84 pages • 2 hours read
Sharon CreechRuby Holler
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2002A 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
Florida Carter
Florida is the leader of the twins. She is bold, outgoing, and unapologetic for the “trouble” she causes at Boxton Creek Home. Boisterous and seemingly rough around the edges, she is sassy toward adults who harm or belittle her in any way. When she is frustrated by circumstances, she blames the objects around her; for instance, she blames an egg for breaking when she is the one who has broken it and lashes out at wood she’s attempting to carve. Her hardened exterior is a way of preemptively skirting any criticism from adults.
The abuse she has suffered from the Trepids and various foster parents has made her vulnerable. She has been taught to expect that she will fail at anything she tries and expects the Moreys to severely punish her for minor mistakes or accidents. Florida is the pessimist of the twins; she stresses to Dallas that they should not let their guards down while living in Ruby Holler, that the Moreys’ kind treatment must carry with it some sort of “catch.” She is protective of Dallas, and it is she who insists they must run away by train.
As the novel unfolds, Florida changes and the complexity of her character becomes evident. She reveals that she is comforted by Dallas’s reassuring words and that her hard demeanor masks the hurt she has experienced. She comes to trust and love the Moreys, despite her initial uncertainty. She gains confidence and self-esteem, evident when she takes pride in the work that she has done in readying the boat for its voyage.
Dallas Carter
Dallas is the second protagonist and Florida’s follower. He unfailingly trusts his sister and generally does not question her instructions or decisions, committed to following her in running away by train. Indeed, his bond to Florida is so strong that he immediately takes steps to find her when he has a premonition that she is in trouble. In this moment, he obtains a kind of “tunnel vision” and can only focus on saving Florida at all costs. Theirs is a bond that cannot be severed, even when they are physically apart.
Where Florida is pessimistic and outspoken, Dallas looks for good in situations. He repeatedly envisions a serene place—not unlike Ruby Holler—to cope when discouraged by life at Boxton Creek Home or with foster families. He focuses on the future, confident that he and Florida will be rewarded for their suffering.
Florida admits that Dallas’s “word pictures”—descriptions of peaceful locales and calming moments—reassure and comfort her. At Ruby Holler, Dallas shows a carefree side, running through the holler and marveling at the various birds. He tends to be somewhat absent-minded at times, forgetting the compass and water canteen when he and Sairy hike; he shrugs these misfortunes off and makes do in other ways, in keeping with his optimistic approach to life.
One of the defining moments in Dallas’s life is Joey’s death. Ordered by Mr. Tiller to observe Joey during his fever, Dallas seems to hold himself responsible to a degree for Joey’s passing. The final breaths Joey drew haunt Dallas, and this memory returns to him at stressful times. This is further evidence of Dallas’s kind and caring nature.
Tiller Morey
Tiller Morey is rather quiet and reserved with somewhat of a gruff exterior. His pessimism often manifests in quirky phrases that reveal his frustration. He is skeptical that bringing the twins into the Moreys’ home and including them on trips is a good idea and remains this way for some time. Ruled by his pessimist nature, he frequently thinks that it would be best to return the twins to Boxton Creek Home.
Inwardly, Tiller is warm and loving. He is devoted to Sairy and cannot imagine being separated from her. The story Sairy tells of their courtship and his needling her to return to Ruby Holler reveals his intense love for her. He is at home in Ruby Holler, thriving in its natural splendor and its refuge from the hustle and bustle of the outside world. A creative spirit, his love of nature is channeled into the wood carvings that both he and Sairy create.
Though he does not speak of it outwardly, Tiller misses his children. Fairly frequently, he is reminded of occurrences when one of them was young—these memories sometimes manifest in dreams. Through these flashbacks, his skill and dedication as a father become clear. Indeed, as Tiller spends more time with Florida and Dallas, he comes to care deeply for them. He recognizes that the love and support he knew as a child—and that he gave to his own children—has been withheld from the twins. Tiller tries to imagine the difficulty of their plight, and this empathy erases his pessimism and skepticism toward the twins.
Sairy Morey
Sairy Morey has a soft and warm presence. Through her interactions with Dallas and Florida, she demonstrates that she is a kind, caring, and patient person. When the twins make mistakes or unintentionally break something, she is quick to reframe the situation, finding a way to view broken things as having a new use or mistakes as blessings in disguise. This foils Tiller’s pessimism. Indeed, she is a calming force for Tiller, reassuring him when things do not go as planned and keeping him grounded with her focus on the positive aspects of life. Like Dallas, she looks for good in all situations. When she and Dallas get lost on a hike, together they are able to squelch their worry and persevere.
In such moments, Sairy is humble and admits to her shortcomings. Her trusting nature makes her somewhat naïve and susceptible to being taken advantage of, such as when the teen boys trick her into leaving her hiking gear in their care, then steal it.
Sairy is unconditionally devoted to Tiller and cannot imagine life without him. She fears being separated from him and is torn by her desire to travel to Kangadoon. Like Tiller, she bravely takes steps to live out her own dreams by preparing for the trip apart from him. When Tiller suffers a heart attack, Sairy selflessly puts her dream on hold to care for him and support him. Ultimately, she is a model of kindness and love from whom the twins benefit.
Mr. and Mrs. Trepid
Owners of the Boxton Creek Home for Children, the Trepids are the novel’s antagonists, and serve as obstacles to the twins’ happiness. They are deliberately cruel and abusive to the twins, deeming them trouble and frequently punishing them for even minor or accidental violations of their rules. They have few admirable qualities, and, though they appear to care for one another, their love appears hollow and not truly intimate.
Both are vain and materialistic, eager to obtain money and expensive items. Mr. Trepid is eager to steal the Moreys’ secret savings and has no qualms about hiring Z to assist him. He is also lazy, and pays Z to carry out the difficult work of scouting Ruby Holler and locating the money. Both he and Mrs. Trepid consider themselves to be much better people than they truly are, and are certain they are deserving of fine things. Both attempt to fool salespeople into thinking that they are wealthy, but the clerks are skeptical of the Trepids’ financial standing. The Trepids look down upon others yet do very little to make themselves worthy of the praise and kind treatment they feel they deserve. In this way, the Trepids fulfill a kind of evil villain trope often found in children’s literature, and seem to get what they deserve by falling for the trick of the false jewels.
However, the novel reveals a glimmer of goodness in Mrs. Trepid. Initially, she planned to raise and care for Dallas and Florida as her own children, daydreaming about the loving family that she and Mr. Trepid could become with the twins. Yet, she quickly tired of constantly caring for them. Unwilling to put in the effort and dedication needed to properly raise them, she decided to relinquish the twins for adoption instead.
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