Although there are minor characters such as the attorney Newmown Hay, the real-estate agent Dewey Naivete, and an abundance of hired hands all named Lafe, together with the protagonist's wife and two children scattered throughout the tales, there is really only one predominant character, the protagonist. The Perelman persona is a version of the "Little Man" character which was to a large extent developed in tandem with Robert Benchley and James Thurber in the pages of The New Yorker during the 1930s and 1940s.

The Little Man figure is average, usually a victim of an illogical outside world that he cannot control and which is epitomized by that frightful generic monster, Woman. Perelman's Little Man is at once jaundiced and hopeful, expecting the unexpected as well as the expected, and encyclopedic while selfcentered.