Detailed character profiles - Amy and Jimmy

Amy

In groups, you are going to develop a detailed character profile of one of the major characters that we can post on the class blog.

 After you have been allocated your character, you need to put together information that provides us with as much detail as possible about this individual. Use the following questions to guide you:

How would your character describe himself/herself?

·         She likes to stay in one place and doesn’t care if she doesn’t see the world. pg 109

·       Smart.

 

How would other characters describe this character?

·         Fran describes her as an “eminently sensible” friend. pg 108

·         Fran describes her as seeing clearly where the problem is and she doesn’t beat around the bush. pg 103 

·         Sophie describes her as “that little grey haired woman, who smiles all the time and looks like a mouse” pg 125 

How would you describe the relationships that this character has with others?

·         Fran’s bestfriend

·         Friends with Jimmy- lived with their family when she was younger

·         Amy’s mum is Slyvia- has never met her mum

·         Create a strong bond with Sophie

How does this character change throughout the story? How would you describe him or her?

·         Opens up about her life and becomes more open. she tells sophie about her past and when she met Raymond.

·         She becomes more forgiving

What key themes does this character help the reader to understand?

Through the use of first person/past tense in Amys 1970 chapter, it helps the reader understand what happened in Amy's childhood and how she developed when she grew up.

·         Perception

·         Forgiveness

·         Love

·         Understanding

 

Jimmy O’Brien

 - How does this character change throughout the story? How would you describe him or her?

 When Jimmy was 19 he was absurdly handsome. “Six foot, his shoulders board and his waist slim.” (P29) in 1970 Jimmy went to the Vietnam War. And now these days when he was at the city “Jimmy’s marriage folded for good, he had a heart attack” which convinced him to go back to Ballingo for early retirement and now he owns a bar and has a daughter that goes to university and her name is Blue. He has put on some weight and he hair is streaked with grey and it is thick and wavy.

 

- How would other characters describe this character? Try to include as many variations as possible and indicate why there might be differences between characters.

 Each character describes Jimmy in a different way, Fran for instance describes Jimmy as ‘ absurdly handsome ‘ with ‘ big, deep, blue eyes’ (page 29) from this description the reader realises that jimmy is very much a handsome brother that has everything going for him looks wise, later on in the text this view of jimmy is further establish by Geraldine when she talks as Jimmy as ‘so handsome’ (page  292) even thought he has just returned from the war. But the reader soon begins to realise that Jimmy has been broken in the war and even more after when his best friend Blue kills him self.  After this point jimmy is described as ‘fundamentally wreaked’ (page 313) by Geraldine and Fran describes him constantly as being broken. The reader never true finds out if Jimmy gets better but the text dose seem to indicate that he has been improving and so has peoples opinions of him.

Geraldine and Robert think that Jimmy is unstable and unsuitable and not a good influence on Sophie. This is shown on page 10 when Robert asks Fran to let him know that if Sophie begins, "spending a lot of time with jimmy... Or any other unstable...or unsuitable person."

On page 10, it is also stated that Geraldine was "mortified" by Jimmy's actions when he, "took himself off alone into the centre of the city with a loaded shotgun..." And was, "firing randomly into the bushes".

 In the book, it is shown that Fran feels sympathetic towards Jimmy when people don't view  him in a positive light. Because of this Fran begins to feel as though she has to defend Jimmy in order to protect him. This is shown on page 10 when Fran states, "she'd often thought darkly that it was chief role in life: defending Jimmy". It is also shown that Fran loves Jimmy. This is shown on page 30 when she states that she, " simply adores ...

What key themes does this character help the reader to understand?

Jimmy helps the reader to understand Fran and Amy’s relationship and the relationship between Raymond and Fran.  Jimmy also has a big part in Sophie’s recovery and how she settles into Fran’s life.

 

Robert Douglas- Robert Douglas is Geraldine's husband. He works as a successful bowel surgeon and supplies his family (a wife, two daughters, and one son) with large amounts of money (page 1). He was supportive towards young Sophie when Geraldine refused to let her go to ballet classes (82-83), however, Sophie still does not like him.