Cloudstreet Characters

ROSE
1. Rose has a bad relationship with her mother. Suffers from anorexia. Tries to live independently from her family but can't do it. She discovers that family is important, that a house is not always a home and they she doesn't want to be independent if that means she is alone.
  1. "Rose kicks the door shut and begins to destroy her room." pg.125 "You can't imagine how I hate you." pg.352
FISH
1. After he drowns he returns back to life but not as he once was. He continuously yearns for the water (death) and the people calling him on the other side. When he leaves he can be happy because he has 'won them the war' and can leave peacefully knowing that his family is finally happy; he can be happy too.
  1. "Never, never, was there a sadder, more disappointed noise." pg.31 "Because not all of Fish Lamb had come back." pg.32 "Who's gunna win the war for us?" pg.54 "...Fish was under, and the net was just floating across him like the angel of death." pg.60 "It's like Fish is stuck somewhere...[l]ike he's half in and half out." pg.69 "Go down into the light." pg.121 "I want the water, Lestah." pg.165 "They go in the water. To the big country." pg.192
QUICK
1. Suffers with guilt due to Fish's drowning incident. Blames himself, thinks it should have been him not Fish. Runs away from home believing it will deal with his problems, it doesn't. Realises he needs to let go of his guilt and move one with his life.
  1. "He knows it should have been him, not Fish." pg.60 "...the gallery of the miserable....they look down on him, Quick Lamb the Survivor..." pg.61 "Quick Lamb hates himself." pg61 "Was I delirious?" pg.205
DOLLY
1. Hates her daughter, her life, her mother etc... Is bitter and tries to competes with her daughter for everything. Eventually mend their broken relationship. Learns to love her daughter and actually be a mother.
  1. "The whole town knowing. How would she live?" pg.15 "...the old girl was turning mean." pg.16 "Those rails go all over the world. They go forever." pg.79 "Dolly tried not to think about how she hated Rose these days...Rose was the enemy." pg. 154
LESTER
1. Has a simple view on life, he values human life and family. He is often the one who holds his family together through all the struggles they go through. He looks after and still loves Fish. He often is over powered and controlled by Oriel, his wife.
  1. "Strike, we hold a grudge..." pg. 64 "Life was something you didn't argue with...whether you barracked for God or nothing at all, life was all there was. And death." pg.65 "Don't you forgot about Fish, boy...or your life won't have been worth livin." pg.94 "Always the miracles you don't need. It's not a simple world." pg.130 "You take the good with the bad." pg.230 "The lost will stay with you." pg.303 "She doesn't care about all that-well she tries not to." pg.303 "I know I had a family and I enjoyed every bit of it." pg. 304
ORIEL
1. She continuously battles and fights against life even though she knows she is fighting a losing battle. She was the one who 'forced' Fish back to life. She losses herself and retreats to the tent in an attempt to find herself. When the tent is finally packed up it shows how she has let down her barriers and stopped fighting life,
  1. "She wondered if it wasn't really the way things were, everything just happening by chance in this sorry world." pg. 56 "We blame him...[a]nd I blame you. And God." pg.64 "...Oriel Lamb move[d] her things out to the white tent beneath the mulberry tree at Cloustreet." pg.133 "Its all war." pg. 229 "Everythin. Raisin a family, keepin yer head above water. Life. War is our natural state." pg.229 "We make war on the bad and surrender." pg.230 "Everything can be helped." pg.230
SAM
1. Believes that everything in life that happens is because of luck, good or bad and that he has no control over it. Loves both Dolly and Rose dearly. He tries to make his family life better but he struggles as he does not know what to do. At one point considers suicide but is stopped by Rose and the love she shows to him.
  1. "Making luck, the hardest donkey yacker there is...his time would come." pg.76 "...there wasn't a damned thung he could do about it except go onlosing." pg342 "I cant' stand the hate. It'll kill you...[g]oon with your life, love. It's all there is." pg.353

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Cloudstreet Characters

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