Georgie

Georgie, the seven-year-old narrator of the story, serves his Uncle Rodney without questioning or recognizing Rodney's various forms of social and criminal misbehavior. Georgie's loyalty to Uncle Rodney feeds his own pervasive greed. His notions of Christmas focus narrowly on money: "I thought how maybe I could go on downtown when I got through working for Uncle Rodney and buy a present for Grandpa with a dime out of the ten quarters and give it to him tomorrow and maybe, because nobody else had given him a present, Grandpa might give me a quarter too instead of the dime tomorrow, and that would be twenty-one quarters, except for the dime, and that would be fine sure enough" (278). Georgie is totally vulnerable to his uncle's promised generosity, and dutifully assists Uncle Rodney in his "business," without understanding any of it. In the end, Georgie has learned nothing about this uncle, his family, or his own errors.