The Winter People

Martin Shea is Sara’s husband. He is a secondary character with limited character growth. As a child, Martin grew up in the shadow of his “stronger, faster, braver, even better-looking” brother Lucius (27). He was a quiet, dreamy, bookish kid who felt Sara “was the adventure he was meant for” (28). However, just as he is cowed by his more successful brother, Martin is also somewhat cowed by his wife. His relative weakness as compared to these characters is physically manifest in the form of his broken foot that causes him to limp.

At the outset of the novel, Martin is concerned about Sara and Gertie’s closeness. Sara’s subsequent actions show him to have been right to be a little concerned. As Sara unravels, Martin seems unable to help her. He alternates between medicating her on the advice of his brother and keeping up the usual farm routines as best as he is able. Martin’s death at his own hand following a fatal accidental gunshot wound is the culmination of a tragic life.

Gertie Shea is Sara and Martin’s daughter. She is a blond ten-year-old girl. Gertie is very close with her mother. When she is alive, Gertie has some mystical powers, such as her ability to talk to the “winter people,” or the other sleepers, in her dreams. Gertie is pushed into the well by Auntie and dies. She is then resurrected as a “sleeper” by her mother.

In this zombie-like state, Gertie shares some characteristics with her living form. For instance, as a child Gertie communicates with her mother by writing messages with her finger on her mother’s palm. This is also how she communicates with her mother when she is a sleeper. In both forms, Gertie enjoys hiding in the bedroom closet. Gertie is a tragic figure doomed to live for eternity hidden away from the rest of the world.

Gertie is mirrored in the present day by Fawn Washburne. They share many common characteristics, such as overbearing mothers who seek to keep them home from school, a tendency to talk to “imaginary” friends, and a love of playing hide-and-seek.

Auntie is a striking half-Quebecois, half-Indigenous woman who lived with, and cared for, Sara and her siblings when they were small. Auntie acts as the primary antagonist in the novel. Auntie has mystical abilities she uses to help—and curse—the villagers in West Hall, which means that McMahon's portrayal of Auntie draws on offensive stereotypes about Indigenous Americans. Sara’s mother and sister suspect Auntie of poisoning her mother and insinuating herself into their family, but this suspicion is never substantiated. It could be true or it could be the result of the superstitious prejudices of the townspeople that ultimately lead Sara’s father to banish Auntie from the farm. Auntie has a sexual relationship with Sara’s father but lives in her own cabin on the property.

Auntie is a loving, if strict, caregiver to Sara and the other children. She teaches Sara many important survival skills, as well as how to summon a sleeper. However, following her banishment, Auntie dedicates the rest of her life to revenge. She kills Sara’s brother and Gertie. She attempts to kill Sara and Martin before Gertie kills her with an axe.

Katherine is a middle-aged artist who acts as a protagonist. Two years prior to the book’s chronology in the present day, her son Austin died of leukemia. A few months before the present-day timeline of the novel, her husband Gary died in a car crash. She has only recently moved to West Hall from Boston to learn more about why her husband Gary was there before he died.

When she is introduced in The Winter People, Katherine is wracked with grief over these losses. She uses her grief as the inspiration for her artwork. She creates miniatures of her husband’s crash site and his last meal. Katherine is largely defined by her grief. She tries to capture the scent of those she lost on her bedclothes. This tragedy leads her to perform the ritual to summon her husband as a sleeper in a desperate attempt to see him one last time. In this way, Katherine is parallel to Sara Shea in the 1908 timeline, as Sara takes similar risks out of desperate grief. They are emblematic of the effect of loss on the human psyche.

Katherine becomes increasingly convinced of the supernatural aspects of the West Hall area. After resolving to do the ritual, they come across a fox in the woods who drops a dead rabbit. Katherine feels the fox look back at her as if to communicate, “See what I left you” (299). She feels as if it was “impossibly meant to be” (299). Once in the caves, Katherine trusts in the voice of her deceased husband to guide her. This shows that Katherine, as an artist, is open to the possibilities of otherworldly spirits and powers.

Katherine also proves herself to be brave and determined. She fearlessly confronts Candace when Candace is holding the Washburne girls at gunpoint, although she does get distracted when she sees Gary’s camera in the home. She then goes with the group to explore the caves. Her strength is another similarity with Sara Shea.

Ruthie Washburne is the spunky, intelligent 19-year-old protagonist of The Winter People. Ruthie lives with her adoptive parents, Alice and James, on their homestead in West Hall. Over the course of the novel, it is revealed that Ruthie’s biological parents were Thomas and Bridget O’Rourke, who were killed by Gertie. Ruthie is intelligent and ambitious; she hopes to leave West Hall and attend a business school. However, she has rarely left West Hall, or even the state of Vermont. She has had an independent streak and a love of learning from a young age. This is shown by her insistence that her homeschooling parents allow her to attend public school.

Ruthie demonstrates the most growth of any of the characters. At the beginning of the novel, she is a stereotypical teenager who enjoys staying out late at a party with her boyfriend, drinking, and smoking pot. She is not particularly close with her six-year-old sister, Fawn. Ruthie thinks, “she hadn’t exactly been the best big sister, even from the very beginning” (97). After her mother’s disappearance, Ruthie grows and matures quickly. She does her best to search for her mother’s whereabouts without overly alarming her sister. She leaves her comfort zone by going to Connecticut and exploring the Devil’s Hand area. Despite being claustrophobic, she shows her bravery and determination by climbing into the cave. Her dedication to her mother pays off when she is able to rescue Alice.

In the end, Ruthie resolves to stay in West Hall and look after Gertie instead of leaving the town. This is symbolic of her new understanding of the importance of responsibility and family.