93 pages • 3 hours read
William BellCrabbe
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1986A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
Franklin Crabbe
Franklin Crabbe is the eighteen-year old son of affluent parents who live in Toronto, Ontario. Franklin, who goes by his last name, is weak, lanky, and skinny at the start of the novel, but transforms himself into a stronger person by the end of the novel. In addition, he is missing two fingers on his left hand as a result of frostbite he suffers while in the wilderness.
Before Crabbe runs away, he suffers from anxiety attacks that he treats by drinking vodka throughout the school day. Selfish and entitled, he blames his parents for his unhappiness and believes that his family’s wealth and his very high IQ lead people to place expectations on him that he cannot and does not wish to meet. He does just enough work to get by in school and constantly argues with his parents. By the end of the novel, he shifts his self-perception by assuming responsibility for his own life and trying to help others.
Mary Pallas
Mary Pallas is a former professor of history who has gone into hiding in the Canadian wilderness after euthanizing her husband, who is brain damaged and paralyzed after an accident. She saves the protagonist’s life. She is blond, gray eyed, beautiful, and moves with confidence through the wilderness.
Mary is an important guide figure for the protagonist. Her knowledge of wilderness craft and her belief in people’s responsibility for their own lives are the impetus for Crabbe’s change during the novel.
Mr. Crabbe
Mr. Crabbe is Franklin’s father. His career as a corporate lawyer supports an affluent lifestyle that does nothing to make his wife and son happy. He is politically conservative and has conventional values that emphasize conformity and the status quo. He drinks frequently. This habit, which his son sees as hypocritical, along with Mr. Crabbe’s concern over appearances, are sources of tension with his son.
Mr. Peters
Mr. Peters is Crabbe’s twelfth-grade English teacher who insists that Crabbe use his intelligence and learn to think for himself. Crabbe’s father and the other teachers dislike him because of his nonconformity.
Mrs. Crabbe
Crabbe’s mother is the conventional wife of a wealthy man—thin, unhappy, frequently teary, and dependent on prescription drugs to get through the day.
Nurse Owens
An older nurse at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital who convinces Crabbe that he must talk to his parents to come of age.
