Charlie Bucktin
The protagonist of the novel. Charlie is thirteen, almost fourteen years old, and lives in the small town of Corrigan, Australia. For much of the book, he struggles with various fears and insecurities: fear of…
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Jasper Jones
Jasper Jones is a half-white, half-Aboriginal fourteen-year-old who enlists Charlie’s help in hiding Laura Wishart’s dead body, thereby setting off the events that make up the novel’s plot. Because he is “mixed caste,”…
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Mad Jack Lionel
A legendary resident of Corrigan who supposedly killed a woman years ago, Mad Jack Lionel is greatly feared by the adolescents and children of the town. Indeed, it’s a common test of courage to steal…
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Wesley Bucktin
Charlie’s father and Ruth’s husband, Wesley Bucktin is an immensely calm, patient, and intelligent man who loves Charlie enormously. Ruth’s family resents Wesley for eloping with Ruth, and at the time when the…
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Ruth Bucktin
Charlie’s mother and Wesley’s wife. Ruth is an angry, cold woman who hates her life in Corrigan, and often wishes she were living with her wealthy family, far from Charlie and Wesley. Ruth…
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Eliza Wishart
A beautiful girl in Charlie’s grade, and the sister of Laura Wishart. Eliza Wishart is the object of Charlie’s desire throughout the novel. She is intelligent, poised, and witty. Charlie often struggles to…
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Jeffrey Lu
Charlie’s close friend, Jeffrey Lu is a twelve-year-old Vietnamese boy who is in the same grade as Charlie and Eliza, having been skipped forward one year. Jeffrey has an absurd, frequently vulgar sense…
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Laura Wishart
Eliza’s sister, Laura Wishart is a thoughtful, intelligent girl, but her death by hanging is the event that begins the novel. Prior to her mysterious death, Laura had been in a relationship with Jasper…
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Warwick Trent
A school bully who beats up Charlie for his intelligence and bookishness, Warwick Trent is a member of the Corrigan cricket team, and thus the cause of much grief for Jeffrey Lu. After Charlie…
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Pete Wishart
Laura and Eliza’s father. Pete Wishart is an alcoholic, abusive man who nonetheless serves as the president of the shire (county) that contains the town of Corrigan. Wishart is skilled at hiding his cruelty…
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David Jones
Jasper Jones’s father and Jack Lionel’s son, David Jones was a champion football player as a young man. He fell in love with Rosie, a beautiful Aborigine woman, but though he married…
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Rosie Jones
A beautiful Aborigine woman who marries David Jones and gives birth to Jasper Jones. Rosie later befriends David’s father, Jack Lionel, despite the fact that he’d originally refused to acknowledge her after her…
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Minor Characters
Doug Walters
Jeffrey Lu’s favorite cricket player.
Mrs. Lu
Jeffrey Lu’s kind, loving mother. Mrs. Lu endures racism and bullying from the townspeople of Corrigan throughout the novel.
Jacob Irving
A member of the Corrigan cricket team.
An Lu
Jeffrey’s father, and a devoted gardener, whose front garden is a Corrigan landmark.
Mrs. Sparkman
A neighbor of the Lus and the Bucktins.
Mrs. Harvey
Corrigan’s librarian.
Sylvia Likens
A 16-year-old girl who was starved, tortured, and killed by Gertrude Baniszewski years before the events of the novel. Sylvia’s death makes Charlie wonder how ordinary people can be so cruel and callous.
Jenny Likens
Sylvia Likens’s younger sister, who brought the authorities’ attention to her sister’s mistreatment too late to save her life.
Gertrude Baniszewski
A cruel woman who tortures and eventually murders Sylvia Likens.
Eric Edgar Cooke
A quiet, harelipped man who murders five women years before the events of the novel. Cooke’s insistence that he “wanted to hurt someone” causes Charlie great confusion.
Mrs. Wishart
Laura and Eliza’s mother, and Pete Wishart’s husband. Mrs. Wishart stubbornly refuses to believe that her husband is a rapist, even when Laura tells her so. Her indifference indirectly causes Laura’s death by suicide.
Prue Styles
A lonely girl with a birthmark who lives in Corrigan.
Sam Quinn
A boy with a cleft palate who lives in Corrigan.
Sue Findlay
A rude, racist woman who scalds Mrs. Lu’s skin and verbally abuses her after her husband, Ray, is killed in Vietnam.
Ray Findlay
Sue Findlay’s husband, who was killed in the Vietnam War.
Atticus Finch
A character from Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, one of Charlie’s favorite books. Atticus is a symbol of thoughtfulness and righteousness for Charlie. At many points, Charlie wonders what Atticus would do in his position.
Keith Tostling
A local sheep shearer.
Jim Quincy
A member of the Corrigan cricket team.
James Trent
One of the men who attack An Lu and ruin his lawn. It’s implied that James is Warwick’s father.
Roy Sparkman
A neighbor of the Bucktins and the Lus, who helps defend An Lu when a group of racists attacks him.
Maggie Sparkman
Roy Sparkman’s wife.
Harry Rawlings
A neighbor of the Bucktins and the Lus, who helps defend An Lu when a group of racists attacks him.
