Male Characters: good to bad
1) Adam Stanton: Adam Stanton has the best morals of any of the men in the book. Since he graduated medical school, he has been working non-stop to care for the sick. He doesn’t care about money, and he certainly doesn’t put up with corruption, which is why he was so upset when he learned about his father’s corruption. Everyone knows that Adam is the best doctor in the state, but also that he simply wants to do good and only good. That is how Jack convinces him to be director of the new hospital. Jack says, “You want to do good” (p332), and Adam has no argument for that.
2) Judge Irwin: It is clear that Judge has been trying to make up for his mistakes that Jack uncovered. It was hard to believe that the Judge had done something so bad for money but since then, he has been a kind, ethical, respectable member of Burden’s Landing which leads the reader to believe that he truly regrets his past crime.
3) Cass Mastern: Cass is a pretty neutral character. After his affairs with Annabelle Trice, he seems to learn his lesson and try to become a better person. He can’t seem to escape bad things no matter hard he tries, but the key is that he really does try to stay away from corruption and evil.
4) Jack Burden: Jack knows good from bad, but he isn’t very concerned about his reputation, or really anything. He stays out of the corruption of politics for the most part, but has no issue doing Willie’s dirty work and digging up things to hurt people with. As long as nothing affects him badly, he has no issue pretending like he never sees the corruption in politics. The fact that Jack works for Willie, the first governor to try to do some good, could be a hint to Jack’s softer side that wants a better world.
5) Willie Talos: “The Boss” is known for wanting to do good for his people, but he also isn’t afraid of the corruption of politics. He says to Adam Stanton that, “You gotta make [goodness], Doc. If you want it. And you gotta make it out of badness” (p359). In Willie’s opinion, you need to be able to function in badness to create goodness out of it, which is what he says he does. On top of this, Willie has no issue cheating on his wife, and then on Sadie. He seems to have selective morals, that change to fit his needs.
6) Governor Stanton: Besides being good to his kids, Governor Stanton didn’t do many more good things. He basked in the corrupt politics, bribing and cheating his way through. He did not help Littlepaugh, after being fired, and was a big reason that he committed suicide. This all makes him one of the worst characters in the book.
Female Characters: good to bad
1) Lucy Talos: The “wife” of Willie, Lucy puts up with Willie more than she should. Even though it seems she has given up on her “husband”, she still tries hard to be a good mother and save Tom from excessive stardom so he can get a real job. She really just wants the best for her son and fighting about that with Willie is about the most passionate that readers have seen her so far.
2) Sadie Burke: Although Sadie is hard on Willie and Jack, she is smart, and good at her job. Sadie is strong and tougher than some of the boys on Willie’s team but when it comes to her relationship with Willie, she turns into a typical girl who gets what she wants.
3) Lilly Mae Littlepaugh: The sister of Littlepaugh, Miss Littlepaugh was easily bribed by Jack to tell the story of her brother’s suicide which shows her skewed ethics. She lied about the suicide because she was afraid of the people who hurt her brother. She does whatever is needed to survive, worrying mostly about herself.
4) Anne Stanton: The sister of the perfect Adam Stanton, Anne is much different. She has a certain power over Jack, and completely abuses it. She seems to have her own agenda, and although it is unclear, it probably has something to do with sleeping with Willie and how she found out about Adam running the new hospital. Her evil actions may seriously be the end of Jack.
5) Annabelle Trice: Annabelle Trice is the worst woman in the book so far. She cheats on her loving husband which causes him to kill himself, then sells the slave who knows about it. Her only grief about the whole ordeal, is that she is afraid of the slave and Cass judging her. Annabelle is selfish and manipulative and probably lines up with a female character in Jack’s story.
I agree with you on most of the women and some of the men. I like the points you bring up with the Judge and how he's trying to remedy what he did in the past by being a good judge. The way you describe what Annabelle did I can clearly see why you put her as the worst woman on the list. Willie, however I think because he always tries to do good should be higher up on the list. When I wrote my post I completely overlooked that he was cheating on his wife and now actually thinking about it he did just as bad things as Anne or Annabelle.
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