Brinkman Character Analysis

Brinkman is the Tanners’ nearest neighbor, who lives about 10 miles from them. He eats dinner with the Tanners every six months or so; otherwise, they rarely see him. Tanner says that Brinkman often complains about being lonely and not having a wife, which inspires the doctor to call him “a crank.” Tanner, showing his generosity, says he considers Brinkman more of a dreamer. In the story, Brinkman serves mostly as comic relief. He shows up for the biyearly dinner tradition while Kitty is in labor (it’s never fully made clear whether or not Tanner and Kitty care about this dinner tradition themselves). Instead of asking how he can help, or leaving to come back another day, as one might expect him to do, Brinkman instead sits down, begins to smoke, and waits for dinner to be served. Instead of getting annoyed or asking him to leave, as might seem reasonable in the situation, the Tanners instead treat Brinkman as a kind of odd member of the family, content to let him sit on the porch while a grand drama in their lives plays out.