Two families play a central role in this novel: The Baxter Family and the Forrester Family. The Baxters are a family of three, Penny Baxter, Ma Baxter and their son Jody. They always wanted to have a large family, but all of Ma Baxter's babies were miscarried until Jody. He barely survived childbirth. Because of so much loss, Jody's mother is afraid to get attached to him. She is pretty harsh and strict with him, so Penny often lets Jody go and play while he finishes his chores. A funny quote that demonstrates the relationship between Jody and his mom is: "Jody said, "Ma, you're shore good." "Oh, yes. When it's rations." "Well, I'd a heap ruther you was good about rations and mean about other things." "Oh, I be mean, be I?" "Only about jest a very few things," he soothed her."
The Baxters are a small in stature, but they are very hard working. They live on Baxter's Island on small farm. They are poor, but they keep their home and property clean and in good order. They grow tobacco and corn. They sell the tobacco and eat the corn and feed it to their animals. …show more content…
The father is old and doesn't do much anymore, but sit around and smoke his pipe and drink from his jug of moonshine. The mom is very kind to Jody and his family. Whenever they come over she tries to make them feel comfortable gives them a lot to eat. She cooks a lot of food. That seems like all she does. There are 2 daughters. They a lot of sons, most of them are grown men, but the youngest child, Fodder Wing, is Jody's age. Fodder Wing doesn't have to do many chores, he takes care of his animals all day, and goes and looks for more animals. Fodder Wing loved the idea of flying like a bird, so when he was younger, he climbed in a tree and jumped out and tried to fly. Because of this, he is disabled and can't move around very well. The family loves dogs, they are obsessed with dogs. They like to take them out hunting, and they have a ton of