Flossie Gaddis Character Analysis

A young woman who lives below the Nolans at their third home on Grand Street in Williamsburg. She supports her mother and brother, Henny, by working as a turner in a kid-glove factory—that is, she is the person who reverses the incorrect stitching on gloves by turning them “right side out.” She has a disfigured right arm, due to having fallen into scalding hot water when she was little. In her spare time, Flossie designs costumes for a masquerade ball that she attends every Saturday night. She wins first prize on a costume that has “one flowing sleeve,” which the judges think symbolizes something, though she merely constructed it to hide her disfigured arm. Though Frank initially shows no interest in her, he later marries her to keep from getting drafted into the First World War. Francie describes Flossie as “starved about men,” in contrast to her Aunt Sissy who is only “healthily hungry about them.”