Sileo - ATKM blog post 3

Author's Note: There are an almost infinite number of ways to define and rank these people, and having the generalizations of "good" or "bad" have no real application. So I shall rank the characters based on what actions they took throughout the book and what that says about their persona. for those who were thinkers rather than doers, I shall rank them according to their morals. Furthermore, the just as the people to the top are good, the bottom bad, the center shall be neutral.

MEN. 

Willie (in the beginning): Willie starts out as the best character of the book. Call it the influence of Lucy or otherwise, Willie begins the book as truly good. He wants to be governor because he believes that he has the power to do good. He may be just a bumbling farm boy, but he has the heart of a blue whale.

Sugar Boy: Completely aside, but Sugar Boy is my favorite character in the book. His greatest quality to me was his absolute loyalty to Willie. He was short, had a stutter, and carried a .38, but he loved the Boss with all the loyalty of a bloodhound. He believed in what Willie was doing, and refused to work for Tiny Duffy when he took over power.

Adam Stanton: The great idealist of the book. He believed that the ends did not justify the means, and in the end it cost him his life. His morals were the best out of anyone in the book, but he allowed them to blind him, for which I put him further down the list.

Judge Irwin: while he may have done some bad things in his past, the Judge is truly a good character, he had no way of knowing that Mortimer Littlepaugh was going to kill himself. The Judge was just acting on self preservation, a human instinct. He tried to instill his own morals in Jack as a boy, and does what he can to be a father to Jack, while keeping the relationship with his mother a secret.

Cass Mastern: Cass Mastern, like Willie Talos, changes throughout the course of his storyline, but in the opposite direction. He begins as an adulterer, but ends as someone who has found God. He did what he could to atone for his sins, freed his slaves, joined the army, but he didn't have such a great start so I placed him further down the list.

Scholarly Attorney: He had no real business leaving Jack's mom to go care for some "unfortunates off the street, but once we find out why, I give him a more neutral placing.

George: really neutral. I would call him more of a "thing" than a human, and he doesn't have enough of a part in the book to truly be a part of this character study.

Governer Stanton: Truly let his morals get in his way of working with Willie, contributing to Willie's downward spiral. This was not good because Willie then began to think more about himself than the world around him.

Gilbert Mastern: Really quite neutral, but he did keep slaves and wanted to buy more slaves to farm Cass's land, so yeah, he really wasn't that great either.

Jack Burden: while not truly bad, Jack really is too detached from society to be good either. His problem is that he has no morals or ambition, and I get the feeling he digs up dirt for Willie because he has nothing better to do. In the end he does pressure the Judge and indirectly kills him. While he could not have any idea that would be the reaction I still resent him for doing so.

Willie (later on): Willie changed so much that he truly became a different character. Manipulative, egotistical, adulterous are words that only begin to describe Willie. Even so he did build an enormous hospital and set Adam to leading it, which is pretty good.

Tom Talos: Some people might be inclined to give him some slack because he was only a kid, but back in those days 17 was old enough to make his own decisions, and between driving drunk and impregnating a girl, he really made some bad ones.

tiny duffy: Truly evil. He killed Willie, and actually was the one who set him up in the first place as a stooge. Not a good person.

WOMEN
Lucy: Good through and through. Sticks by Willie when she knows what he was doing behind her back, and raises Tom's child when it is born.

Phoebe: Too neutral to really say anything. She is just another servant in the south.

Anne: not that good, but not the evil. has good morals, but leaves Jack high and dry when she goes off with Willie, at least she actually loved him, One can't fault her for that.

Jack's Mom: Alright, but screwed up Jack's childhood by marrying so many men, probably contributing to his overly cynical outlook on life.

Sadie: Works with Tiny to pull the wool over Willie's eyes, commits adultery with him and then kills him. Enough said.

Annabelle Trice: Very evil. Commits adultery that ends up in her husband dying. To cover her tracks she sells her slave downriver when she had a husband the next town over. No bueno.