling is not mutual. When Fletch chooses to save his loot instead of his friend, he ends up losing both.

Wilkie begins as one of the book’s antagonists, but he ends up befriending Leo and Morris in the end. He is described as a large boy, “almost three hundred pounds, with smooth chubby cheeks like a baby. A baby with a steel fist” (10). At first, Wilkie is loyal to Fletch. He even goes to jail for him and turns down the chance to be a football star in Seattle to stay with him. Like Fletch, he steals from others and beats them up regularly.

However, Wilkie eventually sees through Fletch and recognizes how selfish he is when Fletch leaves him to die in the rubble. Wilkie struggles with anger, but this slowly subsides as the book progresses. He finds true friendship with Leo and Morris, and stops stealing. Finally, through Leo’s generosity, he is able to play football in Seattle after all.