JuJu Character Analysis

JuJu is Charlese’s 25-year-old sister. JuJu and Charlese’s parents died two years prior to the events of the novel, and JuJu has been taking care of Charlese since then. JuJu sells designer clothes at a steep discount. She constantly has parties in her house, and she pays Charlese to stay up during them to clean and serve drinks. JuJu is often violent, threatening to beat Charlese if she doesn’t complete seventh grade. When Miss Saunders starts to give Charlese poor grades, JuJu also storms into the principal’s office and threatens Miss Saunders. JuJu’s bad behavior becomes a model for Charlese, who also acts out and chooses to vandalize Miss Saunders’s room as revenge for her bad grades. By the end of the novel, JuJu has proven so incapable of taking care of her sister that she sends Charlese to their grandparents’ home in Alabama.